Raffle Gives a Chance at Owning a Piece of Aviation History

To commemorate the start of the Jim Richmond Backcountry Aviation Foundation, CubCrafters has announced a raffle to give away the very first Carbon Cub in order to fund ongoing operations.

Jim Richmond founded CubCrafters years ago, giving the backcountry bush pilot of today a modern, safe, robust take on the centennial Piper Cub. Now, the company has grown far beyond its humble Yakima, Washington roots. Whenever there's a small strip of grass in the wilderness, a Carbon Cub is the go-to implement of choice to visit it, building on the basic Cub recipe with heaps of power and payload leagues ahead of what its draftsman could have envisioned. Carbon fiber, turbochargers, and glass panels meld with the classic Cub outline, merging tried-and-true building techniques with 21st century gear and aerodynamics. That makes the first Carbon Cub - the primordial Carbon Cub, Serial Number #001 and all - a historic aircraft to have in the hangar.

The Jim Richmond Backcountry Aviation Foundation is the perfect entity to remember Richmond's work in revitalizing the world of off-airport bush flying. The Foundation will "expand, preserve, and protect public backcountry aviation access for current and future generations of aviators." This time, however, things will be a little different method than lobbying and building awareness, the bread and butter of most groups along the same lines. Instead, the Richmond Foundation will acquire property in remote areas and develop them for recreational use in aviation. Using that as a base, they can help to invigorate the backcountry hobby, giving pilots somewhere to go, while providing resources and guidance to match. Along the way, the Foundation will work to document and preserve the history of the properties is acquires, using its own experience to help anyone who wants to follow their example elsewhere.

“Before he passed away in 2021, Dad had planned to dedicate a significant amount of his personal time and energy to expanding public backcountry aviation access for all pilots,” stated Piper Richmond, a board member of the new Foundation. “He was looking at sites that could be opened for backcountry recreational access even just weeks before his death. His idea was that a community of like-minded pilots could work together to acquire, develop, and open new high-quality destination airstrips in remote areas for everyone to enjoy.”

The Richmond Foundation has gotten some initial funding by his family to serve as seed stock, which allowed them to acquire a cattle ranch in southwest Idaho to start. The 45 Ranch will offer two different airstrips with plenty to do like camping, hiking, fishing, rafting, and exploring the region, all entirely open to the public. But, the mission of building and maintaining remote airstrips isn't cheap, so support and attention help to ensure the long-term health of the Foundation. To get the word out, raffle tickets can be purchased at the CubCrafters booth at EAA AirVenture this week, or snagged online for those who couldn't make it. All proceeds support the Foundation's mission, with tickets ringing up at $50 each. CubCrafters is kind enough to recognize the common shortcoming of raffles, too, and has generously taken on the burden of paying the Federal income taxes that will be due on the Carbon Cub prize, which will likely fall somewhere around $50,000 just to take the plane home.

Additional prizes round out the raffle, too, with trips to the 45 Ranch, Alaska Airlines tickets, Alaska Bushwheels, ACME Black Ops aircraft suspensions, a tailwheel endorsement with Tac Aero, and some Bose A-30 Headsets.

FMI: www.JRBAF.org