FYI: I Plan To Win This Cub On September 10th (CoolPix)

(click pic for hi-res)  The gorgeous Cub I plan to win in the drawing September 10th

 Yeah, I know it crazy for me to think I really stand any chance of winning this little yellow cutie in the EAA Win The Cub Sweepstakes, but it never hurts to dream big! I bought a stack of tickets for the drawing during Oshkosh, and they'll pull the winning ticket out on September 10th. I figure this is my best chance to have an airplane of my very own for quite some time yet... so hopefully soon I'll be dealing with the hassles of registration paperwork and which airport am I gonna keep the ole girl at : )

 I captured this image of the sweepstakes Cub on Sunday the day before Oshkosh started. I had just been down at Hartford Wisconsin for the Cubs 2 OSH event and I was dealing with a pretty severe case of yellow Cub fever by this time. And then, with the awesome blue sky and sun, and then waiting a few minutes for the people to clear away from the airplane, I was able to get this really nice image. I did a few photoshop tweaks to it and then noticed that it actually takes on the slight look of a painting. The shadows and reflections in the yellow of the paint all around the airplane are a little extra special here. Especially when you open this CoolPix up big and get in close.

 Anyway, I just wanted you all to have a really nice look at my Cub before I get to bring her home : )

Videos: The Pure Flying Perfection That Is The Piper Cub

 Here are two short-but-sweet videos that give a little peek into the Piper Cub invasion of Oshkosh 2012 that celebrated 75 years of Piper's iconic little airplane. The Cubs had gathered at the Hartford Wisconsin airport (40 miles south of OSH) on Friday and Saturday July 20th and 21st and then made the relatively short trip up to OSH early Sunday morning July 22nd, the day before the world's greatest aviation event began. Both of these videos start at Hartford and end at Oshkosh.

 You might also enjoy seeing my post about the Cubs at Hartford from that Friday: Lots Of Cub Yellow At Hartford Wisconsin For 'Cubs 2 OSH'.

 I still believe that the old, original Piper Cub has more potential to save General Aviation in America than any other aircraft. Having 200 or more rebuilt original Cubs scattered around the nation in an organized effort to make flying both affordable and exciting isn't a new idea to me... I originally posted details of the idea two years ago:  Add 'Cub Training Centers' To Save GA In America (CoolPix & Video) - and I believe in this idea all the more after experiencing the Cub celebration at Oshkosh this year.

 The well-established Cub flight training and rental that's been going on at Hartford for years factors heavily into all this too. I hope to expand on this concept in the next month or two with some great insight into the Hartford airport and how Cub flying there is alive and well. Stay tuned. But for now, enjoy these two EAA videos that show why Cub yellow is just as relevant today as it was in the 1940's : )

OSH12 Monday 7-23-12: A Great Day To Go Flying! (15 Pix)

Me in the co-pilot seat flying Cory Robin's WilgaBeast on his last leg into OSH from Utah

(15 pix)

 The first day of Oshkosh 2012 was fantastic for me as I had the great opportunity to meet up with Cory Robin and his WilgaBeast early in the day down at the Portage Wisconsin airport, about 60 miles southwest of Oshkosh, and ride along on his final leg from Utah. I'm very familiar with the Polish-built Wilga as my dad had one back in the late 80's that I got to fly a fair amount, including bringing it up to OSH88, so getting a little stick time in the Wilgabeast was a ton of fun. It was a gorgeous day and the arrival process into the airport with the world's busiest tower worked great... and we got some GoPro video from out on the wing that gave an awesome view of the approach and landing on 36L. The video screenshot (2nd pic below) gives you an idea of how cool the video will be once I get it posted sometime after Oshkosh.

(click any pic below to enlarge)

The awesome view of 36L at OSH from inside the Wilgabeast - great day for flying!
 

The GoPro video camera view of the approach (camera mounted at the tie-down ring)

  The large and unusual Wilga after we parked in the Warbird area - more on that later

 Getting to arrive on opening day via the air was a really special treat for me, but you don't have to arrive from the sky to have an incredible time at Oshkosh. The following are some additional images from the first day of OSH12 without a lot of explanation... mostly they'll just show you that if you aren't at OSH12, you should be. I know it's often difficult to make the trip to Wisconsin work out from both a time and money point of view, but if you can only do one aviation event a year, this is the one to get to!

A great view of people and airplanes... that's what Oshkosh is all about!

Click to read more ...

OSH12 Will Be The Best Oshkosh Ever!

(click pic for hi-res)  The amazing collection of Cubs that'll arrive at OSH on Sunday

 It's the time of the year once again for me to remind you that Oshkosh 2012 will be the best Oshkosh ever simply because it's the one we can live right now. Every other Oshkosh is only a memory, but the one that starts on Monday will be a living, breathing aviation extravaganza! And the humble little Piper Cub will play a very real part in making this OSH a fabulous experience. That's why I've posted this CoolPix image of the rather massive collection of Cubs at the Hartford Wisconsin airport from this afternoon... and most of these Cubs will be making the 50 mile trip to Oshkosh early Sunday morning for the mass arrival as part of the special 75th anniversary celebration of the Cub.

 I hope you're here to experience all that Oshkosh has to offer for 2012, but if for some reason you aren't able to get here this year, no worries: I hear the Oshkosh next year will be the best one ever!

Lots Of Cub Yellow At Hartford Wisconsin For 'Cubs 2 OSH'

The classic lines of the 'perfect Piper Cub' at Hartford, WI for the Cubs 2 OSH gathering

(7 pix)

 I finally got all of the jagged little pieces of my life to fit together and left northern Indiana for Oshkosh 2012 this morning. But the plan this year was to stop off in Hartford Wisconsin on the way and take in some of the Cubs 2 OSH gathering. Piper Cubs from all across the country are coming together to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the airplane that's all about low and slow flying with the door open. And then Sunday, 75 of them will join together for a mass arrival at Oshkosh.

 So here's a nice little collection of pictures showing some Cubs doing what they do best on a perfectly beautiful day in southern Wisconsin. Hopefully the great weather continues and we'll see the 45 to 50 Cubs already on-site swell significantly on Saturday.

 Lastly, I wanna say that the Hartford Wisconsin airport is awesome! It's humble, has both a hard surface and grass runways, and is full of people who love to fly... you know, the way airports used to be.

Beautiful taildraggin' Cubs line up on the dry grass that's pretty much Cub Yellow too!

From back in the day when airplanes sat on their tail and were painted with COLOR!

A Cub on takeoff with a passenger in the back enjoying the ride... Cub = smiles

The versatility of the Cub style door is just hard to beat for fun flying perfection

Not all Cubs are yellow! This beautiful Clipped Wing Cub has 90hp and a pressure cowl

Another Cub arriving... this was later in the evening on a truly perfect weather day

Circa 1982: My Dad's 'Breezy' Feet Following A Piper Cub!

(click pic to enlarge)  Following a Cub on a '70 Knotters' tour back in the early 80's

 With the 75th anniversary of the Piper Cub sitting on our doorstep (and some celebration and mass arrival plans scheduled to take place at Oshkosh in a few weeks) I thought now might be a good time to post this old picture I found of my dad's feet following a Piper Cub over some random hills. It's from a '70 Knotters' low-and-slow adventure trip he went on back in the early to mid 80's with a variety of older vintage aircraft and homebuilts originating out of Fort Wayne... he went on two of them back in those days on the Breezy, but I'm not sure which this is from. My guess it's the trip that went from Indiana to Kitty Hawk NC and back, but I'm just not sure. But just imagine the fun he was having following that Cub pretty closely for an extended time while bouncing along at about 80mph. It's just the kind of thing he absolutely loved to do

 A view like that of your feet was very common for both him and I back in those days. We put a lot of time on that hot rod Breezy, and took hundreds if not thousands of people for a ride on it. It had Stinson 10A wings (with flaps), Aeronca Champ tail surfaces, spring steel landing gear and a Lycoming O-290 125hp engine. It was by far the best looking and best performing Breezy I've ever seen... and it was a pure joy to fly. I miss those days. A lot.

 You can see some pix of the Breezy and even listen to a wild journey to Oshkosh I had on it in this podcast: AirPigz Podcast #4 'Breezy To Oshkosh' 300 Miles, 13 Airports And 2 Days (1982). I really miss those days... or did I already mention that?

Poll: Classic Taildragger - Cub vs Champ vs T-Craft

Piper J-3 Cub (photo: mvonraesfeld on flickr)

  
Aeronca 7AC Champ (photo: jwm1049 on flickr)

  
Taylorcraft BC12D (photo: davemacvac on flickr)

 When I was a teen in the 70's there were three good ole taildraggers that pretty much defined the post-war 2-seater for low and slow cheap flying. There was the Piper J-3 Cub, the Aeronca 7AC Champ, and the Taylorcraft BC12D.

 So I wondered if someone offered to give you one of the three, which would you choose? Would you take the iconic Cub with its fly-with-the-door-open capability, or maybe the all around great little flying machine known as the Champ, or would you choose to go fast and cozy in the side by side T-Craft?

 It's an easy choice for me. The Cub is my pick because of the easy ability to open the door while flying, and I also love flying solo from the back seat. All my Cub time (from 30 years ago) was in a clipped wing Cub, so if someone gave me a Cub, I'd play with it for about 10 hours of flying and then I'd chop those wings down and trade the 65hp for a 90hp and be back in the CWC buisness : )

 Vote below to let me (and the world) know which you'd choose...

Video: Clipped Wing Cub - Possibly The World's Greatest Airplane!

 
 This video of Brendan O'Brien (O'Brien's Flying Circus) at the Rougham (England) Airshow in 2010 gives you an idea of why I believe the Clipped Wing Cub is possibly the world's greatest airplane. On just 100hp (or 90hp like the one I used to fly way back in the day) you get a very sporting, aerobatic leaning, antique icon that is cheap to fly and nothing but smiles, smiles, smiles. You can open the window on the left and the whole door on the right and be almost open-cockpit, or you can button things up and go for a high speed cruise of almost 90mph!

Brendan O'Brien and his 100hp Clipped Wing Cub  (photo: O'Briens Flying Circus)

 It's both an easy and challenging taildragger... there's something very cool about having to fly it from the back seat, but it'll keep you busy when you've got a big person in the front that you can't see around. And to me, it's hard to beat the simple beauty of an old Continental hanging its cylinders out in the breeze!

 All things considered, flying just doesn't get any better than doing it in a Clipped Wing Cub! My personal financial recovery from the collapse of 2008 is both long and very slow, but I'm ever hopeful that somehow 2012 will give me the chance to wrap my arms around a Clipped Wing Cub once again : )

Me in N38365 in 1980 when I was 19 years old - my most favorite airplane ever!
 

N38365 in 2007 - it hasn't been part of my life since 1981 (photo: Terry Shepherd)

Video: MythBusters Prove Advanced Aerodynamic Duct-Tapelogy

 I put a post up almost 2 years a go on the Alaskan story from 2009 about a bear that ripped up a Super Cub... and how the pilot fixed it well enough to fly it back to home base with a boatload of of duct tape. And now, the MythBusters are doing their part to see if this story is confirmed, plausible or busted!

 The video teaser shows the crew doing a great job of working up some advanced aerodynamic duct-tapelogy, but you'll have to watch the show on Wednesday, October 19, at 9 p.m. Eastern, 8 p.m. Central on the Discovery Channel to find out if it really works. I'm guessing it's gonna work just fine : )

CoolPix: Continental A-40 On A Taylor J-2 Cub (NAHI 2011)

(click pic for hi-res) Classic aviation beauty! Continental A-40 engine on a Taylor J-2 Cub

 I'm beginning to have a little infatuation relationship with the Continental A-40 engine from the 1930's. I've known since I was a kid that the A-40 was the basis for what would eventually become the A-65 (65 hp), which begat the C series engines (like the 90 hp C-90), which then led to a little engine called the O-200 (100 hp) which just happens to be the engine Cessna put into over 20,000 150's. There's a LOT of aviation history built around these little 4 cylinder engines! But, even knowing all this, I'd still never really studied the A-40.

 So when I saw this immaculate Taylor J-2 Cub at the National Aviation Heritage Invitational (NAHI) at Reno a few weeks back, I took a little closer look. What a beautiful little engine! This one is single ignition (later A-40's went to dual ignition) - and how cool is it (no pun intended) that there are cooling fins in the head? Almost looks like a little model airplane engine!

 Even more amazing to me is that this little 40 hp engine would actually get a 2-place airplane like the J-2 off the ground. If I could, I'd have me a Taylor J-2 Cub with an open cowl A-40... AND an early Taylorcraft, the side-by-side follow up design by C.G. Taylor, also with an open cowl A-40 on it. That would make a really cool collection of amazing low-powered 2-seaters from the golden age of aviation. And the best part to me is that the open cowl lets you take in that classic engine style all day long.

 BTW, this image, or one similar might be another option for my large, high-quality photo print idea. Hopefully by early November I'll have the first of some fabulous aviation prints (like the 'dawn patrol' B-25) available for you to consider purchasing : )