First Customer Texas Sport Cub Flies

This just in from Texas Sport Aircraft, in builder Larry Markey’s own words…”We received the kit January 7, 2008, which coincidentally was my 62nd birthday. TX-012 was completed in August 2008. The decision to build a Texas Sport Cub was all about the building experience. My friends and I are always doing a project that involves something mechanical. We all fly model airplanes and model helicopters that are quite complex including model jets that can exceed 200 mph. The Texas Sport Cub was prefabricated enough and the kit was complete enough that it looked like something that could be built in a reasonable amount of time so we wouldn’t get bored or lose interest before it was finished.

The Cub was my first airplane build other than ultralights, but I have worked on airplanes in the past. I had two friends, Lynn Morgan and Howard Kendal, which helped with the construction. The build was very straightforward and the only new skill required was the covering and painting. The covering turned out to be easy to master and the painting took more hours than I thought to achieve the finish I wanted. We built a temporary paint booth out of a 10′ x 20′ party tent and a blue tarp in my hobby room to do the painting. The hobby room is at the rear of my company offices.

I received my Private license in 1973 but I had not been actively flying for 20 years. My only prior Cub experience was a few flights in my father-in-law’s J-3 many years ago. I flew a Citabria this summer to get current. My partner in the Texas Sport Cub, Marshall Macfarlane, is much more experienced and currently owns a Tiger Moth. He has owned a Christen Eagle and a Classic Waco in the past. The appeal of the Texas Sport Cub to him were the great flying qualities and the ability to extend the flying season compared to an open cockpit biplane when you are located in Michigan.

Marshall did the first flight and all he said was “It flies great; it is easy to fly, go fly it!” I flew the second flight and it flew beautifully. It was in perfect rig and handled well. TX-012 now has over 25 hours and we love it!

A little over six months for the build isn’t bad when you consider that I still worked at my job and had a few vacations interspersed.

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