Backcountry Super Cubs, LLC has been in the aircraft kit manufacturing business for over 10 years. The company started in 1998 under the name Smith Aviation, producing kits just outside of London, Ontario (1 ½ hours north of Detroit, MI). In late 1999 Smith Aviation began sub-contracting the wing production to Wayne & Sharon Axelson of Southwold, Ontario. In January 2006, Smith Aviation was sold and the name was switched to Turbine Cubs of Wyoming, LLC. The company moved its headquarters to the state of Wyoming, and secured a relationship with Wayne & Sharon Axelson and crew to continue producing wings in Ontario. Wayne has agreed to take on a management role for the company.

Turbine Cubs of Wyoming, LLC intended to have a very close relationship with another company called Innodyn were to produce small turbine engines for general aviation. Innodyn was not able to make a reliable engine, and decided to close its doors in 2008.

After producing over 100 kits under the new name, and not having turbine engines to offer to customers, it was decided another name change was needed. On opening day of Oshkosh (AirVenture) 2009 we officially changed our name to Backcountry Super Cubs. We felt this new name best described the products we produced, the classic Super Cub or the next generation Super Cub (our Mackey SQ2) that allow you to escape to the backcountry.

In 2007 we established a relationship with Wayne Mackey from Miles City, Montana. Wayne brings 25 plus years of Super Cub flying experience to Backcountry Super Cubs having tried almost everything related to Super Cubs. He knows what works best for the Backcountry pilot. Our Mackey SQ2 is Wayne’s personal design. He started with Super Cub and transformed it to the next generation Super Cub. The Mackey SQ2 is an aircraft with a larger entrance door, more room for the pilot and passenger, larger open access baggage area, better visibility, and a stronger airframe while making it lighter than a stock Super Cub airframe. Because of the leading edge self castering slat and extended wing chord, this aircraft does not stall like a conventional airplane. It is best described as a nose high plowing. In other words the aircraft simply has a decent rate (sink) with a stable attitude and making the aircraft spin is virtually impossible. This adds an incredible amount of safety during low speed maneuvering that has never been available before in this class of aircraft.

We currently manufacture the wings in Southwold, Ontario. With our own trucks we transport the wings from southern Ontario to our airframe facility in Cornell, Wisconsin. Our kits are sold FOB Cornell, WI. We purchased a facility in Cornell that backs up to a private airport, and find this location to be a nice central spot to ship from. We also have a new facility that was completed in early 2009 in Douglas, Wyoming. We use this location for new research and development.

Over the years we have discovered the only way to stay competitive, has been the extensive use of CNC Machines. Their use has allowed us to maintain individual part consistency and reduce labor cost. Backcountry Super Cubs has been a pioneer in computer cutting 4130 chrome alloy steel tubing. In 2003 we began looking for a way to cut our airframe tubing with a CNC Machine. A machine did not exist to do this job efficiently, so we commissioned a company to design and build one for us. Now all our tubes are CNC cut, meaning each and every tube fits together as tightly as possible inside the jigs before the welding begins. Our welders don’t need to worry about filling in any gaps or irregularities in the joints (which occur when tubes are cut by hand), their only concern is ensuring perfect penetration all the way around the weld.

In our wings we literally make everything except the nuts and bolts. We use our own extruded Spars from 6061-T6 virgin aluminum (0.011’ thicker web than the original Piper spars) and rib profiles (offset “L” that allows you to use pop rivets to attach your fabric). Every part of the wings is cut with a CNC machine, either laser cut 4130 flat plate (bent/welded/powder coated) or CNC milled and bolted together with certified AN stock hardware. Spars, leading and trailing edge skins, and rib material are all cut on a CNC router. We offer the option of a spar doubler located at the strut fittings which allows you to increase your aircraft’s gross weight by an additional 200 lbs. This is a very close copy of the system Piper used on their Pawnee Spray aircraft.

Here is a list of some of the improvements that we have made to our aircraft compared to the original Piper Super Cub. These changes (popular Alaska mods) are all standard items included in our kits. They are solutions to all the problems people have found while fixing and repairing Super Cubs over the last 60 years.

All 4130 Tubing: I knew the original fuselages had some 1025 mild steel tubing in the fuselage, but I was very surprised to learn that only 35% of the original plane was 4130 (much higher tensile strength.) We use 4130 on all of our fuselages and other components.

Left Side Door: The left side door has been an extremely popular feature of our planes. The left side door is great for float applications when docking. 90% of the planes we have built feature the left side door option.

¾ Tubing: We use ¾ tubing all the way through to the firewall. The original fuselages used to taper from ¾ to 5/8 for production purposes (they used to make the fronts separately and just slide them in), but for our purposes we like the large diameter tubing.

180 Hp Engine: We install a ¾ tube from the lower motor mount pickup to the cluster in front of the fuselage that was originally designed for a 45 Hp engine on the J-2 Tayler CU13 models.

Overhead X Bracing: Overhead X bracing is one of the more well known improvements on the Super Cub. It gives more strength to the upper cage when there is a wing strike.

Extended Baggage: Extended baggage with the reverse dogleg is also a very common improvement to the original Super Cub and is also incorporated on our planes. The extended baggage gives three times the storage room.

Baggage Doors: Baggage doors were not that necessary on the original Super Cubs because of the small baggage. With the big baggage now available it is now necessary to be able to get your baggage in the back. Most go with a front right and rear left baggage door.

The Wide Body Fuselage: The wide body fuselage has been one of the biggest hits as far as improvements go. We are not the first company to come up with this idea, although almost everybody loves it.

The Dyna Focal Motor:The Dyna Focal motor has generally been considered to run smoother than a conical motor. We have incorporated this into our plane, but several very knowledgeable people insist it does not make a difference.

Firewall Bolts: The old firewall bolts that would keep the firewall bolted to the fuselage always ended up damaged. We use nut plate tabs, which work much better.

Nut Plate Brackets: Nut plate bolts are also installed on the bottom of the rear of the fuselage to allow for easy access. These can also be installed on the whole bottom of the fuselage, but most people deem this not necessary.

3/8 Tubing: 3/8 tubing is welded in the rear of the plane. Super Cubs were known for being a little weak in the rear. There is almost 4' between weld clusters and this tubing adds substantially to the strength while adding very little weight.

Shoulder Harness Mounts: Shoulder harness mounts are a popular add-on and we are fortunate to weld the brackets on before the finishing. Original cubs have to use a heavy bolt-on bracket as per STC.

Tail Spring Mount: The tail spring mount square tubing always ended up caved in on original Super Cubs. The fix for this is to weld a bushing in the tube to keep it from compressing. Our fix was to use heavier tubing for the extra strength in this area.

Lower Tail Brace Wire Attach: The lower tail brace wire-attach is a little weak on the original Super Cubs and this is not a good place to be weak. We have a heavy duty fitting here that actually bolts on to the tail wheel fitting as well.

Front Seat Belt Brackets: The front seat belt brackets originally were installed on the seat itself. After seeing a couple of seats that had almost pulled away from the plane, we decided to mount them directly to the fuselage. We were later surprised to find out that there was an extra for this on certified planes.

Weld on Float Fittings: The weld on the float fittings are installed on all planes unless otherwise specified. Bolt-on fittings have a bad habit of crushing the tubes in the area it is bolted to. We also install the tabs for the pulley brackets on the aft. part of the fuselage for the water rudders.

Strake Tabs: The strake tabs are welded on for the people who plan on going with the V.G.’s with strakes. This saves you having to use gear clamps.

Float Bushings: the float bushings are welded directly to the upper front of the cabin area. An "I" bolt is placed in the bushing when wanting to lift the plane to install floats. Using the front wing pickup bolts to lift the whole plane when installing just never seemed like a good idea to us.

0.49 Tubing on Motor Mounts: We use 0.49 tubing on motor mounts instead of the original 0.35. The original motor mounts were basically the same as the J-3’s strength-wise, but now instead of 65 Hp the planes are 180 hp or more.

Pulley Brackets and Tabs: On a lot of pulley brackets and tabs we have gone one gauge heavier on the thickness. On a lot of the planes we used to fix we noticed a lot of the fittings had been bent after years of hard flying and even harder landings. We have also added a lot of extra interior tabs as well. The Z shaped door frames have been added to help seal the doors. The original Super Cubs were notorious for air leaking into the plane.

Handles: We also put handles for the tail on both sides of the plane. It's easier to pull than push.

Landing Gear: The landing gear is a major area of improvements. The first improvement is the main tube has been increased from 1 3/8 diameter to 1 ½ for increased strength. The original gusset consisted of one piece of flat bar welded from the axle to the main tube. What we need in this area is to weld on a scab plate on the two tubes about 6 inches long. The new flat bar is welded the whole length of this plate to help distribute the stress area. This is a popular mod. by all aftermarket landing gear manufacturers. We also offer the 1½ axles as apposed to the original 1/14 axles. Piper was one of the few manufacturers of their time to go with the smaller axles. Of course there is occasionally the traditionalist who wants the smaller axles. We also use a 5/8 tube in between the front and rear pickups. The original Pipers used a piece of light gauge tin which always seemed to get bent.

Nose Bowl: The nose bowl may be a place where people haven't noticed a difference, but with the light-weight starters and the oil cooler being moved to the rear of the baffling, we have eliminated these openings to make a cleaner front end.

Firewall: The firewall on the original Super Cubs were made of galvanized sheet metal. Although stainless steel is extremely expensive, we make our fire walls out of stainless steel instead of galvanized, mostly for appearance.

Now on to the wings…

Long Leading Edge: a customer in Alaska recommended the long leading edge to us. We were to learn that this had been used for a number of years in the Alaskan region with good results.

Extended Wing: Our extended wing (actually same length, but full ribs and no bow on the end) along with the long leading edge have been the major contributors to our customers' excellent performance figures. Instead of tapering the wing and using the wing tip bow, we use full ribs to the end of the spar with excellent quality fiberglass tips. We have extended the ailerons 14 inches and the flaps an extra 12 inches. The extra length of flaps and ailerons required an extra hanger, increasing the number of aileron hinges from three to four and the flaps to three instead of the original two. The original flap was driven from the inboard hinge, but with the extra length of flaps, we drive the flap from the middle to eliminate any extra stress.

Extra Fuel: Extra fuel is always nice. Original Super Cubs had two eighteen gallon fuel tanks. Our standard tanks are twenty four gallons giving you an extra twelve gallons.

Outboard Tank: If you need extra fuel we also offer an extra ten-gallon outboard tank giving you a possible total of sixty-eight gallons. We only recommend the extra fuel line if it is necessary. I.e. Alaska, Northern Canada, etc…

Bow Tip: How many times have you seen a J-3 or Super Cub with a pushed up or worse broken bow tip, and still flying around? On our round-tip wings, we use aluminum round tube instead of the original wood, no worrying about your bow tips when breaking your skis out of the snow.

Ribs: The ribs we use are very different in many ways, but not in the shape. We have kept the famous profile of the original Super Cub, for the perimeter of the ribs we use an extruded cap strip. It has an offset T-shape that will allow you to either use pop rivets or rib stitch your fabric on the wings. This extrusion is also a lot stronger than the original ribs.

Hard Rivets: We also use hard rivets in the ribs whereas the original used mild steel in their ribs. As a side note I also recently saw a customer on supercub.org complaining about aviat's Husky because his ribs, flaps and ailerons had rusty mild steel rivets, original Super Cub flaps, and ailerons used soft rivets. We prefer to use hard rivets there.

Dual Lights: Dual lights are a feature that we offer to customers, although not a lot of people use this option, it's a good idea to have a back up.

Wing Bracing: Instead of using the standard wire bracing in the wings, like the original Super Cubs, we have used drag and anti-drag compression tubes. It is basically the same concept as the first bay (where the gas tank is and uses a 4130 tube) in both Pipers and ours. We continue to use this theory the full length of the wing. The one big plus with this system is the fact the wing is not under stress whereas the original plane's wing is under stress as soon as the wires are tightened up.

WOW!!! That's a lot of improvements to a plane that was already considered to be one of the all time great planes. I was surprised to see the list was actually that long. I guess considering the original design is over 50 years old one improvement a year isn't out of the question. I hope you have enjoyed reading about this and I'm probably still forgetting a couple. Oh yeah, we also …