I posted a pretty comprehensive thread on COPA forums about my coast to coast ferry but its behind a paywall, but happy to cross post all the info here as well:
Day 1
This morning I flew into Portland, Oregon to pickup my new to me Carbon Cub SS. Weather was marginal (IFR to marginal VFR) so I spent the afternoon picking through the valleys in Oregon sub 3,000 ft.
1st leg: 7S3 (Hillsboro, Oregon) to KBOK (Brookings, Oregon)
2nd leg: KBOK (Brookings, Oregon) to KUKI (Ukiah, California)
Total time logged = 5.6 hours
Day 2 did three legs:
3rd leg: KUKI (Ukiah, California) to KPRB (Paso Robles, California)
4th leg: KPRB (Paso Robles, California) to KBNG (Banning, California)
5th leg: KBNG (Banning, California) to KCHD (Chandler, Arizona)
Total time logged = 9.4 hours
Day 3
Didn’t go exactly as planned. Departed Chandler, AZ around 6am, and returned back to the airport after I heard the engine intermittently stumbling on climb out. I was very fortunate to be at an airport with a sizable maintenance facility (Chandler Aviation) and all their mechanics seemed to be excited check out my Cub. The team spent the whole morning checking everything: fuel system, spark plugs, borescope all the cylinders, compression test, etc. Nothing was wrong. So I did a test flight (in the pattern) and then did a climb test and I think I discovered the problem. I suspect that when the mixture is at “full rich” it’s still too lean at a reduced power setting…
I am not a fan of this 340CC Titan Engine. It runs way too hot. It’s impossible to keep the CHTs sub 400 with any reasonable climb rate. At full power the engine makes 180HP, and even though the plane is rated for full power up to 5 min, good luck with that. About 90 seconds after the take off roll, you will see 420+ CHTs in the climb. So on a hot AZ day, it’s even worse. It’s a real shame that Cub Crafters put an engine like this into an SS. The 180hp is pretty much a 60 second engine to take off and clear obstacles. Later model Cubs like a FX3 / X / NX have the Lycoming 360 /390.
So my best guess for what happened is that by putting the plane into a shallow low power cruise climb to keep the temps sub 400, then engine was too lean even at full rich and I would hear some occasional pops / stumbles. Chandler Aviation showed me how to richen the mixture at the carburetor. So I did this and climbed at a higher power setting to keep the CHTs under 420 vs. under 400 and the engine popping noise substantially went away.
So Day 3 only did two kegs:
6th leg: Chandler, AZ to Deming, NM
7th leg: Deming, NM to El Paso, TX
Day 4
Made a lot of progress. Woke up in El Paso, TX and just finished up a nice BBQ dinner in North Little Rock, Arkansas.
8th leg - KELP (El Paso, TX) to KBPG (Big Springs, TX)
9th leg - KBPG (Big Spring, TX) to KTRL (Terrell Municipal, TX)
10th leg - KTRL (Terrell Municipal) to KORK (North Little Rock Municipal)
Total time logged = 8.7 hours
A few more observations:
- The Garmin G3X autopilot is materially inferior to the GFC700 that’s in a Cirrus. The G3X AP will nose up and nose down to hold altitude and tends to over correct causing oscillations. Reminded me of how a STEC-55 does the slalom while trying to capture a localizer. This gets a lot worse in gusty conditions to the point where I need to sometimes disconnect the AP and hand fly.
- The engine in the Carbon Cub SS is super easy to start. It fires right up whether it’s cold, very hot, or warm. Quick turns in the cub are super easy.
- This engine hardly uses any oil. The airplane came out of annual with 5 quarts of oil and placard says to only add oil sub 4 quarts. Over nearly 27 hours of engine time over the last 4 days, I have only added 1 quart. So this engine seems to need only 1 quart of oil every 15 hours or so. Quite a contrast to how a SR22 goes through a quart every 3-5 hours….
Day 5 drama
Right ignition failed run-up….
Thankfully mechanic on site at KORK was able to troubleshoot and found a loose connection into the electrical ignition box.
So as y’all already know, I got a late start leaving North Little Rock this morning, but I still managed to squeeze out 3 legs:
11th leg: North Little Rock (KORK) to Springfield County (M91)
12th leg: M91 to Pike County (KPBX)
13th leg: KPBX to Charlottesville (KCHO)
Total logged time today = 7.9 hours
I would say the toughest flights was the 2nd half of 12th leg and 1st half the 13th leg. I was in continuous moderate turbulence and even a GFC700 would not have helped. I had to hand fly about 2.5 hours and it was an exercise in keeping wings level while I rode the updrafts and downdrafts over a 200-400 foot block altitude. Oh and I froze my ass off with outside air temps at 24 degrees…. The good news is that I rode a nice tailwind the whole way.
This also prompted me to look for the setting menu to see if I can adjust the autopilot settings.
I ended up reducing the pitch servo gain to 1.2, pitch max servo to 80%, vertical speed gain to 1.0, and roll servo gain to 1.0. If anyone has any other suggestions on how to make it better, let me know.
Separately, I just want to say that folks at the places I have needed help have been amazing. At Chandler, AZ all the mechanics dropped everything to check out my engine. This morning in Little Rock, as soon as the mechanic arrived, he pulled my Cub into the hangar and started looking for loose connections. This is in stark contrast to my home base (HPN) where I had a dead mag in a Cirrus and the local Cirrus shop basically told me “maybe we can get to you in 10 days.”
Day 6 recap and Final Summary
So yesterday I landed back at HPN around 12:21pm after the final two legs:
14th leg: Charlottesville, VA (KCHO) to Solberg, NJ (N51)
15th leg: Solberg, NJ (N51) to Westchester County, NY (KHPN) via Candlelight Farms, CT (11N)
Total logged time on day 6: 4.7 hours
Here are some summary stats:
Started Ferry: 12:45pm Sunday, October 19, 2025
Ended Ferry: 12:21pm Friday, October 24, 2025
15 Legs traversing 3,811 miles (3,919 miles if you count the aborted flight and subsequent test flight)
Average Leg = 254 miles
1 aborted flight
1 test flight
Crossed through 16 states
Logged 41.9 hours in my Carbon Cub
When I get a chance, I can drop all my pics during the ferry into a google drive link and share if that's of interest...
