When I pulled the Piper Super Cub’s throttle control to idle I had one of those, “Oh, yeah,” moments as I reacquainted myself with seaplane flying. There’s a lot of drag in those amphibious floats. Pull the power all the way back and you’d better look directly down for your landing spot—except my desired landing area was just ahead, so I nudged the throttle in a little and soon was touching down on the St. Croix River east of St. Paul, Minnesota.
My first water landing in more than a year was OK, but only with some coaching from the backseat where I think I heard Darin Meggers give a sigh of relief after we touched down safely. A brisk breeze provided a bit of chop on the river—plenty of texture to judge height above the surface. With the water rudders stowed, I pushed the throttle all the way in and pulled back on the stick, trying to finesse the sweet spot. Again, with coaching from Meggers, the Cub climbed onto the step, and seconds later we were back in the air for another trip around the patch.
Later we continued south along the snaking river that separates Minnesota and Wisconsin, touching down here and there and practicing some step taxiing. The beautifully restored bright yellow Super Cub looks as if it left the factory only last week, but in fact it is 62 years old and is the pride and joy of AOPA President Mark Baker.
So, Darin, you think you were nervous there in the backseat? How about me flying the boss’s baby?
The handsome airplane defies its age thanks in part to Meggers and his father Roger, proprietors of Baker Flying Service in Baker, Montana. The father/son partnership restored the Super Cub for Mark Baker years ago and keep it looking young with occasional touch-ups. Their most famous airplane, though, is Super Cub number one, which they restored to like-new condition two years ago and now showcase at aviation events. The work was the focus of a story in the June 2014 edition of AOPA Pilot, “Craftsmanship: Yellow Marvel.”
The float practice was in anticipation of the chance to do some floatplane flying in Alaska the next week. Where I find my seldom-used seaplane skills corrode the most is on takeoff—nailing the step attitude—and in on-the-surface maneuvering. Airplanes are far less maneuverable on the surface than boats and personal watercraft, but are expected to give way to those craft. So maneuvering on the surface, and especially close to docks, is always a big concern. Throw in a breeze and some current, and life on the water gets complicated quickly. Remind me to tell you sometime about the guy in the bass boat who motored up near the propeller of our idling amphibious Caravan….
After a few splash and goes, we left the St. Croix and headed west toward the Mississippi River. Tucked into a grove of trees in the river’s bend is an immaculate grass strip owned by Wipaire, the famed float-building company headquartered nearby. With the wheels down this time, I brought the Super Cub in over the river, just above a levee, and plunked down on the grass, smooth as a fairway at Augusta. As we shut down to enjoy the early morning quiet, a pair of bald eagles played tag among the treetops at the south end of the strip. A bucolic and memorable morning for certain.
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Editor in Chief Tom Haines earned a seaplane rating in early 2014, and wishes he could exercise it more.
