Get yourself an Aeronca 7DC Champ, or a 7AC with the 85hp conversion (many around) and an electrical system. Solo from the front seat. You won't regret this, and if you outgrow this level of low and slow, it's easy to sell, but cheap enough to keep ~ if you decide to step up your puddle jumper. If you want aerobatic capability to start, look at a Citabria. Unless you're going into competition, you don't need a Decathlon. If you want comfort, a side-by-side arrangement, and better heat for year-round plodding... I'd suggest a Cessna 170A or B. ~ ME

For STOL, slow, low, occasional open-canopy, sufficient heat, and modest cross-country capability, add the SOCATA MS-series of Rallye. Active user group, some factory support. Users recently switched to new Facebook page and have posted fresh photos. Rare enough to attract the curious.

Full-span leading-edge slats add huge safety margins. Nickname is "tin parachute" for its mush capability.

Side sill height at your elbow gives great visibility. Not for the corpulent.

Not expensive... they are all 40+ years old, except somewhat newer Kolibers.

I sold mine to go faster and farther.
I sometimes miss it!

That is great advice for those who live where the OAT is always 60F or higher.

The best advice? Buy something that will sell. "Low and slow" gets old. Rare applications provide some utility, but, for most, it is a past time and a little goes a long way.

I've owned a Cub now for 28 years. I rarely fly it for more than 15 minutes though it has some utility for checking my properties at times. Most people are going to tire of the "same old same old" after a time and want to move to something else.

The huge downside for a Cub is that half of the people I might ask to ride with me can't do the acrobatics necessary to get in and out of the thing. I always said that when I get to the point that I can't get in the Cub, I would know it is time to quit flying. At 73, so far so good.

Jg

You don’t have to have a airplane so hard to get in-get out. I just went to my hangar neighbors 90th birthday, this summer he sold his Stearman beacuase it was getting too hard to get in.
He bought a Cardinal, it sits low and has big doors. He had it full of great grandkids giving rides a few days later.

Greg

Greg,

Well, at this point, I can still do ten or twenty one leg squats, either leg.

I'm still Cub material.

Jg

Jg - not to thread drift, but that's absurdly impressive. Good on ya.

-J

Jourdan,

I have a video of me doing a one leg squat holding my, now 4 year old, grandson last year. I wanted him to have something to remember me by. His dad just sent me a video of him, the grandson, walking twenty feet of monkey bars hand over hand all the way.

I'm the proud grandad.

Jg

Well, you never know when you’ll need to get back into that pig wrestling game!

At the county fair when I was a senior in high school, they had a greased pig contest.

I caught the pig.

Took that little sucker to the livestock auction where I worked on Fridays penning cattle, and he brought $20.

I guess you could say that I have some experience wrestling pigs.

Jg

Citabria or Decathlon get my vote, I've owned both.