PIPER
CUB
Back in the 1930s, an American oil tycoon named William T. Piper
(sometimes called “the Henry Ford of aviation”)
decided that what the world needed was a small, reliable airplane
that any farmer or backwoodsman could afford to own. Piper experimented
with a number of designs and in 1938 produced the Piper J-3
Cub, which you could order in any colour as long as it was yellow.
It was simple and easy to operate, and when the Second World
War broke out, the American military ordered thousands to serve
as trainers.
Piper ultimately manufactured
about 33,000 Cubs, and many are still in everyday use. In fact,
most pilots have flown the Cub, and some aviation buffs regard
it as the most popular aircraft of the 20th century. Basic in
design, with a motor that must be started by hand-cranking the
propeller, the Piper Cub reduces flying to the bare essentials.
Non-pilots tend to believe that
large, complicated, high-tech jetliners require the greatest
skill to fly. But most commercial pilots will testify that “real
airplanes” such as the Cub are much more demanding of
seat-of-the pants flying skills. As one senior airline pilot
puts it, “If you can fly a Piper Cub, you can fly a Concorde,
but the reverse is not necessarily true.”
Veteran bush pilot Dave Schneider,
of Minaki, Ontario, has logged more than 10,000 hours behind
the controls of a Piper Cub, most of them on floats (“I
guess you could say it’s my office”). He bought
his first Cub back in 1978 to deliver groceries and other supplies
to the guests of his fledgling outfitting business. “I
couldn’t afford a new Cub so I ordered one from an old
alcoholic who rebuilt wrecked ones,” Schneider says. “He
was hammered all the time, but everybody said he could build
planes better drunk than anyone else sober.”
That Cub flew so slowly that Schneider
said he “could look down and watch somebody build a dock,”
but he discovered that it couldn’t be beat for bush flying.
“It would take off with anything you could stuff inside
it, and drop into tiny lakes that no other plane could land
in.”
Piper Cubs carry only two people,
or one pilot with cargo, so they’re mainly put to use
as backwoods delivery vehicles. They’ll go anywhere, and
deliver anything from minnows to moose meat. Schneider even
used his to find a wife. He flew 2,000 kilometres from Minaki
to Kingston, Ontario, following the railway line all the way
(“I didn’t have a map”). When he got there,
he managed to convince a pretty brunette named Jane Campbell
to come back to Minaki for a visit. She fell in love with the
northern wilderness, and they now have two sons and a thriving
fishing camp on Snowshoe Lake. Jane has her pilot’s licence,
and the boys will soon learn to fly the Cub. Says Schneider:
“That airplane is more important to us than a family car.”
Schneider has owned a number of
Cubs over the years, including a high-powered version known
as the Super Cub. His planes have been damaged by windstorms,
forest fires and prowling bears, but thanks to their simple
design, they can easily be repaired. “They’re an
unbelievable performer,” he says. “I wouldn’t
try to run a tourist camp without one.”
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