Piper J-3: Cub Yellow
I loved your article about the Cub (" Budget Buy Piper J-3: Cub Yellow," October Pilot). I have a bias because I own a 1946 J-3 with an A-65 engine. Very few instructors emphasize keeping the aircraft straight on landing. That is the key to a good landing even if you are a little fast — keep it straight and you will be OK.
I am concerned that someone will think that they can fly 206 nautical miles as you state in the spec sheet. Considering no headwind, my Cub cruises at 65 knots. My Cub burns four gallons per hour and the greatest distance that I have flown is 120 statute miles. The 206-nm distance would surely find you in a pasture somewhere, if the route isn't over mountains. Sometimes I feel that AOPA Pilot leaves pilots like me behind with all of the technical advances that have been made. I treasure the privilege of flying above the Earth in the sea of air.
Newtown, Pennsylvania
I loved your article on the J-3 Cub. It is still my absolute favorite airplane for fun flying. At the end of the article you had a section of sites for Cub training. Preston Aviation is one of the best Cub training outfits that I know of. They are based in Eustis, Florida, from October through May and New Milford, Connecticut, through the summer. In addition to training in a J-3 Cub, they also do Stearman instruction. Tim Preston is one of the best instructors I know of and their outfit is first class. The Web site for Preston Aviation is www.flytailwheel.com.
Orlando, Florida
I enjoyed your article on the Cub in the October issue. There is nothing like flying a Cub with the door and window open on a warm summer day. We also have lots of fun flying Cubs on skis in the winter. It's nice to read articles about simple, inexpensive airplanes. I don't read many of the articles about the expensive airplanes. There are still many of us who prefer Cubs and grass strips.
Lakewood, New York
I did most of my primary flight training in a J-3 Cub more than 35 years ago at Zahn's Airport on Long Island, New York. Still today, no matter what I fly, the aircraft is always pointed straight down the runway when I touch down. It's easy to identify pilots who have no taildragger time because they will tolerate a little side load on the landing gear on their touchdown that many a Cub driver would cringe at. Flying a Cub really does make you a smoother-flying pilot. I try to fly one every chance I get. One Cub story I have that puts things in perspective goes back to those days at Zahn's. While preflighting one of the Cubs at the flight school, I noticed that it lacked aluminized paint under the color. Since this is a necessary step in the finishing process that prevents the sun's rays from rapidly deteriorating the fabric skin, I was concerned. When I asked the manager about this, he said that these Cubs never stay in one piece long enough for that to happen!
Allen, Texas
Great article on the Cub. Mine was a $500 basket case 25 years ago. It is NC31065, 20 away from the one in your article. I have been flying it for 20 years and have more than 1,200 hours on it since restoration. I had a copy of your magazine from the early 1980s with a similar Cub article on the table next to my bed for years and salivated over it often while getting mine going. When I was 5 years old, they did training in a Cub at the airport and used to do practice emergency approaches in the field behind our house. I used to dream of landing a Cub on top of the schoolhouse. After college and grad school I learned to fly in my dad's Piper Arrow. I bought my project, dated my wife in it, and am now teaching my 5-year-old in it. Thanks again for writing an article that reminds us what flying is all about.
Mattoon, Illinois
I have to side with the Aeronca people. My dad had a 7-AC that I flew among other airplanes when I worked at 02C [Capitol Airport in Brookfield, Wisconsin] and MWC [Lawrence J. Timmerman Airport in Milwaukee] after soloing in a sailplane at 15 years old. Back then and even now, I understood the aura around the Cub but always believed that the Champ was superior with the exception of the entry door if you wanted to fly with the door open. I sometimes flew the Champ from the backseat just to see what it was all about. It made me pity those pilots who thought so much of their Cubs. A Champ for $18,000 is a heck of a better buy than the $20,000-plus for a Cub, in my humble opinion.
Waukesha, Wisconsin
What made the name Piper Cub a household name? In my estimation it was the Civilian Pilot Training Program (CPTP) and War Training Service (WTS). In the 1930s both Germany and Italy had major pilot training programs to develop a pool of pilots for military needs. The programs were masked as civilian aviation training schools. Roosevelt's response was the CPTP. The CPTP was designed to give flight training to college-age kids who could be ready for military service, if needed. The program required the flight schools to have at least one airplane over 50 horsepower for each 10 cadets. Tandem seating with stick and rudder was preferred by the military but not required. The primary manufacturers of light aircraft then were Aeronca, Piper, and Taylorcraft. Both Aeronca and Taylorcraft were building excellent side-by-side airplanes with control wheels. Piper had the tandem stick-and-rudder Cub available at a cheap price. Taylorcraft and Aeronca quickly developed tandem-seating, stick-and-rudder airplanes; the Taylorcraft DCO-65 and the Aeronca Tandem Trainer powered by the same Franklin, Lycoming, and Continental engines as the Cub. The Tandem Taylorcraft was a fine-looking airplane while the Aeronca Tandem Trainer looked sort of Cub-like. Aeronca quickly improved the Tandem Trainer by raising the rear seat a few inches to improve the cadet's visibility, aerodynamically balancing the rudder (making it look more like a Cub), and making the fuselage wider. Officially this was marketed as the Aeronca Defender. Unofficially many called it the "high-chair" Aeronca because of the elevated rear seat. Aeronca and Taylorcraft were too late. By then Piper had the majority of the CPTP market. As ugly as it was, the Cub was clearly the airplane of choice to serve America's war effort. The contributions of CPTP/WTS to the services and to GA were immense. CPTP helped establish Piper Cub as a household word. It established many FBOs of that era and gave GA its first real structured pilot-training courses.
Goddard, Kansas
Silly airplane stunts
In " Silly Airplane Stunts" (October Pilot) there were a number of factual errors. Burt Rutan did not fly the Voyager around the world. His brother Richard did. Steve Fossett did not set a new speed records as stated. The B-52s mentioned earlier in the article did. If you mean a nonrefueled or a solo speed record, then, yes, Steve did. Yes, Richard Bong did in fact loop the Golden Gate Bridge. What was neglected was that Bong's wingman, John O'Neil, also looped the same bridge at the same time. They did it in formation. My father spoke with O'Neil late in the war (after Bong's exploits). O'Neil said Bong was a good pilot but not a great one. He said he was a superb shot. O'Neil said Bong would shoot at ranges, even in deflection, that no one else would even consider. The amazing thing was the Zeros exploded time after time.
Leander, Texas
In the 1950s I lived in Greenville, Mississippi, which was home to Greenville Air Base. On a fairly regular basis, probably as part of some sort of ritual, pilots from the base would fly their airplanes under the U.S. 82 Greenville Bridge over the Mississippi River. On more than one occasion, the planes hit the bridge with the resultant loss of the pilots' lives and the aircraft. In one of the collisions, the T-33 ruptured the natural gas pipelines that were suspended on the bridge. It was closed for several months for repairs. I believe that crash was probably the end of the cadets' flying under the bridge.
LaFayette, Georgia
My dad insists that in the early 1980s he was copilot on a helicopter that flew under the George Washington Bridge. In broad daylight. With an FAA-owned airplane. With an FAA pilot flying. The guys seated in back asked about flying under the bridge after they arrived back at Hangar 6 at what is now Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport. Dad and the pilot turned to each other and said, "Bridge? What bridge?" When Dad's stories don't change over time, they're true. This one hasn't changed a bit. Dad is retired from the FAA and from flying so I can finally tell this story.
Colorado Springs, Colorado
Survival instincts
I have a suggestion to add to " Survival Instincts," in the October issue of Pilot — the simplest, cheapest, lightest signal mirror available is the lowly compact disk! Toss a few disks into the seat pockets of your airplane.
To use, simply look through the hole while holding it with one hand, put a finger of your other hand on the object (airplane, car, building, searcher) you want to signal, and play the reflected sunlight back and forth across your finger, which will aim the flash at what-ever or whomever you are trying to signal. I've tried it and it's extremely effective and is guaranteed to be the cheapest lifesaving gadget in your flight bag.
Cumberland, Maryland
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