Why Fly a J3? (tail-wheel flying in the Piper Cub!)

So, there's a secret I haven't shared yet.

My CFI, the one who helped me get my PPL last summer, owns a Piper Cub. These planes are small, pretty, fun to fly, and tail wheel instead of the more common tricycle gear. All this means that if a plane is "tailwheel", the wheel is under the tail of the plane in the back instead of in a 3-pointed arrangement in the front of the plane under the nose. This triangle arrangement under the nose is what I trained in, a Cessna 172. The common way to train now seems to be in a tricycle gear/nose wheel/3 point plane, but back in the day ALL planes were pretty much tailwheel. The benefit of a tailwheel plane is that they can land on smaller areas and take off quicker, they are also WAY more touchy on the rudder, but this is great because after learning to fly a tailwheel you'll be WAY better at flying tricycle gear! In a way, I'm going backwards in my training but it's all alright! there's really no "wrong" way to do it. (:

I've found something out about success. Something I've discovered is true.

There is no single path to your goals. Call it your dreams, goals, visions, or desires, there isn't one way to get there. From the people I have talked to, and I ask almost everyone, because I'm nosy but also too curious: they all had a different version. And I'm NOT just speaking purely about pilots. No, everybody who has gotten their ratings or degree or dream job or got the house or the wife or the life they wanted, they all took different paths to get there. All their stories sound slightly similar, but different still.

So, inspirational rant over, flying the J3 is all about feel. A Cessna 152 (2-person seater)or 172 (4-person seater) are both Tricycle gear and are over all pretty forgiving even if you stomp on the rudders wrongly. But not a Tailwheel like the Piper Cub J3, it will pivot and it will pivot FAST if you don't know what you're doing things can go badly quickly. Or if your instructor is eating a chocolate bar in the backseat or reading a good book or cloud watching, y'all could be in danger. You know, if your instructor is not the most attentive.

Thankfully, Steve is VERY attentive..and that fact that we're flying his Piper Cub J3 helps!

As a Private Pilot who has only flown the J3 twice, this being my third time, I knew I was getting the feel of it but there's still so much I have to still develop a feel for. And what my instructor calls a "sight picture".

This is when you as a pilot can look outside the window and tell when you're too high or low or fast or slow and kind of adjust.

In the beginning when I was a student pilot and a 80000% noob (as compared to now, where I would say I'm only about a 400% noob,) I could never tell if I was too low, fast, high, or ANYTHING unless my instructor told me. I hadn't developed that sight picture yet.

Now I feel like I'm much better at "flying by the seat of my pants", as the bush pilot saying goes. I also have some tips for flying that I've learned after my 4-5 lessons:

STARTING A J3:

1. FEET FIRMLY ON BRAKES: both the toe and heel brakes!

2. Prime 2-3 times.

3. Make sure the Mags are set to "Both".

4. Make sure the fuel is set to "Both".

5. Crack the throttle a quarter inch open.

6. Flip Engine switch to "On."

7. Press the "Engine Start" Button.

8. Flip Alternator switch to "On".

9. Turn your radio on.

That's it, only 9 steps (hehe) but all must be done pretty quickly. I mean you don't want to be sitting there, taking 4 years to do these 9 steps before starting the plane. Once you're rolling, you must be on the rudders constantly. The rudder is controlled by your feet, just like in a Cessna Tricycle gear. This constant attending to the rudders, controlling it by your feet is called "the rudder dance".

This dance must be done to keep that loopy Tailwheel from spinning you into what is know by all pilots, both Tricycle gear and Tailwheel alike as the dreaded "Ground Loop".

Google it, YouTube it, be terrified, as I was.

But while I did have some anxiety around flying, and still do sometimes. I love how simple the Piper Cub J3 is.

I love everything about it,

• the easy cruising speed of a slow calm 70kts,

• the bright happy yellow colour unlike any other plane, but it somehow makes it look so good and not gunky,

• the way you can fly with the side window flap down (equivalent to Jeeping I'd like to think, riding up-top in the backseat with an uncovered Jeep and the warm wind blowing)(except a Jeep is faster). The fact that Tailwheels land almost all the time on grass airstrips, which are more forgiving and way more fun that paved runways,

• The way everything is exposed (Engine, Cables, Wires, Electrical work) on the Piper Cub so that maintenance and problem shooting is easier because you can just see everything so well.

• How I'm a 21 year old flying a 70 year old plane (my instructor Steve pointed this out, how cool is that??)

• How flying the J3 seriously does feel like a time warp back to when life was slower and simpler.

• Lastly, if I do really want to fly in the bust, this is a great taste of it! I'll be flying Tailwheel for almost certain if I go to fly and do serious bush work.

And, yes, I have to say I even love that "Rudder Dance" that at first felt so frantic and fear filled in the beginning.

I love it.

(now that I can do it without being scared to death that I'm going to crash into a barn or someones loose cow, yes).

(and yes, it does sort of feel like you're doing some sort of dance!)