My brief experience(s) with a Piper Cub

I was browsing Justin's NoticeToAirmen forums today and came across a link to a movie, One Six Right, posted by Todd. The movie describes some of the history of a CA airport and the trailer had a few scenes of a Piper Cub. This reminded me of my first time flying a tail wheel airplane back around 1994 (it was also a Cub).

This Cub was owned by my high school friend's Dad, who was (probably still is) a professional ATP pilot. My friend (also a pilot) used to take me up in the plane once a month or so, and we'd have a great time exploring the local area.

Then one day his Dad (also an instructor) asked if I'd like to actually learn how to fly it (I already had my private license at that point). Of course I jumped at the chance and we got the airplane started up. He showed me how S-turns are needed when taxiing since you can't see in front all that well with the tail almost on the tarmac.

Setting up on runway 20, he had me advance power and told me to go easy on the rudder, but to be very much ready to make good use of it. We started picking up speed and at around 20 knots we started yawing back and forth on the runway. We'd get almost off the left edge of the runway and I'd finally get enough rudder in to correct it. However, I would over-correct and a few seconds later the plane would be almost off the right side of the runway.

This yawing oscillation simply grew worse and worse, with the airplane owner, in the back seat, calmly talking me through what I was doing wrong. However, as good an instructor as I am sure he is, I was already long gone on this maneuver.

Before I knew it, we were in the grass on the left of the runway, heading for the terminal building a few hundred yards away. But worse than that, we were also heading for a taxiway sign that was much closer.

I started to throttle back, getting prepped to stop out in the grass. However, as I throttled back, all I could think was "we are probably too fast to stop before that sign, and I'm not all that great at steering this sucker (obviously)".

A heartbeat later (with the heartbeats coming quite fast now) the owner - calm as a cucumber - said "I have the plane". I was relieved, but starting to feel bad that he would be at the controls when we abruptly finished this seemingly imminent crash I had so deftly setup.

He put all the power back in by moving the small throttle knob on the left of the airplane full forward. At our current location and speed, swerving to avoid the taxiway sign was no longer an option. The only hope now was to get airborne before hitting it. Thankfully, this is where the Cub excels, getting airborne quickly, even on grass and mud. A second later I felt the tail start flying and it lifted up giving us an even better view of the taxiway sign. The sign that was surely about to break something on this airplane and, in turn, break my back account.

Another few heartbeats passed and the sign was looking quite large. Just then, the airplane was ready to gain altitude and we were off. Now the question was - Are we going to actually clear the sign?! I watched it get closer, and thankfully lower, and when it was about 5 feet in front of us I still had no idea if we would clear it. The owner put in a little right rudder to take us a bit right of the sign and - presto - our left tire cleared the sign by what must have been inches.

I sunk down in the seat, finally relaxed, until I remember that the terminal building was coming up next. This wasn't quite so stressful though. We had plenty of room to climb and turn before getting to it - so the owner did both.

I don't remember much after that. I know we continued the flight, and I did some airwork, which wasn't as foreign to me as the ground operations were. I think the owner actually gave me another lesson a few weeks later, which was surprising to me.

I learned two big things that day:


  1. Real pilots are completely calm in bad situations
  2. Taildraggers must be respected at all times, especially on the ground

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