Jim Mead’s 1946 Aeronca Champion was “mostly a pile of parts” that he assembled with the addition of Gruhman wheels and various other upgrades.

When it came time to register the rebuilt Champ, the original included enough modifications to be considered “home built” and to be assigned model year 1994.

It’s small. There is one passenger seat behind the pilot.

This is a non-electric engine, started manually:

Jim maintains a grass airstrip and hangar at his farm north of Vermilion.

The Champ is outfitted with skiis in the winter, typically landing on snow beside the runway when he visits YVG.

Jim replaced the original 65-horsepower engine with a 100-hp engine for better performance on skiis.

The Champ has limited fuel capacity, because Jim hasn’t yet gotten around to connecting the second fuel tank.
It holds ample fuel for a round trip to YVG.

For a longer jaunt, he has been known to land on a random frozen slough, top up fuel from a 5-gallon gas can in the back seat, and leave an unsuspecting property owner to wonder about strange-looking tracks in the snow.

The Champ can takeoff at low speed in a very short distance, when other small planes would barely be starting to gain enough momentum to fly.

With Jim at the controls, the little Champ doesn’t fly high or fast.

It can be spotted coming in low from the northwest in good weather at any time of year.