The Crimson Cub

What do you do when you want an airplane, but it’s outside your price range? If you are mechanically inclined, you build it yourself.

That’s what Charles Aaron, from Chatsworth, Ga., did. He’s the proud owner of a PA-18 Piper Super Cub replica known as the “Crimson Cub.”

“I had a J-3 Cub before and a Cub is a Cub,” he said. “I worked on the J-3 and flew it, then sold it and put the money into this. Some of the parts are used, some are new, some were fabricated from scratch.”

Aaron, who used drawings he got off a CD from the Northland Co. to fabricate the parts, said it took about 13 months to build the replica.

“The primary mission of this aircraft is fun,” he declared. “I belong to the Super Cub Type Club and we have lots of fly-in meets and STOL contests. I wanted to build an airplane that could compete in those, so I built this one. I made it as light as I could but still have the options I wanted.”

Aaron reports the gross weight of his plane is about 969 pounds, which is extremely light for a Super Cub.

“When I posted that on the Super Cub website, I was told I was crazy or else the scales had to be off — that it had to weigh closer to 2,010 pounds,” he said. “But it is a light Cub and it proves it again and again in the takeoff and landing contests.”

The first year he competed in a STOL contest, he won it at 86 feet, he added.

Why red? The color was chosen because he had that color of paint in the shed when the time came to paint his plane.

“It’s actually Ford pickup truck vermillion,” he laughed. “My wife came up with the name Crimson Cub.”