Aircraft model
PIPER J3L
Everything here is true of every aircraft of the type, not of any one aircraft.
The J3L is the Lycoming-engined Cub of 1938, certificated on 17 September that year with a Lycoming O-145-A1 of 50 hp or an O-145-A2 or A3 of 55 hp. It predates the J3L-65, which got the 65 hp O-145-B two years later, and it is the least powerful Cub anyone is likely to meet: fifty-five horsepower moving 1,220 lb of aeroplane with two people in it.
A J-3 is a slow, light, honest aeroplane with a stick, no electrics worth the name, and a fuel gauge that is a wire bobbing in front of the windscreen. It teaches stick-and-rudder flying better than anything built since and it will not take you anywhere in a hurry or in weather. Ownership is cheap by aviation standards and the parts supply is excellent because so many were built, but the airframe is steel tube and fabric: the recover is the big bill, tube corrosion under the fabric is the thing that ends aeroplanes, and a tailwheel endorsement plus real instruction is not optional. On a J3L specifically, the O-145 is the awkward part. Lycoming stopped making it in the late 1940s, it is nobody's idea of a common engine, and parts come from the small specialist trade rather than from a catalogue. A very large fraction of surviving J3Ls have been re-engined with a Continental under a supplemental type certificate, which is worth establishing before treating this row's figures as describing a particular aeroplane.
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Put PIPER J3L side by side with up to two other models.
- PIPER J3L
What it is
| Seats | 2 |
|---|---|
| Landing gear | taildragger |
| Engines | 1 |
| Engine | Lycoming O-145-A2 |
| Horsepower | 55 hp |
| Fuel | 100LL |
| Certification basis | CAR3 |
| Production start | 1938 |
| Production end | 1940 |
| Endorsements required | tailwheel |
Performance
| Cruise speed | 62 KTAS |
|---|---|
| Range | 180 nm |
| Service ceiling | 10,000 ft |
| Climb rate | 380 ft/min |
| Stall speed (Vso) | 33 KCAS |
| Takeoff over 50 ft | 730 ft |
| Landing over 50 ft | 470 ft |
Load and fuel
| Seats | 2 |
|---|---|
| Useful load | 540 lb |
| Full-fuel payload | 468 lb |
| Max takeoff weight | 1,220 lb |
| Empty weight | 680 lb |
| Usable fuel | 12 gal |
| Fuel burn at cruise | 3.1 gal/h |
Cost of ownership
| Price, low | $30,000 |
|---|---|
| Price, high | $65,000 |
| Prices as of | 2026 |
| Engine TBO | 1,800 h |
| Overhaul cost, low | $20,000 |
| Overhaul cost, high | $30,000 |
The fleet and its record
| Registered, all time | 109 |
|---|---|
| Active fleet | 15 |
| Median year built | 1940.0 |
| NTSB events, last 10 years | 0 |
| 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 | 5 |
| Transfers per 100 active | — |
| Airworthiness directives | 0 |
| 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 | —3 |
| Support | 2.7 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.