The American Champion (later Bellanca) Citabria has always been one of my favorite private tail dragger airplanes. Since fortune has not visited itself upon me even after forty years of playing by the rules (fifty years now; hmmmm, maybe that's my problem), I still could not afford a full-size one. So, the next best thing was to build a flying model of the real Citabria. BTW, everyone reading this probably knows, but the name "Citabria" was derived as a kind-of backwards-sideways manipulation of the word "Aerobatic." If you stand on your head and cross your eyes while looking at the word, it will make more sense.

My Citabria came from the Sig Manufacturing Company. Sig kits, in my humble opinion, have never been very well engineered. The die cutting is typically poor so the parts fit poorly, but the wood selection is usually very good. Just the opposite is Great Planes, who has extremely well engineered kits, but the wood is absolutely crappy. But I digress.

My Sig Citabria was built in Smithsburg, Maryland. It is covered in white and metallic blue Monokote. A Super Tigre .46 with muffler provided plenty of power. Typically, a Futaba radio went inside.

It had been quite a while since flying R/C airplanes when I built the Citabria. I shakily took off from my back yard and within moments needed to get a ladder to retrieve it from a maple tree. There was no damage done... except to my pride. It was parked in the hanger, and Carl Goldberg Freedom 20 trainer was purchased and built. The Freedom 20 was flown extensively from my back yard.

The Sig Citabria was sold, along with the radio and engine, prior moving my family to Waseca, Minnesota.