Possibly My Favorite Corben Baby Ace On This Web Site!
A gorgeous airplane!
MAROON BABY ACE with YELLOW TRIM:
READ THE OWNER'S STORY; [CLICK HERE]
BABY ACE - N832Z • $13,900 • JUST REDUCED • 65hp, new slick mags, 1070tt, 1070smoh, 575stop, April annual, consider tailwheel airplane trade • Contact Owner - located Utica, KY USA • Telephone: 555-555-5555 • Posted August 3, 2009
This is not my airplane but I wish it were. I sure would like to know who ended up with this Baby Ace, or whether it ever sold. If you are the current owner of N832Z please let us know and tell us all about the history of this beautiful airplane.
READ THE OWNER'S STORY; [CLICK HERE]
BABY ACE - N832Z • $13,900 • JUST REDUCED • 65hp, new slick mags, 1070tt, 1070smoh, 575stop, April annual, consider tailwheel airplane trade • Contact Owner - located Utica, KY USA • Telephone: 555-555-5555 • Posted August 3, 2009
This is not my airplane but I wish it were. I sure would like to know who ended up with this Baby Ace, or whether it ever sold. If you are the current owner of N832Z please let us know and tell us all about the history of this beautiful airplane.
Why I like this Baby Ace so much:
Nice striking color contrast!
I like this particular Corben Baby Ace for several reasons; not the least of which is the vivid color scheme and the wheel pants. Everything about this little airplane is inviting. It is clean and neat in every respect. It also has the Continental C-65 or A-65 engine with the eyebrows to ensure proper cooling, and a stainless steel exhaust system like the ones found on Piper J-3 Cubs. These stainless steel exhaust systems are very expensive to buy brand new (if ther can even be found) and will not corrode easily, especially inside like mild exaust systems do. These stainless steel exhausts also have a good carb heat connection shroud as part of the exhaust system. I have owned at least seven airplanes equipped with these engines that had this set up and can attest to the looks, sound, durability and carb heat function on all of them; they never let me down.
About the Continental C-65 Airplane Engine:
A metal propeller requires less worry.
No reflection on this airplane (I do not know anything about its particular engine) but an important consideration involving these older Continental airplane engines is not the time since major overall, but how long back the overhall was done - and how many hours are regularly flown. Advertisements to sell an airplane will usually show how many hours since a major overhall (SMOH) and/or the the engine time since a top overhall (STOP or TOH) was performed. But too often these airplanes languished for long periods of time without being flown. Many are not flown often enough to keep proper lubrication moving to the internal engine parts (for reasons that many of us cannot understand). When this happens, the piston rings tend to rust as do the cylinder barrel walls. When the airplane is finally started and run the friction caused by this corrosion and lack of recent lubrication is greater - causing extreme amounts of wear. Valve seats are a similar issue. It is not cheap to work on these engines. The valve heads do not come off separately like a car engine. Each cylinder has to be 'pulled' separately... (continued below):
C-65 Continental Engines Continued:
I suspect this engine is from a J-3 Cub.
(continued from above); to work on the valves and valve seats (the latter are way down inside the cylinder barrel) which requires special tools and know how to rework them. Most times a licensed A&P mechanic must perform this work. Long ago it cost about $200 per cylinder to perform a top overhall (top overhall refers to working primarily on cylinders only). Today that price might be many times greater (multiply that cost by the number of cylinders that need overhall and then faint). The point is that 'engine time' since overhall is not always a factor in whether or not you are buying a good engine. First determine how often the airplane is flown. Than perform a compression check while the engine is cold and then again after it has warmed to determine that all cylinders are in the 75+/- PSI range when warm. If any cylinder is under 70 PSI it will require an immediate overhall. It is also important whether all of the cylinders are close in PSI numbers, otherwise you will have stronger cylinders and pistons running opposite weaker ones causing vibration and imbalance. I know this because I have been there and done that - to suffer the expense of overhauling cylinders I didn't suspect needed work. A quick way to crash and burn is to fly an airplane on a weak, worn-out engine. Incidentally, I once had a weak cylinder that was pulled and rebuilt, re-installed and checked. It was the same. The low compression was caused by a broken valve spring that could have been replaced for a fraction of the price. Always check for broken valve springs first. The mechanic did not give me a break at all charging for both repairs.
Another important thing to check:
This looks to be a pampered airplane.
Make sure that the airplane has good logbooks, preferably back to original origin, on both engine and airframe. Also verify whether the airplane is in current "annual inspection" and that all Airworthiness Directives (AD Notes) have been fully complied with. This is important regarding the engine magnetos. Before buying the airplane perfomr all due diligence and then run up the engine and check the drop of rpm on each magneto separately. The drop on a good engine should not exceed 100 rpm. Pull the cab heat and check that it causes the engine to drop in rpm but not stumble. Run the engine all the way up while holding brakes to see if it can trun close to 2,450 rpm or more. You will not fly at 2,450 but you need to know that 80% will yield good power and that 2,450 is available for take off. Anyway, this is my suggestions based on experience with this series engines incuding A-65, C-65, C-85 and C-90 Continental engines. Franklin and Lycoming engines will be similar in check out. [Guy Foster - The Baby Ace Man] P.S. See one more important note about buying airplanes below:
A final precaution before you plunk down your hard earned money down. Use an aircraft title search company to check the registration of the airplane for liens registered in Oklahoma (the only state of official registry). Many of the airplanes I purchased had standing liens on them - not that the owners were trying to cheat me, but usually because banks never removed them once loans were paid. It is the sellers responsibility to have the liens removed prior to sale. Once when I confronted an owner with this problem he refused to wait to close the deal. I designed a purchase agreement that called for liquidated damages within a few weeks if he failed to remove the lien (this was risky but I wanted the airplane). It all worked out, the lien was removed and we all lived happily ever after.