Learning to Fly in a Piper J-3 Cub

When I got out of high school, I decided I wanted to join the air force and become a jet fighter pilot. A friend of my mother’s suggested that I take flying lessons to see if I would really enjoy flying. I began taking lessons at a grass field in Morrisville, Pennsylvania. It took a lot of hard work to earn a student ticket, but once I earned my ticket I had lots of fun.

I began taking lessons on a grass field in Morrisville that was only ten miles or so from my home. The first thing you do as a pilot is to give your plane a pre-flight check. You begin at the front of the aircraft and check the propeller for cracks or loose bolts. Then you check the engine for oil leaks. Next, you check to make sure you have a full tank of gas, and you make sure that there is no water in the gas. You check your tires, and walk under wings checking for cracks or tears in the fabric. At the back end you check the rudder and give it a little move to make sure it is flexible. You continue to circle the plane making sure there is no obvious damage.

You have to prop the engine to start it. When you are first learning to fly, the instructor climbs into the front seat, and the student has to spin the propeller. You have to place your hands over the prop and be careful to pull them away in case there is a backspin. We were taught to yell, clear, before we spun the prop to make sure no one was in range of getting hit by it. Once the engine is running, you climb into the back seat, and buckle up you harness. A piper club is flown from the back seat. The passenger sits up front.

Next, you have to learn how to taxi the plane off the apron and on to the taxi strip. You taxi in a zigzag pattern, as it is difficult to see traffic in front of you by looking over the engine and the passenger in front. You have to stretch your neck to look out the door. The saying around the airport was it’s better to have a sore neck than a broken neck. Leaving the parking area or apron, you then taxi down the taxi strip to the end of the field. There was no control tower on the grass field so we had to scan the sky on both sides of the field to make sure that there was no incoming aircraft.

Once you are sure that traffic is clear, you check the wind by observing the windsock at the side of the field. Then, you taxi to the runway. You have to push the stick forward to hold the nose down, stand on the brakes, and push the throttle full ahead. The plane rocks in its spot as you ease off the brakes and pull the stick slowly toward your lap. Going down the runway at full speed, you ease back on the stick and feel the aircraft slowly lift off the ground. You work the rudder with your feet to keep the aircraft straight down the runway and continue to climb until you reach about a thousand feet.

At a thousand feet you make a climbing turn to the right to clear the traffic pattern. You continue to climb to about three or four thousand feet and then level off. During your first three or four or flights as a student pilot, you learn to get the feel of the aircraft. You practice climbing turns left and right to learn how to work the rudder and aileron that steer the aircraft. I can still remember today the instructor emphasizing stick and rudder together, stick and rudder together. You practice stalling the aircraft by pulling back on the throttle and pulling the nose up to cut airspeed. You have to know just how to stall the aircraft because you land at just above stalling speed. A piper cub stalls at about thirty-five miles an hour, so you made sure you kept her above that speed until you were ready to land. To reenter the traffic pattern, you descend to a thousand feet and come in parallel to the right or left side of the runway.

When you are learning to fly, you mostly shoot touch and go landings. At a thousand feet, you level off, and fly a short distance. Then you make a turn to the left and fly parallel to the landing strip. When you are at opposite the spot on the landing strip where you want to touch down, you cut the engine by pulling the throttle all the way back. The engine is running at idle. At the same time you cut you engine you lower the nose of the plane to keep up air speed. You gradually lose altitude until you are just past the end of the airstrip. Then you make another turn to your left, making sure that you are using stick and rudder together. You make your third left turn and line up with the runway. All the time you are losing altitude. If you have done everything right you should come in over the runway at about two hundred feet. You now pull back gradually on the stick so you can lose airspeed. When the aircraft is about ten feet above the ground you pull the stick all the way back and bounce into a three-point landing. Then if you are shooting touch and goes, you give it full throttle and start off again for your next go around.

All the time you are landing you have to keep you hand on the throttle in case you are coming in too low or two high. If you don’t have the right altitude as you make your final approach you have to give it full throttle and climb back into the traffic pattern. (The field in Morrisville had a telephone line right in front of it and it always frightened me when I saw how close I passed over it.)

Once you have practice for eight to ten hours with your instructor, you are ready for your first solo flight. I remember during my tenth flight the instructor asked me to taxi back to the parking strip. “O.K. I think you’re ready to try it on your own, he told me. I had made several really good touch and go landings, but I wasn’t sure that I was ready. However, I taxied out to the end of the runway, gave her full throttle, and took off. It was scary coming in over the telephone wires all alone, but I made a perfect three point landing and taxied back to the parking area just as proud as I could be.

Once you have done your first solo, the flight instructor rides with you a couple more times to make sure you have your landings down. Then, he signs off on your logbook and you get your solo ticket. With a solo ticket, you can fly the airplane that you have been checked out in all by yourself. Your next step is to earn a private ticket. With a private ticket you can take a passenger with you.

Once you have your solo ticket, you can have all kinds of fun. I use to practice maneuvers to sharpen my flying skills and I spent some days just shooting touch and goes. But every once in awhile I’d just climb out of the traffic pattern and play around for my hour of time.

It was so great being up above the clouds and watching them float below you. Sometimes I would climb to five thousand feet and watch the fields and trees grow smaller and smaller below me. Once I reached five thousand feet I would pull back on the throttle, lower my nose, and watch the earth slowly climb toward me.

II remember one day I headed towards the Delaware River and followed it to my house. It was so neat flying over River Road, and looking down on my house from three thousand feet. I circled the house and slowly descended to about five hundred feet to get a closer look.

Then, I took off for my best friend’s house several miles up the road and ten minutes away by car, but just a minute two away by air. I circled his house descending to about five hundred feet and rock my wings back and forth. Vance’s mother and two sisters came out of the house and stared up at my antics. My flight made for a lot of conversation the next time I visited their house.

To earn a private ticket, you have to make a number of cross- country flights. Cross-country flights must be at least fifty miles from your airport. You have to learn to read a map, and to plot your flight to the intended destination. You land at the airport there and have a flight instructor sign your log- book. I began working on my private ticket after it was my good fortune to get a job as line boy at North Philadelphia Airport. But that’s a story for another Hub.