Welcome to the Master Link Page for the
Aeronca 11AC Chief Web site
Just click on the Aeronca Chief that's above the text to get
to where you need to go... there's a lot here to look at so enjoy,
enjoy, enjoy. I hope that it's a good inspiration
to go flying, build a RC model, restore your airplane or just
remember an Aeronca Chief your dad used to own... The Aeronca
aircraft are truly the "Plane You'll Want to Fly!"
Our site is best viewed with a 1024 screen size... Click on the 11AC Chief
that is above the text
To the main page where we start the adventure....
Aeronca 11AC serial number 11AC-1657, 3286Echo....
The flight manual page... a
copy of
the 11CC flight manual with information on what a new
factory plane could do... with some Aeronca history
This is the original Aeronca factory blueprint of the instrument
panel and a couple of factory photo shots
... one of an early 11AC panel and another of a later model 11CC
with toe brakes.
Notice the control wheels.. the color changes between 1946
and 1947.
This is a great page when you are restoring a panel or building
a super scale RC model.
Aeronca Champ ads right after World War II appealing to the
pilots after WWII and the
expected boom of private aviation. Unfortunately, many of these
ads are being sold on Ebay,
destroying rare magazines for short term profit. Aeronca usually
had an ad in the popular aviation
magazines from 1945 through 1947, when advertising started to be pulled
back.
In December of 1946 FLYING published a flight test on a brand
new Aeronca Chief...
here is what they thought of the plane as it came off the
assembly line. This report has
several interesting comments on Aeronca's marketing and the plane's
flying characteristics.
Here is another flight report on the Aeronca Chief in a men's
magazine of the time...
afterall, there were a lot of pilots after the war and any
magazine directed at that population
had a good chance of getting a customer for Aeronca. It has
a poor three-view drawing too....
In April of 2004, a resurrected Aeronca Aviators Club was organized
and started up by the same folks that do the Bellanca-Champion Club. We wish them well and signed up for the first day they opened. Joe and Julie Dickey used to run this excellent grassroots club.
They actually made a tricycle geared Aeronca Chief... the Bellanca
Trainer from the 1970's.
A close look at the plane shows it's heritage, as you look
at the interior tubing, it is a 11 series airplane
with a metal skin shell! Only one was produced...unfortunately,
the Cessna 150 had
the market pretty much to itself as a basic trainer.
There were some orders from
dealers but the plane never made it into production.
This takes you to the RC model page... until something else
comes along, it is the best source of
RC model Aeroncas....we have an excellent three-view drawing of the
11AC Chief, weathervane plans
and other things you need to build your own Aeronca Chief...
There is an old factory three view of
the Chief that is available, but this modern one is more detailed.
In 1948 they were concerned about maintaining a two-year old
Champ!
Here's how they did it and it's a great picture of how to keep
a
50-year old classic airplane together and flying well! If
it were only this
easy now...just try getting a simple Goodyear brake clip!
How did we restore N3286E over the six years we worked on her?
Here are the pictures and the story! Hard to believe we did
that much work on her!
This is the start of some web pages linked together to get
a taste of classic
airplane restoration.
John Rodkey, the Grand Poohbah of our Aeronca Internet group
made an epic flight from California to the Aeronca Factory
Fly-In and back via the Pacific Northwest
.... read about his adventures and see the fantastic photos
of his flight here....well worth it! A daring
bit of barnstorming back to the old factory in Ohio.
More Aeronca links, including some great pages by Aeronca
owners....
There are more web pages on Aeroncas every month.
Hard to believe this simple almost 60 year old plane could be so loved!
Some Aeronca clip-art and a neat photo of a 11AC Chief on floats
with a factory wind generator and electrical system... and
a lot of
links that take you further. Notice the tail Aeronca symbol and
N number... this is a later model 11AC.
Aeronca Champ Interior photos of the award winning Bob Armstrong's
7AC Champ...
what a stock Champ interior looked like as it came from the
factory. The interior panels
were flocked, the brown wrinkle paint on the panel was cheap and easy
to apply.
I flew 3286E down to the 1997 NWAAA FlyIn at Evergreen Airport
in
Vancouver, Washington. Some great in-flight photos of the trip
down
(compare it with your flight simulator scenery!) and a lot of
photos of
Northwest Aeroncas at the FlyIn.....It takes a while to load but
you'll see a lot!
11AC ads from January 1947, April 1947 and ads for the Scout
and 11CC models....
Some rare color print ads for the Aeronca right after the war,
from June 1946 and that period. Aeronca was really trying to make
an impression in the ads with war time heros giving testimonials
for the airplanes performance.
Aeronca licensed the C-3 for production in England... and apparently
the Chief was licensed in India and it was called PUSHPAK. Check
out the rudder!
We also have a color 1948 Aeronca brochure on this page...
the production was winding down,
but they sure tried to sell them.
Here is a 7AC Champion Flight test report when the Champ
was a brand new airplane! Those were the days.....
This is a good link for many other places... you can get there
from
this site. It has the Aeronca K site, information on
the
Aeronca E series engines, sounds, photos,
service letters, type certificates, 337s....
a great site that is even getting better..
A great photo of 3 Aeronca Chiefs flying in formation...
John Rodkey was kind enough to stop by Othello for a while on
his way back home..
here are the photos he shot of Othello and the trip from the
panhandle of Idaho across the Cascades to Spanaway airport.
N3286E has a skylight over the cabin area. Here are some hints
on
how it was installed and the 337 forms that were used to get it
approved by the FAA
I'm from the generation that grew up watching SKYKING on
television... that sparked the interest in aviation. Who
says
what you see on TV has no effect on people! Here is a
great
site on the series and a lot of trivia, just for fun.
Most of the fleet is now finished with the Spar AD and very few problems
were
found in the inspections. Here are some forms to help you
with your next
annual inspection and some things to look for and keep in mind.
Also some
nice computer wall paper at the bottom of the page....
John Baker in Maryland has a great site if your landing gear needs to
be
overhauled. He took photos of the whole process and shares
his wisdom on
how to take your landing gear apart and put it back together. We
are fortunate
that parts are still being produced for the gear.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
How to keep an Aeronca clean and airworthy in 1946.. a good article
and it
has some photos of an Aeronca Chief back then...
Again, this may take a bit of a time to load these pages. Remember
to use that browser back button to get back here.
After a six year restoration project, the time has to come to
fly it...
The first real flight of the Chief, after a couple of hops
around the Arlington was across the Cascade mountains
on it's first real flight that day, a real cross country in some
of the best scenery
in the USA, at least the lower 48!
Here is a rare ad that shows the interior of the Aeronca Chum...
a plane that really was like an Ercoupe and had automotive type interior
details. Also a radio for your Aeronca...
A Contintental engine ad that featured the 11AC Chief....
fly a modern airplane with that modern engine, the A-65-8!
We live in a very interesting area, geology wise. So I take my
video camera up and take photos of Othello and Adams County
from the air. Collected here, are the latest photos of the area
from the Chief. The latest flights from around Othello.
The Aeronca Chief service manual had some good hints on
keeping your Chief going.. here is the lubication chart and the
exploded parts view from the manual...click on the images to see
them in a larger format by using your right mouse button to get
the image...
Here's a wonderful shot of Ray Johnson's award winning Chief in a turn.
Makes great computer wallpaper! It was taken at Oshkosh one
year and
they used over 30 rolls of films to get the best shots for Sport
Aviation.
I'm a proud volunteer at the microphone at the NWEAA FlyIn
and conducted worship services there for the first decade of the
Sunday morning services.... here are the photos from the 1999
Arlington Fly-In.
You can visit them at http://www.nweaa.org
This is the National Aeronca Association site, which has a great deal
of
historical information and publishes a magazine that comes out
about
a year or two later than the issue volume... but still, where else
are
you going to get that information!
There is a cold weather operations idea for the A-65-8 engine.
This is a service bulletin that helps keep the heat in the engine....
and there are also some great Aeronca photos from Alaska and
a gif of my Aeronca on it's second takeoff.... Thanks Duane and
Rich!
Our friends across the 'great pond' have a growing web site about
Aeronca's in the UK... including some good historical photos.
Worth the visit to jump overseas... and it makes you feel lucky
to
fly in North America... there are so many restrictions to
aircraft
ownership in Britian, it's so much harder to fly....
We're always on the lookout for Aeroncas in the movies...I've
seen a few Aeroncasin the movies, but the only one we're found
with
an Aeronca Chief is the classic Sci Fi film "War of
the Worlds" in 1953.
Apparently this film is the source of the rumors that the Chief
was a military
aircraft!
here is a Fly-In that Aeronca Chiefs are more than welcome
to join in Marion, Indiana... that's the home of a couple of
Oshkosh award winning 11 Series Chiefs! Click here to get the
latest
information and photos from the previous events..
Todd is doing a great job in collecting Aeronca information on the web. Here is his searchable Aeronca photo database. A lot of photos for the restorer and fan to check out. He's also involved in a wonderful historical project to catalog and digitally save Aeronca engineering blueprints for the pre-war Aeroncas. ACA still owns the 7 and 11 series, so these blueprints are not in circulation, although many owners have copies from the previous type clubs.
Pete Gavin has a wonderful sight about how to keep an Aeronca warm during the cold winter months. Of course, it is also wonderful reading in August when the temperatures are hovering around 110 in the shade! Aeronca provided some fixes for the planes, involving firewall modifications and air outlet mods.
The Fearless Aeronca Aviators page...truly the best bunch of Aeronca
flyers, fans and
planes on the planet.... join our Email list and learn from the
best!
One of the best Aeronca Chief sites on the web is the Ohio Aeronca Chief
association.
A lot of photos of freshly restored Aeronca Chiefs from the area
around the factory
in Ohio! You'll enjoy this!
Well, that's all for now. If you have
found a broken link, you need to know that GeoCities
shuts down this site once in a while when people are using it in a heavy
manner. So much for
free sites! So wait a while a let it have it's fit and then go
back in an hour to check on things.
The RC Model page is a heavy use page.
We have over 28,000 hits by January of 2004, after 1000 hits in May of 1999.
Time flies, and so
do we!
Have a great day... at least better than this person did...just think
of all the vintage Aeronca
parts that were buried in the landfill. Keep those parts folks,
someone can use them later!
Hope that the winds don't blow too hard for you...
report broken links to me or give me another link or just say thanks here....
Updated and restored May 10, 2002, 2-16-2004
Broken Links....does anyone know where these pages ended up?
Not all landings are happy ones... here's one hapless Champ that
needed
to be rescued by a barge in the San Juan Islands. A great story
and all's
well that end's well.....on a winter day the photos look great!
This is a newer site that has a great deal of information about the Chief from the restorer of N3700E. Scott and Wendy Solberg and his father-in-law Bill Barnhorst are doing a wonderful job restoring this 1947 Aeronca Chief. With many photos
