Orthopedic surgeon Alan Maurer, of Sarasota, Florida, has been a pilot since 1970. He’s owned many aircraft over that time, including a Beechcraft Duke and Baron. Nowadays however, he goes up once or twice a week in his new Carbon Cub SS.
Dr. Maurer purchased his Carbon Cub through SWT Aviation in Marietta, Georgia. He traveled to Yakima last month to pick up his new airplane, which, at his arrival, was in the last stages of having a Garmin G3X custom fit in the panel. (His was the very first CubCrafters aircraft with this option.) During his visit, he took the opportunity to fly to Coeur d’Alene Idaho.
The installation complete, Dr. Maurer and his close friend Steve Wasserman began the cross-country journey back to Florida. Deliberately taking a leisurely pace to savor the trip, they averaged about four hours of flight time each day – a couple hours in the morning, a break, then another two hours or so in the afternoon.
The first leg of their journey took them South, so they could avoid the Rockies. Hearing about their route, CubCrafters dealer John Hodges of California Cubs generously extended this hospitality to the duo for a day and night in San Luis Obispo.
Cutting East, Maurer and Wasserman stopped in Las Vegas, then stepped up the mileage they’d cover each day, in a beeline to Florida. The entire trip took seven days.
Dr. Maurer first encountered CubCrafters aircraft at the U.S. Sport Aviation Expo in Sebring, Florida last January. A self-described “glitch in my EKG,” and the possible effect it might have on his ability to fly certified aircraft led him to investigate LSAs, which were plentiful at the show.
“After checking out the offerings of a number of manufacturers, it was clear the CubCrafters aircraft were superior,” says Maurer. “The fit and finish were exceptional. You could tell they put a lot of thought into each piece before they produced it. The Carbon Cub is a not a toy – it’s a real airplane. And since it’s an LSA, I don’t have to fuss so much with the FAA.”
Dr. Maurer is direct in his assessment of the current state of general aviation. “Most aircraft companies are simply pricing themselves out of business,” he says. "At Oshkosh, new versions of models that I had owned in the past were upward of three quarters of a million dollars. Add to that fuel consumption of 60 gallons per hour at six dollar a gallon, and you have a product that is out of reach to all but the extremely wealthy.”
He continues, “While a Carbon Cub isn’t cheap, it lets someone of my means own a well-built, comfortable and easy to fly airplane. This is the way aviation is going because that’s the way it has to go. There are lots of guys out there like me, and that’s why CubCrafters will continue to be successful.”
