The Perfect Piper J3 Cub Offered In EAA’s 2015 Sweepstakes Is At Its New Home

The winner of EAA’s 2015 Sweepstakes Piper J3 C-65 Cub, Jim Balderson of Greenville, South Carolina, was in Oshkosh last week to accept his prize before taking it on a 10-hour flight back home.

Jim said he only sent in one entry slip just before the sweepstakes deadline and hoped it would get to EAA in time. “The Lord just gave it to me,” he said. “That’s it.”

After failed attempts to reach Jim by phone and e-mail, EAA sent Jim a registered letter telling him he had won.

“I opened it up and just said ‘I can’t believe it,’” Jim said. “I was almost crying.”

Jim said the airplane will be going home to a grass strip 30 miles from his residence, and that he plans on enjoying flight in the Cub for many years before handing it down to his son Drew.

As if the story of a man and his cub isn’t enough to bring a smile, it’s also interesting to know how this airplane was located and why it’s being called the perfect cub.

After a long and exhaustive search for “just the right plane,” for its 2015 EAA Aircraft Sweepstakes grand prize, EAA found the cub that had been meticulously restored by Ellis Clark, of Solvang, California.

Looking for an airplane worthy of being the grand prize for the EAA sweepstakes was not an easy task for John Hopkins, EAA’s manager of aircraft maintenance. However, after answering an ad on eBay for a Cub in Michigan, John had a pretty good feeling he’d found “the one.”

“When I called the owner and began talking with him I knew this would be the one,” John said. “He was very particular, and after I laid my eyes on it I couldn’t blame him - this Cub is perfect! It was everything I was hoping it would be and then some.”

Ellis said he’s proud the airplane was chosen for the sweepstakes. “When I was approached by John Hopkins at EAA I almost got cold feet and began to wonder if I should sell it,” he said. “But when I found out this Cub would become the 2015 EAA Sweepstakes airplane, I realized it would end up in a good home, because I knew there would be an excellent chance that an EAA member would be the lucky winner.

(Image of Jim Balderson with his perfect Cub provided by EAA)

FMI: www.eaa.org