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Early on the
morning of August 21, 2001 our Baby Ace lifted off from
Runway 21 at Sussex Airport. The first flight went without
incident and was a complete success. This was the
culmination of countless hours of work over several years,
put in by the members of the Chapter.
 During the
following several months, the test flight program was
completed and the required hours were "flown
off" by various Chapter members. The Ace received its
airworthiness certificate. Requiring only minor tweaking,
the Ace has amassed quite a few hours, with many of our
members taking on the pilot duties.
The original Baby
Ace design dates way back to the 1920’s and was the work
of O.G. "Ace" Corbin. Updated in the 1950’s by
Paul Poberezny (of EAA fame), this is the airplane the
started the modern homebuilding movement.
Docile and
predictable handling characteristics make the Baby Ace
easy to fly. The helmet and goggles, wind in your face,
open cockpit type of flying just adds to the fun. Stealing
many of its parts from the Piper Cub, the Ace uses the
A-65 Continental engine. We are getting up to 90 mph in
level flight with cruise around 80. Stall is somewhere
well below 40 MPH. Landings do take a bit of extra skill
with its taildragger configuration, but the plane really
has no bad handling traits at all.
Although built and
financed by the members of EAA Chapter 891, the Baby Ace
is now operated and maintained by The Flying Aces,
a separate organization set up for liability reasons.
It seems that
project airplanes are never quite finished and this is the
case with the Baby Ace. Anxious to get the plane in the
air, some of the painting and detail work has yet to be
completed. We hope to make the rounds of the local
fly-ins, so the Chapter 891 Baby Ace will be a common
site.
More photos of the Baby Ace can be found in the Photo
section of our website. We will add more pictures as
the Baby Ace flies more! |
