On the way home from Lansing, I decided to make a pit stop @ Dayton Wright Brothers airport. Partly out of necessity (because I needed one fuel stop between Lansing and Tampa). But more significantly, it was a great excuse to meetup with a fellow pilot blogger named Steve from the Mile of Runway blog.
As often happens when pilots get together, we found an excuse to go for a joyride in “his” Piper Cub.
I say “his” because it is one of several planes that he rents regularly and the one that I was most intrigued by. This particular plane was a 1946 Piper Cub (NC98286) with 85HP and the most spartan panel I had ever seen!
When I saw this, I was excited to try a pure “stick and rudder” experience in this vintage airplane. There was no paved runway, no radio, no transponder, no electrical system. We even wore earplugs instead of headsets!As you can see, I sat in the front seat because the pilot in command typically sits in the back in a cub.
As we were cruising along at 60-70 knots @ low altitude, I felt like I was enjoying the raw essence of flight in much the same way barnstormers did decades ago. Then out of the blue, Steve gave me quite a surprise, which you can see in the pic below:
We then did a very smooth, spiraling dive to the left and clipped what looked like a white streamer with the right wing! It was more cool than I could possibly describe in words and something I could never do in a Cirrus!!
I say “his” because it is one of several planes that he rents regularly and the one that I was most intrigued by. This particular plane was a 1946 Piper Cub (NC98286) with 85HP and the most spartan panel I had ever seen!When I saw this, I was excited to try a pure “stick and rudder” experience in this vintage airplane. There was no paved runway, no radio, no transponder, no electrical system. We even wore earplugs instead of headsets!As you can see, I sat in the front seat because the pilot in command typically sits in the back in a cub.
Shortly after takeoff, Steve performed a number of maneuvers that I found rather impressive since he was doing it from the backseat and probably couldn’t even see the instruments. He later told me “… In a Cub the instruments are not that important because you feel your way around“!
As we were cruising along at 60-70 knots @ low altitude, I felt like I was enjoying the raw essence of flight in much the same way barnstormers did decades ago. Then out of the blue, Steve gave me quite a surprise, which you can see in the pic below:
He held up a roll of Toilet paper and said “Wanna try ribbon cutting?”. I enthusiastically yelled “YES” Since we didn’t have headsets, I also gave him 2 thumbs up in case he didn’t hear me. We then climbed up to ~ 3000 Ft and he tossed the roll out the door, which had been wide open for the whole flight.
We then did a very smooth, spiraling dive to the left and clipped what looked like a white streamer with the right wing! It was more cool than I could possibly describe in words and something I could never do in a Cirrus!!
After that, we made our way back to Red Stewart airfield for a wild landing . I say wild because with no radio and no ATIS, we did (well… really Steve did) a mid field left downwind entry followed by a very steep forward slip to a nice, smooth landing on the turf. It was wild for me… But Steve later told me that it was a rather typical approach in the cub.
Overall, a wonderful flight experience and one that makes it onto my Top 10 list!
Cheers,
== T.J.==