Ever own, or fly a Piper Cub?

Excellent aircraft.

But I prefer one that not a tail dragger... Like a Cessna 172.

I've been in one a bunch of times.

Airplane people think they're really neat.



Travis

Why??
You thinkin about the 90hp J-3 on floats F/S in N.Ont.
J-3s perform good but slow.
PA-11 are good all around personal plane.
I like the PA-18-90, the rest of that family cost to much for me to operate.

No but flew a Piper Warrior for some time.

Tricycle gear are for sissies!!

not me but I've spent more time than I care to in the back "seat" of one going somewhere out there.


if they outlaw waterboarding, we can always throw a bad guy in the back seat of a Cub and let him sit in there for 7 hours.

he'll spill his guts (grin)

Isn't that "cruel and unusual"?

Travis, didn't you tell me you were having a cub once - until the mama bear showed up?

Yes, until I got a wife that spent all my money! The J-3 was fun, but the Super Cub was better. I really liked Jimmy Franklin's Super Cub with the 150HP in it. That is the plane I learned to fly in.

Spent a winter in one. I was shotgunin for yotes. We were new and pretty careful. We had a coach that would tell us how to keep from shooting ourselves down. Jim Good was a pipeline pilot. He had some very interesting stories, flying low level, all the time, in what seems like flat country. I really enjoyed flying right after a snow storm. Not many tracks out,was a hoot, to get on a yote and try to get him. We got more fox that yotes. Set down a few times to get our catch and had some interesting take offs. I think the Cub helped us newbies, by being easy to keep in the air at low speeds and low level.

Yes I've flown them, forgiving to a point but will kill you just as dead as anything else should you become complacent.

Edit to add: Remembering a shocking death via the docile J-3

Brook Berringer, the Nebraska quarterback who overcame two collapsed lungs to become an essential part of the 1994 Cornhusker championship season, was killed yesterday afternoon in the crash of a private plane in an alfalfa field in Raymond, Neb. He was 22.Apr 19, 1996

The classic old saying was that the Piper Cub was the safest plane ever built: it was just barely fast enough to kill you.

I've done the same. I was flying one when my shooter shot 3" off the end of the prop. Felt like the engine was going to break loose of its mounts before I got it shut down and did a dead stick landing. We sawed 3" off the other side, and dressed the cuts with a file and managed to get it home. Definitely one of the times when I had laundry to do afterwards.

My uncles in Montana owned one. Never flown them but spent a lot of hours in the back seat to offset the weight of the fuel tank.

They were great for checking cattle in the breaks and making a run to Lewistown or Great Falls for parts.

A good friend of mine owns a Super Cub which I've been up in more than a few times...

An old saying but quite factual in content...stalling one at low altitude is a sure trip to the morgue unless it's not your time to check out.

At an airshow I attended in the '80s a fellow was doing a very low altitude routine in a Cub. He did a spin, recovering pretty low and then went right into a loop, but started the loop a little too low and slammed into the dirt trying to pull out of the bottom of the loop.

The nose hit, then the wings broke forward and everything disappeared in a cloud of dust. When the dust settled enough to see, the pilot walked out of the wreck and greeted the paramedics rushing to the scene. He escaped with only a few bruises and scratches. I guess it just wasn't his time.

Some of my pilot friends knew the pilot. He was very experienced but was about in his late sixties. They said he was extremely embarrassed about the accident. He retired from doing airshows. The airplane was eventually re-built and sold. He passed away a few years later.

I will never forget the visual of that Cub hitting the ground in a 30 degree nose-down attitude. I thought the pilot was done for.

Don't know what you're looking for answer-wise, but I've got time in J-3's with both 65's and 85's and a handful of hours in the 150 horse Super Cub. Good airplanes, but a little short on creature comforts, and you can't hang enough power on one to make it fast. As has already been said, it's the safest airplane around - it can just barely kill you.

They're no worse to maintain than any other tube and rag airplane, minimal AD's, though the AD's on the struts and forks can be expensive. Speaking of which, if you're looking at a seaplane, corrosion will kill you when it comes to those lower strut fittings.

Myself and a lot of other guys would own one if the buy-in weren't so out of whack with what they actually are.

I should have said Super Cub,as the 150, I think got us out of trouble, when we had to use the horse power to get sum lift.
Jim made me shoot out of the left window,to keep me from shooting off parts of the plane. I did run out of ammo and jerked the gun back in the window,cutting the throttle. Was interesting as we were headed for a hill. The pilot knew better then to pull up so he hit the throttle, held it till the last minute, pulled flaps and we just cleared the hill. Whew! Got an ass chewing,he had told us to take off the knob from the throttle. Good fun.

I'd love to learn to fly but I don't think I'll be able to ever afford a plane like this. I've been looking at other ultralight types, and came across the Challenger II. Anyone eve fly in one? Specs look pretty good, 2 seater with float and ski options, seems to perform well and lots of them built. For the price tag it seems like it might be an option one day?

own one? no

flown one? yes

and many others

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!!!

Been in them and even taken the controls in flight. Fun plane, but you need a shoehorn to squeeze into one.

If I were to buy my own it would be an Aviat Husky.

holy crud Aviats are high priced.

learned to fly in the 150 Cessna like the 172 but had to quite when kids arrived

norm

I had an 18 for over 20 years. Enjoyed every minute of it.