I grew up with Cubs.
My father was infatuated with them growing up during WWII in Southern California. He tells stories of riding his bike to LAX as a kid and climbing up into the control tower and sitting with the controllers guiding air traffic!
He learned to fly Cubs at Merrill Field in Anchorage while stationed at Elmendorf AFB in the early 1960's. He rebuilt his first Cub, a 1946 65hp J-3, from the ground up in the mid 1970's. I still remember getting bounced around in the front seat flying over Cajon Pass on our way down to Chino Airport to get together with his other "Cub buddies". In the late 1970's, he bought a 1947 90hp PA-11 from a priest in Thief River Falls, Minnesota (used it to fly around his parish back in the day!) and flew it cross-country back to Utah where he planned to restore it as well. That plan was derailed when he bought a "ground-looped" 1951 105hp PA-18 Super-Cub in Moab, Utah from the insurance company for $2500. He sold the PA-11 for a nice little profit to help restore/rebuild the Super-Cub which he had for about 10 years. It was a beautiful airplane and he enjoyed flying it, BUT to this day, he says his favorite to fly was the unrestored PA-11!
I worked for 6 summers in Kotzebue as a college student and was drawn to the airport for the activity in the summer and the aircraft of course. The Cubs were the "gnats" that buzzed the bigger birds on the field. There were a lot of them too! My buddy bought a J-3 on the field for $6500, learned to fly it locally (no license of course), and flew it to Unalakleet (? 250 miles)across the tundra for his first guiding job in 1982. As I remember, he just navigated the trip with river drainages and local landmarks! I flew with John Baker (Native Iditarod winner a few years back) on my grizzly and sheep hunts out of Kotz. with Art Fields. All I can say is there is nothing better than flying 100 feet above the river/tundra at 70 mph in a Super Cub!!!
For me, the Piper Cub was what turned the Alaskan Arctic from a land of dusty Native villages to Nirvana and exposed the sheer beauty and expanse of the Brooks Range/Noatak/and Kobuk river drainages to me at an impressionable young age... an experience I will never forget.
I had a chance to buy my fathers Super Cub about 5 years ago. I went to see it not having seen the plane for ~25 years. Other than a new 150hp Lycoming engine, it looked exactly the same as I remembered down to the fabric/upholstery. I did not tell the guy who I was as I was curious to hear his story as to the history of the airplane (a whole other story!). Long story short, I climbed into the front seat with much more difficulty than I remembered from my teens! My knees were jammed up near the panel, and I had to have the owner help me climb out. My dreams of owning/flying my Dad's old plane were dashed but the visit was well worth it... my 75yo Dad about shat his pants when I told him what my plan had been!!!
