Aircraft model
CHAMPION 7FC
Everything here is true of every aircraft of the type, not of any one aircraft.
The Tri-Traveler is the oddity of the Champ line: a Champion 7EC with a nosewheel. Champion fitted tricycle gear in the late 1950s to sell to flying schools that had switched to nosewheel training and did not want to teach tailwheel handling, and the result is a tandem two-seat fabric aeroplane that any student can taxi.
For a buyer the significance is regulatory as much as practical: this is the one member of the Champ family that needs no tailwheel endorsement, which makes it accessible to pilots who have never flown a taildragger. It also makes it less interesting to the people who buy Champs, so prices are lower than an equivalent tailwheel 7EC. Performance is marginally worse because of the nosewheel drag and weight. Fabric age remains the dominant cost question. Some have been converted back to tailwheel configuration.
Compare with…
Put CHAMPION 7FC side by side with up to two other models.
- CHAMPION 7FC
What it is
| Seats | 2 |
|---|---|
| Landing gear | tricycle |
| Engines | 1 |
| Engine | Continental C-90-12F |
| Horsepower | 90 hp |
| Fuel | 100LL |
| Certification basis | CAR3 |
| Production start | 1958 |
| Production end | 1964 |
| Endorsements required | — |
Performance
| Cruise speed | 85 KTAS |
|---|---|
| Range | 350 nm |
| Service ceiling | 12,000 ft |
| Climb rate | 570 ft/min |
| Stall speed (Vso) | 40 KCAS |
| Takeoff over 50 ft | — |
| Landing over 50 ft | — |
Load and fuel
| Seats | 2 |
|---|---|
| Useful load | 530 lb |
| Full-fuel payload | 374 lb |
| Max takeoff weight | 1,450 lb |
| Empty weight | 920 lb |
| Usable fuel | 26 gal |
| Fuel burn at cruise | 5 gal/h |
Cost of ownership
| Price, low | $15,000 |
|---|---|
| Price, high | $50,000 |
| Prices as of | 2026 |
| Engine TBO | 1,800 h |
| Overhaul cost, low | $23,000 |
| Overhaul cost, high | $33,000 |
The fleet and its record
| Registered, all time | 351 |
|---|---|
| Active fleet | 164 |
| Median year built | 1958.0 |
| NTSB events, last 10 years | 6 |
| Fatal events, last 10 years | 0 |
| Events per 1,000 active, last 10 years | 36.591 |
| Personal-flying events per 1,000 active | 30.492 |
| Ownership transfers, last 24 months | 58 |
| Transfers per 100 active | 35.373 |
| Airworthiness directives | 1 |
| Directives, last 5 years | 0 |
| Rate confidence | ok |
- Events per 1,000 active, last 10 years: per 1,000 active aircraft · base 164 active.
- Personal-flying events per 1,000 active: per 1,000 active aircraft · base 164 active.
- Transfers per 100 active: per 100 active aircraft · base 164 active.
Peer scores6
| Peer class | Fixed wing single-engine, piston, 1 engine, 1-2 seats |
|---|---|
| Accident record | —1 |
| Severity | —2 |
| Access | 3.9 of 103 |
| Support | 7.7 of 104 |
| Liquidity | 9.1 of 105 |
- Accident record: class median 25 · 181 models in class.
- Severity: class median 5.
- Access: class median 987.
- Support: class median 72.
- Liquidity: class median 20.59.
- 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.