Everyone's touching 'your airplane'

Based on the magnetic draw the refurbished 1954 Piper PA–18 has on members, we’d have a revolt on our hands if we didn’t let anyone touch it. But, rest assured, we’ll polish the fingerprints off right after AirVenture.

“Look at that panel,” Joe Fernandez exclaimed to his friends as he stuck his head inside the cockpit. “Are you kidding me? Are you kidding me?” The Dallas pilot flew a Citation to AirVenture and was blown away by the instrument panel’s two Garmin G5 electronic flight instruments, Garmin aera 660 GPS, and J.P. Instruments EDM 900 all-in-one engine monitor. “Cub with a glass panel—some might say that’s sacrilege, but I think it’s pretty cool.” He said pilots who fly with glass cockpits in other aircraft would transition easily to the Super Cub’s panel. But that’s not all Fernandez likes about the Super Cub: Its tail art and the three sets of landing gear (floats, skis, and tundra tires) are also high on his list.

Many comment that it’s not like the Super Cubs they learned to fly in, and they’re right. We’ve added more than two dozen supplemental type certificated modifications to the sweepstakes airplane, which has an empty weight of 1,158 pounds (the aircraft originally rolled off the line at 999 pounds).

Members of the Lakeland Aero Club spent six days flying to Oshkosh from central Florida in an L–18C, a Piper PA–11, an Aeronca Champ, and a Comanche 250, and were in awe of the Super Cub as they examined it. “This one, it’s on steroids,” said Sebastian Piedra.

The Super Cub even drew approval from Clyde Smith Jr., known as The Cub Doctor, who looked it over Sunday before the show started.

The craftsmanship that Baker Air Service put into restoring the pristine aircraft isn’t going unnoticed, as their attention to detail is one of the most popular comments made by those who stop by the AOPA Campus. One member was quick to take that description a step further: “It’s art.”