The flying precision is not what makes the super cub great. It's not the light weight, the high end electronics or the super efficient motor. It's the fact that it doesn't have any of that. It's the fun you get from it. The super tough construction is heavy and it does get broken, but there's enough meat there that any heavy handed monkey can patch it back together without sophisticated glues, super light foam and carbon or trips to the hobby shop.
It's not that I had to do a bunch of extensive mods to get it to fly decently, it's that I could. I didn't need to mod it, but I love to mod it. I have three wings that I play with, doing various things to try out theories and such, and I know that this heavy, imperfect plane will still fly. It's pickup truck tuff. I have 12 aircraft including a champ, and this is by far my most reliable and toughest plane. I have done more crazy stuff with this plane than I ever would or will with any of my others. I know that I can torture it, crash it, make it into some morphadite and back again and it will almost never fail me. About the only thing I haven't tried with it (yet) is making it into a biplane.
I have much better flying planes, but does that mean that the cub is no good? No.
Here's another angle. You can talk about pushers and the benefits of such and you can talk about wings and all the cool things they do. But, I don't know a single person who owns a real pusher and even less people that own wings. However, I know lots of people who have cubs. Several people in my family own airplanes and they all look very much like my foam super cub. That in itself makes it more fun for me. It's not accurately scale by any means, but landing short in between the tall grass and trees and just seeing it flying around looking like a real super cub that flies by all the time adds a value for me.
Here's one more. And here's the biggest single reason I bought my first airplane (Hobbyzone Firebird Freedom)
I was a complete beginner, having never flown an airplane in my life. I saw that plane, saw that I could fly by myself without much hassle, and that I could put on the bomb drop module and my kids would have a blast chasing the parachute guy around. That bomb drop module is the single biggest reason I got into flying. I thought it would be super cool and my kids would LOVE it. I was right. They still like dropping stuff from it.
I know I know. I could build one cheaper that would work better and it could...........I know. But for a new pilot with very little free time on my hands the option of just buying it, clipping it on and plugging it in and not having to mess with it was a huge incentive for me. Now remember, this is just my opinion, but that is why I got into the hobby. A bomb drop module caught my eye, and now I'm scratch building planes and flying nitro helis.
I got out of the hobby after I ruined my firebird but a couple years ago a friend and I got the cubs and started flying together and it took off all over again. I still had the bomb drop, the kids still loved it and now I had someone to streamer dog fight with. The rest is history.
Does that mean the super cub is the best plane ever?
Yes. For me it does. Without the super cub I wouldn't be flying at all.
