span, but I think I can build an airplane
that’s 90 percent as good as a grand-champion airplane in 10 percent of the time.
“It’s like I tell my friends: We’re going to
Kansas, not the moon! You need to build a
nice, safe airplane, but you really don’t need
a mic [micrometer] on that—a tape mea-
sure’s probably just fine!”
His successful building approach, based
on a keen sense of what to sweat and what to
go easy on, also formed the design aspects of
the Super Chub. “I’m not an overly intelli-
gent person. No real engineering experience
other than knowing what’s worked before.
So I did a lot of ‘R&D’ on this airplane: ‘rip
off and duplicate!’”
This process began with the basic geom-
etry of the airplane. “I knew from an
aerodynamic standpoint that a wing is gonna
create the most lift at the lowest speed at its
maximum angle of attack. So, I set the gear
height so that the wing’s angle of incidence
on the ground is about 2 degrees less than
the critical angle of attack for this USA 35 B
airfoil. So I come off in a three-point atti-
tude. And when you stall in a three-point
attitude…well, you’re in a three-point atti-
tude! I never truly understood that about
tailwheel airplanes,” he said. “Usually, when
you do a full-stall landing, the tail wheel hits
first and the mains are still 2 feet in the air.
This setup solves that problem for me.”
“My buddy crashed his Super Cub
because a depth finder got wedged in the
rudder pedal controls,” he recalled. “Go look
at a Super Cub or most any Cub-type air-
plane, look at all the crap they’ve got on the
floor! I decided I did not want anything get-
ting in the controls.”
Brandon’s solution was to weld a “tun-
nel” of 3/4-inch square tubing into the
otherwise flat belly of the Super Chub,
extending from the firewall to the back of
the baggage compartment. This tunnel with
its simple bent-aluminum close-out contains
all the control cables and horns, as well as
the wiring, keeping these vital systems
totally clear of errant pens, kneeboards,
shoelaces, and—indeed—depth finders.
Moreover, the tunnel structure substitutes
for much of the truss work that hangs down
below the floorboards of a Cub and many
“When it comes to paint I’m old school,”
he said. “I believe that if it can’t kill you, it’s
probably not that good. This paint job sure
isn’t perfect, but it shines The stuff that kills
you in polyurethane paint—the polyisocya-
nate?—that’s what you’re looking at.”
As of its appearance at AirVenture, the
Super Chub certainly did shine brilliantly. “I
wanted to be careful not to get it too dirty
before Oshkosh,” he joked.
By now, however, it’s a good bet that the
Super Chub has earned at least some serious
mud splatters if not other battle scars from
the backcountry strips Brandon was intent
on exploring.
“I’m a 15,000-hour pilot with about
6,000 hours of tailwheel time, but I’m not a
bush pilot by any stretch of the imagination,”
he said. “My favorite part of aviation is the
challenge of learning something new. I look
AIRCRAFT MAKE & MODEL: Super Chub SC-360
AIRCRAFT DATA
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
Brandon Jewett
(303) 521-3238
brandondc3@msn.com
LENGTH: 24 feet, 8 inches
WINGSPAN: 37 feet, 2 inches
HEIGHT: 8 feet, 4 inches (three point)
MAXIMUM GROSS WEIGHT: 2,200 pounds
EMPTY WEIGHT: 1,247 pounds
FUEL CAPACITY: 39 gallons (U.S.)
SEATS: 3
POWERPLANT MAKE & MODEL: Lycoming O-360 A1A
HORSEPOWER: 180 hp
PROPELLER: Hartzell constant speed
CRUISE SPEED/FUEL CONSUMPTION: 120 mph/8.5 gph
POWER LOADING: 12. 2 pounds per hp
WING LOADING: 11. 28 pounds per square foot
EQUIPPED FOR: day/night VFR
VNE: 145 mph
VSO: 25 mph
VX: 50 mph
VY: 65 mph
PRICE: “Priceless”—only the wife knows!
forward to hooking up with some people
who have real experience in the backcoun-
try and becoming a more versatile pilot in
that regime.”
At AirVenture, Brandon was naturally
asked roughly every 90 seconds whether he
intended to publish plans or kit the Super
Chub. His answer was always just a smile.
But if you want a Super Chub of your own,
he did reveal one way you can have his:
“The only way I’d sell this airplane?” he
asked with a grin. “If it would buy me a
DC- 3!”
Craig O’Neill, EAA 490534, is an instrument-rated private
pilot with about 1,200 hours of flight time. He is director of
marketing for a Part 135 commuter seaplane operator in
Seattle, Washington. To see additional photos and watch a
video on Brandon’s Super Chub visit
www.SportAviation.org.
