Cubby Value

[bear]

Hi All

Any idea what our Cubby is worth? Time has come to part ways...

Some background, we the second owner. Sometime after acquiring her we had a gearbox problem. This started out with visible oil coming over the cowling, so the pilot (my son) elected to perform a precautionary landing due. He had the height so did a glide approach to be on the safe side, and the landing was uneventful

When taking power to taxi off the runway, he discovered there was no thrust as the gearbox drive had sheared! I decided that there was no way I was going to fly or let my son fly the aircraft again, until we had made 10% sure this would never happen again, and so started a complete overhaul of the powertrain. On the chance that metal shavings could have entered the engine, the engine was removed and sent to the original cubby engine builder in Worcester and completely rebuilt. After discussion with the engine rebuilder, we also upgraded the engine with a new longer throw crank, which increased engine capacity, torque & power output.

The engine was then shipped off to Kroonstad, to the guy who built the original gearboxes. After a lot of discussion he built and fitted a new gearbox, using a drive mechanism 20% bigger than the other cubbys. This he told us was how he originally designed the gearbox for the cubby, but for whatever reasons the cubby factory at the time wanted the gearbox scaled down so a smaller unit was fitted.

The benefit we have now, is that the whole drivetrain system is now properly engineered and much more robust than the system as fitted when we bought the aircraft. I told both the engine rebuilder and the gearbox designer not to spare any money, but to build the best engine and the best gearbox, as I did not want my son flying around in something that was less than perfect.

We carried that mindset through to regular maintenance, and use a qualified ex-SAAF engineer for all maintenance. AT the last MPI he systematically worked through the entire aircraft, doing lots of little upgrade jobs here and there, for example replacing the cowl attach points with proper aircraft grade riveted fasteners, and throwing away the old riv nuts and whatever else there was.

So, total time now 416.7 hours, she has flown 90 hours on the new engine gearbox etc so that is all well tested and proven.

My son now has his comm and no longer needs the aircraft so its time to sell. I know I have probably over-capitalised the aircraft, but what do you guys think she is worth? I want to advertise her and need to put an ad together...

[Jean Crous]

Hi Bear, after reading your post I would recommend you advertise for R220 K . After all what does one buy in aircraft terms for that kind of money. A new Cubby kit , firewall back is R176 000. Add engine and engine mount, exhaust system, prop and spinner ,instruments and a radio , then it becomes a bit more than one thought. And to get someone to build it is also to be added.
Regards
Jean.

[bear]

Thanks Jean