Was J3 strong enough

Les Merritt – what a lovely chap and an excellent pilot and instructor. Last thing I heard was that his office sent him up in the Midlands direction and he had become the CFI at Saltby.

Hi WYSWYG,

I was there over the summer of 1991. I used to work in the same office as Les Merritt for my Industrial training year in 88-89. He introduced me to the club over that period.

What years were you a member at Parham, Shorty? I was a member, instructor and tug pilot there from 1982 to the mid 90’s.

OOh, don’t see a “normal” cub as the tug often. We did use a Super Cub when I was at Parham Gliding Club, plus the ubiquitous Piper Pawnee tug. There was also a Super Cub used for towing on a two week course I went on at The Gliding Centre, Shennington. I felt the Super Cub with it’s larger engine still looked under powered.

Thanks for the info. In the new Aviodrome musum here, a J/3 is hanging from the ceiling with a “Baby in tug”. I was wondering if this was right. That’s why I posted the pic. Bw Roger

Well, yes it was, apparently. I did fly the J3 for approx. 250 hours (not as a glider tug though) and it is a remarkable aircraft. Mine was a little bit modified in that, it had the nose fuel tank replaced with wing tanks. Two up and with full fuel it was……..well how do I put this?……..Heavy! But it always flew just beautifully.

Back to the original question. I’ve seen an old 8mm film showing a J3 Cub towing a two seat Ka8 into the air. I’ve also seen a still picture of a J3 cub towing two gliders at an airshow in Reykjavik in 1946. One of them looks like a Pratt-Reed two seater and the other looks very much like Graunau Baby, but it is hard to tell exactly as the picture is small/far away (don’t know what it is called in professional terms:D ) So, yes the Cub can do it! On the other hand the climate here in Iceland tends to be rather cold and the density altitude very low, how a Cub would do in 30° Centigrate and at an altitude of 3000feet, I don´t know!

Hope this helps.