Aeronca C3 - A Weekend Slice Of History 

My father had an Aeronca C3. It's hanging in the Cincinnati Lunken airport now. I rode in it with him when I was a young girl. He bought it when he was 16 and loved flying during his lifetime.

Well, that was the best 14 minutes one could imagine, glorious living history and especially my first love, flying. Imagine my surprise at immediately recognising 'your' base, the same airfield I bought a Chevvron from and also where I met the brilliant engineer who mended my Renegade! Thank you for a very pleasing production!

The C3 just makes you smile! What a cute plane!

The history that you impart adds so much spice to your flying videos. I took the laptop out to my shop and showed it a picture of your clean shop. It just sat there with no shame.

I've been fortunate to have flown a C3 and I can attest to the fact that it is even more fun than it looks!

Thank you so much for sharing what is, in my mind at least, REAL flying !!!

One of those landings where the passenger says "are we down yet?" and makes you feel really competent.

Thank you for the flight. Dad's first airplane after leaving the Army 101st Airborne was a original Cessna 120 taildragger. Hand start, no flaps, about 65mph top speed. I didn't like seeing Dad hand prop that plane over, as I sat inside, even thought he had us still tethered down. He had started flying/training in the Army in a Cessna L-19 Bird Dog Spotter. He wanted jump wings and pilots wings from the Army before he left. He got the first set, but ran out of time on the second set of wings. Finished his flying lessons after he was home. The most fun we had was in his Bellanca Citabria. Loops, rolls, spins, flying with the door off, towing gliders up. No inverted oil system, so had to keep as much positive g's on the oil pan as possible.

So glad I found your channel again. Grass strips and simple airplanes is how I started. They remain my first love. Please continue with the history lessons, too.

It's so great to see a C3 in the air! I live very close to where Aeronca were first produced, Lunken Airport, right on the Ohio River, before they got fed up with the flooding and moved their shop to the north side of Cincinnati. There's a Collegiate hanging in the entry of the main building that my son and I love to look at and sigh, admiring the, to us, graceful elegance of the design. To me it looks like a plane where one could be given verbal instructions on flight theory, and how to operate the engine, then a so-informed non-pilot could escape an island with an exploding volcano with some good odds of taking off and managing a survivable landing, assuming one could outrun the eruption's ash cloud!

Really enjoy your knowledgable history about the areas you fly over and definitely have a chuckle at some of your comments Thanks

Got to love the C3 - aka The Flying Bathtub. Probably very few of them left flying much less a huge minority aviation geeks that have never seen one. When I was transitioning from nose rollers, met up with some airine pilots who owned a private strip. The guy that did my tailwheel training in a 7AC also had a couple of really rare planes. I got to know his neighbor on the field and after several months, the guy in the next hangar down also has some fairly awesome planes, one of which was the C3. After a couple of months of flying the Champ, he pulled some of his colletion of planes out, and sure enough, he let me go fly it. At first, skeptical, but that went away pretty quickly and it was actually a very fun experience. In fact I haven't seen another one, not any videos of one. Got my try in the C3 in 1981 and still active today in tailwheel Own a J3 for 15 years and had an Aeronca 65-TAC for several years. Hi from North Texas, USA

A beautiful video. Thank you.

🎼...those magnificent men and their flying machines...🎶

Heartening that little aircraft like the Aeronca strike a warm chord with 'putter-putter' aficionados. Simple flying, time to absorb the views. Inclusion of the olde maps is so much in keeping with this ambience. Love ii.

Nice to see the C3 out of hibernation and flying over the beautiful and historic Cornish landscape. Thanks for the latest post.

That Aeronca C3 is an absolute beauty - the living embodiment of the semi-scale model Aeronca I built as a teenager.

What a charming plane and a wonderful channel. We need more like this. Calming, entertaining and educational. Subscribed!

Thats what flying is about. I loved it. Cornwall is my spiritual home and have spent many hours flying there but rarely in such good weather. Give my love to Bodmin

I have just stumbled upon your videos. I thought,'what a dumpy little' aicraft, must have a nosey'. Your explanation of tidying your workshop has hooked me.

G'day, Yay Team ! What a magnificent Video..., well done. Absolutely delightful. It's 32 years since I last flew my Ultralight Motorglider (see,"The 22-Hp VJ-24w ;....." in my Personal Aeroplanology playlist for that...) The past 3 weeks I've been sort of almost recapturing the old "vibe" though - having finally unwrapped the Tarpaulin from off my new road-registered Electric Motocross Bike, and begun exercising a new Motorcycle-Rider Learner's Permit - at age 63..., on a 3,000-watt Chook-Chaser (6,000 watt Motor, actually - but software-deregulated..., to make it lawful on-road ; and thus registered like a 50cc Motor-Scooter.). Riding it is a lot like the bit of flying an Ultralight which comes after gliding over the fence - and before alighting... With one's Bum forever 2 ft off the Ground at 30 mph (Regulated to 45 Km/Hr, though when above 80% of a Charge it will do 48 Km/Hr on a flat smooth road at full Twist..., & by 60% it only achieves 45 at full throttle, and below 40% it will struggle to do 44 Km/hr on the flat in dead still Air). It's 15 Km to town for Bread & Milk, 13 on Bitumen in the 100 Km/Hr zone, 10.5 of that on the New England Highway with 60-ton B-Doubles overtaking in the Lane at 100 Klicks, a metre off me & my Handlebar at 45km (maximum-continuous Cruise-speed for extending Range versus reducing time on the Highway...; 12.5% more speed but 17.5% less range, at 45 compared to 40..., kinda thing...!). Riding outside the painted Fog-Line, beside the carriageway - with passing Trucks and Busses generating the odd turbulent gusty Crosswind, with suddenly variable Airspeed fluctuations from the transient Wind-Shear... And, then, that's between 9 AM & 3 PM, before or after that "window" then add in Low Sun Angles, Glare, and Stroboscopic Shadows from all the roadside Treetrunks going past as the Wind in the Helmet-Vents is louder than the Gearbox and Tyres combined..(!). When I was training as an Orthopaedic-Nurse 45 years ago, 3/4 of the Ward's Beds always held broken Motorcyclists... (except in Winter, when a third of the Motorcyclists were magically replaced by fractured Snow-Skiers...!)... In the whole of the Sydney basin there's One Bed Reserved for Broken Aviators, It's in a Single Room at the Royal North Shore Hospital at North Sydney...(!). So, I always knew that Motorbikes were seriously Dangerous, and quite easy to get suddenly very wrong..; And, now..., I'm underconstumbling WHYFORE thus be such...(!). I've been posting Chest-Camera Videos. Today's upload will be the 60 Km on 75% of a Charge Expedition (average speed 31, max. 49...; 36 Km on Bitumen & 24 on rural Dirt Roads - 40 Km/Hr & 25 Km/Hr cruise targets, respectively...). It's a very close-up afternoon view of inland Regional Rural NSW (atop the New England Tablelands), crossed with a gentle Range-Anxiety/Speed/Power-Consumption Investigation..., kinda thing - by an old Fart who's on his first Motorbike. I was particularly pleased with the young Snake which apparently heard/saw me coming...(!???!), and went out to lay diagonally across the bottom of a deep-ish Pothole which was otherwise visually undetectable - in my Path, and requiring me to wash-off almost half my speed to be able to swerve to avoid the Snake..., Before I even SAW the bloody Pothole.., the bottom of which it was lying across - and which would have otherwise easily spat me off - had I done down into it at 35, instead of slowing down to be going around the Snake - at less than 20...(!). But, apparently...,there's no point in having a Godtheory - unless it actually works every day, and in Realtime ; if one but pays attention to the actually observable incidence of Serendipity, Synchronicity, and Benevolent Coincidence - all occurring in Real Life, at a rate many orders of magnitude above those predicted by any of the currently popular Randomly-Cascading Meaningless Fractal-Chance driven Hypotheses - regarding the Perceived Nature of Reality...(!). In my experience, & observation. But, y' know how it is, Reality is, was, and always will be..., Completely Relative..., and Observer-Oriented... Just(ifiably ?) Ask Einstein...; if ye would Demur...(?) ! It turns out that "Energy"..., does still equal the Mass, when being multiplied by the "Constant" (ie, Light-Speed) Squared... And therefore, thus, and because..., The pesky Atomik Bombs do in fact go "BANG !" ; And On command, Too, So Einstein was Apparently Not ACTUARIALLY wrong (?) ! Time will tell How very well, And Cleverly Or Stupidly, Hymanity Deals ; with all that Understanding... Meanwhile, you and I are both having fun...(!). While awaiting the Off-grid Solar Setup to recharge the Bike, running it on a 3,000 Watt Generator yields 31 Km/Litre ; versus 11.5 for my 2-Litre Forester - and the return trip is 35 or 40 Km... 1.3 Litres, for bread & Milk, instead of 3.5 or more ; & it's $2.03 a litre of 91-Otane Ethanol-free Unleaded in the Genny..., versus 98-Octane for $2.28 / Litre - for the Subaru. When that Petrol becomes unobtainable, or too expensive to burn...; I fondly hope to eke out a quietly frugal little old existence with Solar-Electric Motorbike (& Bike-Trailer), and rechargable Chainsaw, Brushcutter, & Leafblower - long after I'd be unable to walk to town with Backpack for Groceries, or pedal an eBike to collect the Mail. Assuming that Society Politely fades away with well-mannered Whimper, And that some Food remains for sale in the Shops...(?). Rather than suddenly Evaporating ; Like the Cold War was Once thought to have done (!). Time will tell, apparently. Such is life, Have a good one... Stay safe. ;-p Ciao !

Classic plane, nice choice to build it.

What a cool classic!

Once again, a delightful video. Thank you.

Excellent. I really must get ZL down there when the weather improves. I feel the Travelodge at Roche beckoning as it's a bit too much of an epic journey from WW for one day, especially with the capricious Cornish weather.

Love to watch you flying your little puddle jumper! What a unique and fun airplane that must be.

Tracks are a useful guide. A. A friend of mine at age 16 had been presented in 1927 with a surplus Standard bipe. In return he agreed to cross country jaunts from Chicagoto Windsor Ontario in order to return with a loud of liquor. He followed the tracks between Chicago and Detroit and on returning often after dark could orient himself by the fies from the great steel foundries on the Indiana Illinois border after which he could navigate easily to his landing on the south side of Chicago. His dad was a close associate of Sam Insull and like Insull lost a fortune in the "Crash" of 29 and after which my friend had to go to work. This included working for Matty Laird. He helped build the " Super Solution".

Now that is flying at its best. Seat of the pants, low tech and retro.

This brings back memories for me. When I was a kid in the mid 1950's EFT used to be parked up at Southend Airport. It seemed to be always parked up and I never saw it fly. In those days it was painted blue. It's great that it is still flying.

We are lucky that you take the time to do all of your posts, thank you....

Great landing.

That's a real aeroplane!!

Very Nice!

Nice to see an Aeronca flying well. 36 horsepower employed properly. Thanks for the video.

So beautiful sir!….what a great video,…I’m an Aeronca pilot on the central coast of California, I just love flying my 11AC!

This just popped up in my feed - 35 years ago my son played to death a video tape of FT being used as an ad-hoc artillery spotter by its then unconventional, and ignored, owner. The story told of the then owners fight for an aerial spotting service for the artillery shortly befor WW2 - It ended with the line '...good old FT we didn't owe him much'.

What a great little video, thanks.

I love the little C3. I wish someone would make a home built kit for a copy of the C3. I have an old Cox Lazy Bee that looks like a C3 made of Styrofoam foam... it was a cheap RC, but I like it.

That motor is smooth.

Fist time I've ever seen any in-cockpit footage. Thank you. The C-3 world's first factory. assembles private production aircraft. Bravo!.

That was bloody fascinating! Copper must have been in huge demand - still is I guess. I wonder how much from that mine went into intercontinental telegraph cables? Banana for scale

Great video great commentary , love the shop footage and Thanks for the ride !

Greetings from Finland, that was a new for me that you had a Copper mining too in UK. Ours in Outokumpu has dried out too. Thermals are not for me in Schleicher Motorlerche.

lovely

Now that is a beautiful airplane.

a real gem of an aeroplane, i would love to own one. Did my tailwheel conversion on a Aeronca 11AC Chief, ZS APY the oldest flying aeroplane on the SA civil register at the time, that I had bought a part ownership into. I did many hundred hours of very enjoyable hours on that aeroplane.

What an unusual little aircraft, never seen one of these before and im and ex RAF aircraft engineer and pilot! Reminds me of the little Piper Cub. Looks great fun to fly as you dont go WHOOSHING past everything before one sees it!

Lovely stuff, thank you

Your Aeronca is such a wonderfully delightful machine. I would love to experience one. We fly Piper J3's and some other vintage types here in Georgia USA. Thanks for sharing.

Nice landing, I hardly felt that 👍🇦🇺

Wow look! A J3 that was stung by bees.

Удивительно послушный аппарат!!!!

매우 아름다운 비행입니다. 놀랍습니다

After 80 years I finally see an Aeronca ; and flying too! My dad had one in the "Forties, and ,as I remember, It was orange in color !

Симпатичный самолетик ))

I like Your relaxing way of talking about little projects, history and the Aronca C3 is such an old-fashioned lovely design, I just fell in love with it. Nice canal, greetings from Germany

Yes indeed

This is so cool

This airplane is COOL!!!

That was a very enjoyable watch, thank you!

Tremendous! I like the way you mix several subjects in an easy style.

Joooj Kako je sladak.....

I have flown several Champs but never a C3. I got my tailwheel endorsement in a Champ. I love tail dragers however my most favorite and memorable was the de Havilland Chippie.

wow great video cant believe that little plane flies and you took it so high but very nice video thank you for sharing

My Cockney Rhyming Slang isn't *all* that good, yet I think I caught a reference at the 9:50 mark... "half inch" = "pinch?"

Such a cool plane. My father learned to fly in an Aeronca Champ. I did my first loop and spin in that Champ. Always wanted to fly a C3 though. Very unusual looking but neat little bird!

simple and nice

very nice

My friend learned to fly using this plane in Texas at the start of WW2. Great film.

Excellent !!

Electric smooth Aeronca C3 bathtub, not to be confused with a Heath Dormoy bathtub.

Aeronca C3, a relic !

SAN had one hanging from the roof years ago. My Dad flew one out of Oakland airport after the war, he said it darn near flew backwards with a 20 MPH wind. Interesting airplane.

Very cool looking plane

Just found your channel and subscribed. Very relaxing and interesting to learn about British aerospace and cars. Cheers from Lubbock, TX.

This airplane reminds me of a cartoon character that I can’t place. That’s going to keep me awake for a while! Also, as you started your narration, I felt that I had heard your voice before, even though this the first of your videos that I have watched. As I listened to your voice, I closed my eyes, trying to place where I had previously heard a voice that sounded like yours. Then it hit me. Did you know that to me, you sound just like Alfred Hitchcock? Could it be that you’re from the same area of the UK? Just curious. Thanks for sharing your flights with us.

fairly cheap upgrade camera will have image stabilization getting rid of wobble and walking bounce. Nice images anyway for your flight. Love the Aeronca C3!

Is it the camera or is FT looking a little faded this year?

Re: The "Wit". Did the Python boys emulate you, or vice versa? Looking forward to the Ford build. Cheers.

really awesome my dude. be safe.

Ha! I never knew the Lazy Bees were scale.

That poor airplane makes a Premier or a G150 look sexy.

Nick, it is *SO* much nicer to watch a video from you, rather than the usual political crap that seems to be taking over RU-vid!! You have saved my sanity! Well, for this afternoon, anyway. Best wishes to you!! 😃

I think it's one of the safest Aircraft I've been in !

My grandfather had one of these.

Nice to see the C3 back in the air again. Will you also have a go at your C2 project anytime soon? Best Regards

สวัสดีครับ ผมชอบคริปคุณมาก จากไทยแลนด์

I enjoyed that very much, but if you shoot any prop plane with the shutter on in your camera, then the propeller will look like, well, not what a propeller does. Turn the shutter off and let it default to 30 or 60 or whatever the normal rate is in the country where you are (England?). I think it's 25 and 50. But wonderful footage!

I used to own a 46 Aeronca Chief 11 BC sure had fun in it , and you can tell Where the Chief got it's good looks From.......ugly as hell it's pretty...... I'm Happy to see a C-3 flying.Nice video Thank you for posting!

If the cap10 is a proper aeroplane where then would you place the flying flea?

-I simply will not own an airplane that I have to hand-prop. Sorry. The Aeronca C3 is so goofy looking that it is actually cool! I applaud you for owning it, It looks like a ton of fun. But what does the annual cost on something like this, and can you find someone to sign it off? Haha!! If I told my non-aviation friends about an Aeronca C3 that I owned and offered to take them flying....I guarantee that 90% of them are going to say NO the moment they see that thing.....

Half inched, haven't heard that in years..

A bit "leadish-sledish" but then so are my airplanes.

It's a goiter cub.

What is her cruising speed?

What did you say the rascal would do? Sounded like half inched it but that wouldn’t be right in the UK!

I looked up ugly in the dictionary and there was a picture of an Aeronca C3. Pretty cool plane though.

How much does it cost to make a toy plane?

Tail wheel ??????

Like putting fuel in the tank I just don’t imagine that plane has any great legs.