MOAC!

American Legend Builds the “Mother of All Cubs.”

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If the name MOAC seems somehow military to you, there’s a reason for that—it sort of is. A couple of years ago, American Legend, the company from Sulphur Springs, Texas, that reimagined first the J-3 and then the Super Cub, built an airplane for a U.S. Army project. The Army realized that there are times when sending in a $15 million helicopter to do a Cub’s job wasn’t always appropriate and had put out feelers to companies to provide a small liaison-style craft that could get in and out of small, unimproved clearings to drop off and retrieve people and “things” under adverse conditions.

American Legend decided to take their AL-18 design—basically, a modernized and souped-up Super Cub—and enhance it. A lot. With more power, wing slats, big beefy landing gear and cavernous cargo space reached through the turtle deck (big enough to carry a stretcher with a person onboard), they created an airplane they began to refer to as the Mother of All Cubs—and they weren’t far from the truth.

A hot-rodder’s dream, this is sort of the monster truck of the airplane world, capable of going places and doing things that might strike fear into the average mortal Cub—and even a mortal Cub is pretty capable.

I like to think of the MOAC sort of like my Jeep Wrangler Rubicon. Factory-built to a high standard and capability, the truck is capable of far more than I will personally ever dare to do. In my book, that’s a good place to be, because while I might let the truck down, it will always provide margin to me—the lowly operator who might screw up. I’d rather have an overbuilt machine to cover for my mistakes than one where I always have to be on top of my game to keep from damaging it—and that is definitely the case with an airplane like the MOAC.

What’s It Got Under The Fabric?

The Titan IO-370 provides almost 200 hp to haul the MOAC around the sky—and helps get it in and out of tight places with ease.

So what makes a MOAC? Well, you start with a standard Super Legend, an airplane that looks a lot like a Piper Super Cub but has many additions—the most obvious of which is a door on each side. But there’s more—much more. The Super Legend is 3 inches wider in the cabin, providing significantly more room for people and “stuff.” It also comes set up for a Titan O-340 or O-370 engine, motors that can be configured to provide from 174 to 195 hp. The Super Legend is an excellent airplane, very capable, and will satisfy many pilots’ backcountry needs without even breathing hard.

You can beef up the standard Super Legend by adding larger, beefier landing gear, capable of handling bush wheels up in the 35-inch range, larger tailwheels, greater fuel capacity, skylights, square wingtips and larger tail surfaces. These items, added together or separately, can customize the airplane to be exactly what you need to get into your own personal ideas of wilderness. Legend also supplies options like vortex generators, leading-edge slats, float attach kits and floats themselves. There are times when you might be forgiven for thinking that Sulphur Springs is in Alaska, not Texas.

But if you want a MOAC, you add a few more things. The standard MOAC package includes a third folding seat behind the regular back seat, rear fold-down windows, extra baggage capability and a turtle-deck baggage door that allows long items to be installed well back into the tail cone. This package is what the Army tried out for nearly a year—but details of what they were doing are a bit sketchy. Let’s just say that for civilian purposes, this package maximizes the idea of a Cub’s limits.

Squared-off wingtips and lots of slats are a sure sign that this airplane loves to fly slow. The slats come in two pieces on each side, adding up to four moving parts.

One of the beauties of the American Legend system is that you can pick and choose from a huge number of optional items on a five-page order form to select the exact package you want for your airplane. Almost all of the items I’ve mentioned can be added or subtracted in combination or alone, and the airplane will work just fine. In addition to all of the airframe and engine options, the factory has several standard panel packages already defined—or a builder can come up with their own. This is, after all, still homebuilding.

Finally, the Super Legend or MOAC can be purchased as an S-LSA (with some limitations on performance), built as an E-LSA by the factory or the builder or as an Experimental/Amateur-Built. That last option can use the factory-assist program or have the parts shipped to the builder’s workshop. American Legend is intent on providing as wide a field of options as possible—both physically and in terms of a builder’s program and goals.

As Tested

We met up with the American Legend gaggle of airplanes at Wautoma, Wisconsin, the Sunday before AirVenture 2021. It was a sunny Sunday afternoon when five Cubs and a couple of support aircraft dropped into the lovely Midwestern airport located about 30 miles west of Wittman field. Wautoma’s EAA chapter runs a hospitality hangar/pancake breakfast the weekend before the big show and is my favorite diversion spot should the traffic at Fisk get a bit too intense. It’s got pavement, it’s got grass, it’s got some nice tables in the shade. And it has both fuel and a bathroom—what more can you ask for when you need a break?

The Legend folks brought a couple of different MOACs for us to look at, including one with rifle cases mounted to the wing struts—an apparent reference to the Army’s concept of the plane. Given our choice of which airplane we wanted to photograph and fly, however, our eyes were attracted to N40ML, built and flown by owner Mike Lemons. Part of an aviation family that boasts both crop dusters and airline pilots in its ranks, Mike used the factory-assist program to build his ultimate MOAC—hardly any options appear to have been left on the table, except for floats. And we’re not certain that he doesn’t have a set of those hidden away somewhere. The floats might, however, be redundant, as he offered that he has waterskied on the big bush wheels for miles on the Arkansas river back home.

Long-stroke ACM main gear and large Alaskan Bushwheels give you plenty of ground clearance.

N40ML stands tall on 35-inch Alaskan Bushwheels mounted to ACME extended struts designed to take up just about any vertical force a pilot (and gravity) might apply. He also had the heavy-duty ACME Baby Bushwheel on the tail, a ball of fun that helps to make off-runway landings possible. Rounding out the landing gear options, float-attach points are welded to the lower longerons, ready to accept whatever floats (straight or amphibian) that might be coming along in the future. There is little to no penalty for adding these points—so why not?

The tricked-out tailwheel complements the mains to give you rough-country capability.

Moving up on the outside of the airplane, we noticed the optional aluminum lift struts from Airframes Alaska and a pair of LED landing/recognition lights mounted on the jury struts to supplement the retractable lights mounted in the wingtips. Those lights are servo-actuated and can be aimed at any angle from parallel to the wing to perpendicular. They are controlled from a switch on the stick grip and solve the problem of “where do you aim the landing lights on a taildragger?” The answer—you point them wherever you want, whenever you want!

N40ML has plenty of light for night flying. The tilt of the outboard landing lights (left) is controllable from the stick grip, and the lights on the jury struts (right) give you plenty of floodlight capability. No more excuses for running into a drainage ditch at night.

Continuing our look at the wings, this pair was fitted with the squared-off tips that we saw on the majority of the Legends in the gaggle. They also featured both automatic slats and vortex generators. The slats are in two sections on each wing, outboard and “middle”-board. The inboard end of the slats run not to the edge of the fuselage but rather to the edge of the prop wash. Vortex generators covered that area, but it was decided to let the slats operate only in the clear air that was not disturbed by the wake of the prop.

Automatic slats extend when you start getting to a high angle of attack and give you the capability to drop into short strips easily. They retract (left) or extend (right) depending on airflow, so the pilot doesn’t need to do anything but fly.

Inside The Ship

Now let’s get to the cockpit. Yes, there are three seats that you see in the pictures—you can put an actual person in the baggage area…legally! Of course, you can also put baggage back there and extend it all the way back toward the tail. But make sure to do a careful weight and balance before you fly that way. The large tail helps with the CG, of course—that is part of the reason it is there. The third seat (and seat belts) definitely helps with the flexibility of the airplane—baggage, people, dogs—whatever you need to haul, you can probably fit it in, so long as it’s not a bunch of gold or lead.

No matter how many times you count it, there are still three seats in this tandem airplane!

Climbing into the front seat, you’ll see a nicely appointed Garmin G3X Touch panel—one of the standard options from American Legend. With a remote radio and a transponder controlled from the touchscreen, it is a clean and simple panel. ADS-B In and Out are part of the package; while there are remote areas where they aren’t necessary, sooner or later, most bush planes come back to civilization for supplies, so it’s better to have them than not.

The view through the turtle deck baggage door gives you an idea of how much storage space there is.

For those not raised on Cubs, the brake pedals might be a surprise—they are actuated by your heels, not your toes. For those of us “of a certain age,” they feel fairly natural, but for most pilots of the past couple generations, they are novel and require just a little adaptation. They are easier to use than you might think at first, so give them a try. Before you know it, you’ll be braking with the best of them. If you don’t like them, never fear—toe brakes are available for your aircraft.

N40ML had a well-equipped stick grip, and while we never learned what some of the buttons do, those that mattered worked great. Of note, the four-way switch that you’d typically use for trim instead operates the landing light aiming (as noted before), so if you require a little trim, it’s the crank handle over on the left wall. Flaps are controlled by a lever up high on the left side of the cockpit, a place I have learned to love on the recent Cub-alikes I have flown. This is a great place to reach and even hang your hand on approach—flaps are just a tug away when needed.

The panel (right) is simplified by a single Garmin G3X Touch display, which gives excellent capabilities and saves panel space as the radios are controlled through the EFIS.

Engine controls were standard for the Titan IO-370—throttle, prop and mixture are where you’d expect them. The high-compression 370 is rated at 195 hp, and all that power is going to the air through a composite Hartzell constant-speed prop. Even though we were busy on a formation flight in the heat of a Wisconsin summer at low altitudes, we never saw any alarms for high temps or cooling issues, so the cowling and baffling package seem to be well matched for this working airplane.

Air filtration is important if you’re going to be operating in the dirt, and the big filter helps feed the 195-hp Titan IO-370 with all the air it needs.

The paint, fit and finish of the airplane were excellent and made for a bright package that just begs to be taken care of—even when the airplane is begging to be taken “off-piste.” We suspect that a lot of care and washing goes into keeping the airplane looking show-quality, but it’s a machine that inspires pride of ownership. American Legend takes pride in the finished paintwork, and since this is not an item that the owner needs to complete to meet the 51% rule, it is usually left up to the pros who do fine work day in and day out.

Overall, N40ML is an outstanding combination of features for both “show” and “go.” This airplane is as comfortable in the limelight as it would be in the bush or the swamps, lakes, and woods of Arkansas. Its owner allowed as how its cost came in at about $260,000 as we flew it, proving that fun does cost money—but if you have the money, why not have some fun? Weighing in at 1117 pounds empty (against a 2000-pound gross), this particular MOAC is well equipped for whatever mission it is asked to accomplish, a bush plane with significant STOL capabilities—the monster truck of its genre.

Flying The Mother

A lot of bush planes have nothing but a bicycle grip on the end of the stick, but a tricked-out MOAC has plenty to control.

Climbing into the MOAC is exactly that—you have to climb in! The traditional triangular landing-gear struts have no fabric on them, which is good because there are tubes running fore and aft, which act as steps you climb like a ladder. You then do the typical pull-up with the steel tubes over the glareshield to settle into the front seat. From there, your eye height is nearly twice that of sitting in a typical RV—so you have a pretty good view around. Looking up, you have the now-typical skylight, which helps that view in steep turns, and of course, you can open both sides if you want a wide-open view. No, it’s not quite the same as a bubble canopy on a low wing—but the Cub is really about looking at the ground, and it gives you a great view of that.

Today, our mission was twofold—evaluate the airplane’s handling qualities and work with a photo ship (another MOAC) to get some pictures for this article. Photo missions are great ways to start an evaluation. You jump right in with a demanding piloting task, and if it works well, you know the airplane flies right—and the MOAC lived up to that expectation.

It can be bumpy at 500 feet above the ground in Wisconsin on a summer afternoon, and this day was no exception. We took off in formation with our camera ship, and acceleration was good with the constant-speed prop. The tail came up quickly, and we were off and away, but it was apparent from the outset that the camera ship was going to have to give us a couple of inches of manifold pressure for us to keep up with our much larger tires—the lead was equipped with much more normal bush wheels, probably 28-inchers.

However, the speed differential was quickly sorted out, and I parked myself off his wing the best I could with the bumps from the forests, fields, and lakes below. Roll pitch and yaw were positive, if not crisp—about what you’d expect down in the 70–80 mph range in a Cub-like aircraft. Coordination was excellent, of course, with notable adverse yaw from the big ailerons, but again—just what you’d expect from a Cub.

Holding a stepped-down formation on a bumpy day in a high-wing airplane is always a bit challenging. There is a lot of peering around the wing root and frequent raising of the wing on the lead ship’s side to assure that you aren’t closing when you don’t intend to. It also gives the cameraman a better view of the subject airplane’s fuselage and cabin, rather than a simple expanse of wing. The best way to do a photo job is to circle with the subject plane on the inside, with an adequate amount of slip to show off the plane, as you circle something interesting on the ground. Fortunately, central Wisconsin has lots of little lakes to circle, many of them with water skiers and fishermen to add life to the photos.

The large composite Hartzell prop does a good job of transmitting horsepower into the air.

This type of flying also gives a pilot a good idea of just how honest the airplane might be, with “honest” being an intangible quality that grades the airplane on whether or not it will betray the pilot. The MOAC was—best I could tell—impeccably honest. It did what it was told and gave no hints of heading off in its own direction or of stalling or spinning. We really didn’t look much at the airspeed indicator but never heard the slats pop out during our photo work, which tells me that we were plenty fat on airspeed. Accelerating was not as quick or crisp as with a low-drag fast-glass or metal low wing—but we could catch up with the camera ship in a reasonable amount of time if it left us behind.

We didn’t test cruise speeds, but the MOAC is typical of the Cub-alike designs that put an emphasis on low-speed capabilities. Translation: not fast. American Legend quotes cruise speeds of around 120 mph. Forty gallons of fuel should be good for a bit more than 4 hours with the IO-370.

With the photos finished, we headed back to the airport, and I slowed the beast down to see how it might stall. The truth is—I couldn’t get it anywhere near a stall break to see if it would fall off one way or another. This is true of so many high-wing bush and STOL aircraft these days—the stall is more of a mushing sink than a break, and directional and roll control is generally good throughout. The little low-speed work I did told me that it would be a fun airplane with which to go sightseeing down low and one that would be easy to shove into reasonable backcountry strips.

Big tires, big wheels. Beringer builds them (and the brakes) as light as possible.

We entered the pattern for the grass runway at Wautoma with the camera ship above us, and I concentrated on making a decent landing instead of going for a perfect photo. The perfect landing wasn’t going to happen. It had been a while since I landed something with such a high eye height, so of course, I touched down before I expected—and bounced it. The good news is that it all worked out because the MOAC with the big tires is remarkably forgiving.

If I’d been alone in the air, I’d probably have added enough power to go around, but I knew that I had a camera ship lurking somewhere above me. I wasn’t sure exactly where. So instead of launching into a conflict, I felt it better to add just enough power to stabilize the situation, then let the plane settle back onto those big tires again—which it did, ever so nicely. The moral of the story is that some airplanes know how to land themselves better than the pilots. The MOAC was both docile and capable, again showing that it would be an excellent airplane to have on a rocky, rough and uneven runway out in the bush.

If you have the option of pavement or grass, we bet that if you’re flying your MOAC, you’ll take the grass every time!

More Than Just Another Big Cub

There are a lot of options in the homebuilt Cub-alike market these days, from complete kits to factory-assist programs to materials packages that allow you to pick and choose as you roll your own. So what makes the MOAC more than just another big-engined Cub?

I’d have to say that American Legend has put together a well-thought-out package of options that can be added or subtracted so that a customer can build an airplane matched exactly to their needs. If you want a fire-breathing bush plane to carry large loads into the backcountry, the MOAC will do that. If you want to add aerodynamic gadgets to fly into even shorter places—you can do that too.

No matter what you want your airplane to do, the Super Legend is adaptable—and ready to be adapted. Whether you buy a kit to be shipped to your workshop or choose a builder-assist option, you can build the Mother of All Cubs precisely to your vision—then load it up with two friends and baggage and head out into the boonies. No, you won’t get there particularly fast—but you’ll get there with enough stuff to enjoy the backcountry—or whatever country you choose to explore.


Factory Assist—Does It Meet The Letter Of The Law?

Let’s be upfront about this: KITPLANES® supports the idea that Experimental/Amateur-Built airplanes are built by amateurs for their own recreation and education. The FAA has defined this as the builder(s) having to complete at least 51% of a list of about 157 tasks (for a fixed-wing aircraft) as defined by the agency in order to qualify. You aren’t allowed to write someone a check to build an E/A-B for you. Sure, we all know it happens, but that doesn’t make it legal.

So can you really sign on with American Legend for factory assist and be assured that you are meeting the letter of the law—and not giving a little wink as you do so? We asked Mel Asberry, one of our resident DARs at the magazine, this question. Mel was a particularly good person to ask, as he is American Legend’s go-to DAR as well and a stickler for doing things strictly by the book. Mel’s answer was a resounding yes—if it weren’t, the airplane we flew would never have been licensed.

The so-called 51% Rule is probably one of the most misunderstood rules in Experimental aviation. It does not mean that an individual must have done 51% of the work by weight, parts count or hours. It means that 51% percent of the tasks listed by the FAA must have been done by amateurs (of any number) for their education and recreation. The other 49% of the tasks are allowed to be completed by anyone for any reason (including commercial purposes).

In order to determine a specific project’s eligibility for E/A-B certification, the inspector or DAR can use the Amateur-Built Fabrication and Assembly Checklist provided by the FAA. This checklist assigns points for each task to the manufacturer of the kit, part or component to commercial assistance or to the builder(s), either an assembly task or fabrication task. The total score for each task has to add up to 1.0, but it can be split any way between the four columns—for instance, 0.4 to the manufacturer and 0.6 to the Amateur builder.

Examples of tasks include things like:

  • Fabricate Vertical Stabilizer Spars
  • Assemble Cables, Wires, Lines to Vertical Stabilizer
  • Fabricate Wing Covering or Skin
  • Fabricate Fuel Tanks
  • Assemble Engine to Engine Mount

Note that none of the tasks include fabricating an engine, building a radio or creating aluminum from raw bauxite ore. But you can get points for fabricating a propeller if you like!

At the end of the 157 items, the builder must accumulate a total of 51% of the 157 tasks to qualify.

Kit companies that offer builder assist programs design them carefully around these checklists to make sure that the builder of record achieves the required 51% without doubt. American Legend documents this with a checklist for each aircraft they build—so it’s not just a one-time-and-done with them. In the case of N40ML, the airplane we flew, the builder of record achieved 52.7%, and that number is part of the build records saved by the company and the DAR.

The FAA acknowledges that builders often hire out work on complete instrument panels, interiors and exterior paint; those are single line items on the checklist, showing the relative importance (or not) that the FAA puts on those tasks. Painting an aircraft rarely contributes to its overall safety, and a pro painter can do a remarkable job, whereas a first-time builder will have a very steep learning curve to achieve the same results.

Companies like American Legend want to help builders achieve their dream of a well-built and capable aircraft that meets the legal requirements for E/A-B certification—but is finished in a reasonable length of time. For the convenience of having someone else do many of the build tasks and having the airplane done in a predictable timeframe, the builder will spend an additional $38,500 for a MOAC. Depending on how experienced a builder might be and how they value their own time, this can be a bargain for someone that wants to get in the air relatively quickly.


MOAC

  • Kit price: $77,100
  • Estimated completed price: $210K–$310K
  • Estimated build time: NA
  • Number flying (at press time): 10
  • Powerplant: Titan IO-370, 195 hp
  • Propeller: Hartzell two-blade constant-speed
  • Powerplant options: Titan O/IO-340, O/IO-370

AIRFRAME

  • Wingspan: 35.5 ft
  • Seating capacity: 3
  • Fuel capacity: 30-40 gal
  • Maximum gross weight: 2000 lb
  • Typical empty weight: 890 lb
  • Typical useful load: 1110 lb
  • Full-fuel payload: 870–930 lb

PERFORMANCE

  • Cruise speed: 104 KTAS (120 mph)
  • Climb rate: 1900 fpm
  • Stall speed: 23 kt (26 mph), full flaps
  • Stall speed: 28 kt (32 mph), no flaps
  • Takeoff distance: 100 ft
  • Landing distance: 260 ft

Specifications and pricing provided by the manufacturer. 


Window Shopping: Building A MOAC

Anyone who has ever lusted after a new airplane or kit has sat down with factory brochures and build sheets, trying to figure out what it would cost. Here is our estimate, based on a build form provided by American Legend at AirVenture 2021 and our memory of what was included on N40ML, of what this airplane would cost you today. Or at least on July 20th, 2021.

Cost

Basic Kit—Super Legend H.P.
Fuselage Kit$30,275
Wing Kit With Flaps$27,075
Tail Surface Kit$8,225
Titan Engine Cowling/Mount Install Kit$11,525$77,100
Interior
Basic Interior$4,675
Carbon Fiber Upgrade$3,425
Custom Full-Grain Leather$3,295
Rosen Visor$325$11,720
Airframe Options
Strobe and Nav Light$1,895
Retractable Landing Lights$2,495
Jury Strut Wig Wags$1,595
Extended HD Landing Gear$2,275
ELT$1,575
Placards$375
Extended Upper Baggage Area With Door$1,495
Lower Extended Baggage Area$2,975
MOAC Edition Options$6,975
Float Brackets$975
XP Performance Kit$6,295
Skylight$1,475
Covering Kit (2-4 Colors)$6,295$36,695
Firewall Forward
Controls Kit$1,575
Electrical System$2,575
Exhaust System$2,595
Baffle Kit$1,575
Breather Vent Kit$595
Dual Oil Cooler Kit$2,295
Titan O-370 High Compression (195 hp)$45,995
Fuel Injection$3,295
Hartzell Trailblazer Prop$18,295$78,795
Prewired Instrument Panel
Garmin G3X Touch$28,995
ADS-B Compliance$1,125$30,120
“Fun” Options
ACME Pro Series Shick Strut System$2,995
35-Inch Bushwheels$4,195
10-Inch Beringer Wheels and Brakes$6,695
Baby Bushwheel$2,295
ACME Stinger Tailwheel Suspension$1,895
Vortex Generators$1,495
Leading Edge Slats$5,995
Performance Flaps$9,525
Aluminum Wing Struts$1,995$37,085
Build Assist Program (28 Working Build Days)$38,500
Total$310,015

Paul Dye, KITPLANES® Editor at Large, retired as a Lead Flight Director for NASA’s Human Space Flight program, with 40 years of aerospace experience on everything from Cubs to the Space Shuttle. An avid homebuilder, he began flying and working on airplanes as a teen, and has experience with a wide range of construction techniques and materials. He flies an RV-8 that he built, an RV-3 that he built with his pilot wife, as well as a Dream Tundra they completed. Currently, they are building a Xenos motorglider. A commercially licensed pilot, he has logged over 5000 hours in many different types of aircraft and is an A&P, EAA Tech Counselor and Flight Advisor, as well as a former member of the Homebuilder’s Council. He consults and collaborates in aerospace operations and flight-testing projects across the country.


This article originally appeared in the December 2021 issue of KITPLANES magazine.

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Paul Dye
Paul Dye, KITPLANES® Editor at Large, retired as a Lead Flight Director for NASA’s Human Space Flight program, with 40 years of aerospace experience on everything from Cubs to the Space Shuttle. An avid homebuilder, he began flying and working on airplanes as a teen, and has experience with a wide range of construction techniques and materials. He flies an RV-8 that he built, an RV-3 that he built with his pilot wife, as well as a Dream Tundra they completed. Currently, they are building a Xenos motorglider. A commercially licensed pilot, he has logged over 5000 hours in many different types of aircraft and is an A&P, EAA Tech Counselor and Flight Advisor, as well as a former member of the Homebuilder’s Council. He consults and collaborates in aerospace operations and flight-testing projects across the country.

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4 COMMENTS

  1. They seem to have re-invented the German WW2 Fieseler Storch and for much the same reason. Lots less maintenance in purchase and running costs than a helicopter. The Germans certainly knew all about helicopters before WW2 but figured the Storch was about as good and way cheaper.

  2. If they were trying to sell it to the military they should have put a diesel engine in it. Nato has been all diesel for 15 years now…

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