Aircraft model
AERONCA 7DC-CONV
Everything here is true of every aircraft of the type, not of any one aircraft.
The 7DC is the Champ with the 85 hp Continental C-85, sold as the civil equivalent of the military 7BCM. The extra twenty horsepower over a 7AC is the most worthwhile improvement the airframe ever received: climb goes from leisurely to adequate and the aeroplane will carry two adults without argument.
It is otherwise the familiar tandem two-seat fabric taildragger, soloed from the front seat, with excellent visibility and no pretensions to being transport. Seventy-eight knots is a walking pace into any wind. The dominant cost is the fabric, whose age should be established before anything else, and corrosion in the steel tube structure beneath. Many aircraft qualify as light sport, which supports values. Production was brief so the fleet is small compared with the 7AC.
Compare with…
Put AERONCA 7DC-CONV side by side with up to two other models.
- AERONCA 7DC-CONV
What it is
| Seats | 2 |
|---|---|
| Landing gear | taildragger |
| Engines | 1 |
| Engine | Continental C-85-12 |
| Horsepower | 85 hp |
| Fuel | 100LL |
| Certification basis | CAR3 |
| Production start | 1948 |
| Production end | 1949 |
| Endorsements required | tailwheel |
Performance
| Cruise speed | 78 KTAS |
|---|---|
| Range | 300 nm |
| Service ceiling | 13,000 ft |
| Climb rate | 600 ft/min |
| Stall speed (Vso) | 38 KCAS |
| Takeoff over 50 ft | — |
| Landing over 50 ft | — |
Load and fuel
| Seats | 2 |
|---|---|
| Useful load | 500 lb |
| Full-fuel payload | 422 lb |
| Max takeoff weight | 1,300 lb |
| Empty weight | 800 lb |
| Usable fuel | 13 gal |
| Fuel burn at cruise | 4.8 gal/h |
Cost of ownership
| Price, low | $32,000 |
|---|---|
| Price, high | $50,000 |
| Prices as of | 2026 |
| Engine TBO | 1,800 h |
| Overhaul cost, low | $22,000 |
| Overhaul cost, high | $32,000 |
The fleet and its record
| Registered, all time | 24 |
|---|---|
| Active fleet | 14 |
| Median year built | 1946.0 |
| NTSB events, last 10 years | 1 |
| Fatal events, last 10 years | 0 |
| Events per 1,000 active, last 10 years | — |
| Personal-flying events per 1,000 active | — |
| Ownership transfers, last 24 months | 8 |
| Transfers per 100 active | — |
| Airworthiness directives | 1 |
| Directives, last 5 years | 0 |
| Rate confidence | none |
Peer scores6
| Peer class | Fixed wing single-engine, piston, 1 engine, 1-2 seats |
|---|---|
| Accident record | —1 |
| Severity | —2 |
| Access | 9.7 of 103 |
| Support | 2.6 of 104 |
| Liquidity | —5 |
- Accident record: class median 29.1 · 174 models in class.
- Severity: class median 9.09.
- Access: class median 974.
- Support: class median 81.
- Liquidity: class median 20.47.
- Each of the five categories places the model within its peer class, from 0 (the worst of the class) to 10 (the best): a position among comparable models, not a grade. The overall score is the sum of the categories shown that are scored, out of 10 for each (50 when all five are); it is given only when at least 4 of the five are scored, and it can be set against another model's only when both are in the same peer class and scored on the same categories.