Thanks for sharing the moment with us. A Cub landed well is a pleasing sight. I feel great pleasure watching my son land softly on one wheel in the grass at our airport. We have a paved runway, but the grass is so much better for a Cub. Saves those expensive 4 inch main gear tires too.

Low, slow and tailwheel on grass is the very best whether a Cub, Super Cub, Champ, Stearman, PT22, Luscomb, Pawnee, homebuilt or whatever plane you fly. Landings on one wheel, two wheels or three pointer - it's just a lot more fun than pavement. Of course I am biased toward my airport - P15 Brokenstraw Airport, Pittsfield, PA. And I agree with you about making close in traffic patterns instead of those "Air Carrier" patterns. Keep up the great writing.

Paul, you made me smile at the memroy you triggered. My first instructor, Jack Coates, back at the Oberlin, Ohio airport in the early 1950s, did wear jodhpurs, wire-rimmed sunglasses, but no hat. And on his finger was a heavily worn silver USAF ring, too, as he instructed in his Aeronca Champs.

We have a beautiful grass strip near seattle on Vashon Island where I soloed and now solo my students. It is rimmed with short apple trees that blossom in March and is beautiful!

Now I am spending my first winter in Mesa AZ with my cub and of course no grass but we do have dirt and I am finding them! Weather here is Pilot's Paradise!

Geo www.couleeairservices.com

I've been into Buchan several times. Great strip. I'm a lucky guy as I get to land Cubs on grass and then snow year round. Great fun!

Recently I needed to do a checkride for a Validation of my license in a foreign country. The Examiner looked at my logbook and stated "Well, you have two choices of aircraft, a 1975 Cessna 172, and a J3 Cub." There was no hesitation in my decision. I can fly a 172 anytime, anywhere. But these days there aren''t that many J3's around . . . and available. I (we) had a ball. To be concervative (it had been 35 years since my last tail wheel landing), my first landing was with power,on two wheels only. By the third landing I was back to full stall on all three simultaneuosly (almost). We spent an extra hour (beyond the sign-off for my Validation) just having good, honest FUN, FUN, FUN with that marvelous airplane. Thanks for sharing Paul. Great memories.

Well, in 1967, I had about 130 hours, mostly in a Cherokee 140, typically flown out of ORL. There was a nice little grass strip, Flying Seminole Ranch, east of town. I had landed there many times. One day I decided I wanted to learn how to fly the J3, 7298H, they had there. The owner took me up and I did a couple of circuits in the pattern and he waved good-bye to me. Most incredible flying experience I have ever had. Years later, not current, living on memories, I met a man who had several airplanes including a J3 that he was very proud of. I told him I had soloed one after about 15 minutes of instruction and he told me he didn't believe me. He was a CFI and offered to let me put my money where my mouth was on the spot. We were having lunch in his club and he drove me straight to a small airport outside of town, hauled out the J3, propped it and off we went. I took off in it, did a few maneuvers out of the pattern and then shot about five touch/goes. All very nice landings if I must say so myself. The guy was shocked. He said he had not met that many people who could fly an airplane with a conventional gear. I never thought it was that hard. I think 7298H is still flying.

Summer of 1972. I'd had my private cert for about a year and hadn't flown much. I was driving along a road somewhere between Cincinnati and Dayton, Oh. I looked up and saw a J-3 (it turned out) flying. It was in the pattern...maybe I could find the airport and get to fly it. I found the airport (sorry, don't know the name or if it's still there) and Red. Red had a stack of logbooks in a corner of the room that were ALL HIS totaling over 25,000 hours. I asked how much an hour of dual was...$6.00 including plane, fuel, and RED. I had so much fun and I never forgot Red or the thrill of a taildragger on grass. Thanks Paul!

I can't wait for the snow to lift so we can get back to flying off the grass. We have a lot of nice grass strips in SW Michigan. I plan to land at as many as I can this spring, summer and fall. About 40 miles from my home airport is a grass strip where a guy built an old style ice cream stand. Can't wait to try it on a nice summer day, fly-in with the doors off. With gas prices going up and de-leveraging of the economy, I believe this type of grass roots flying is going to make a come back.

Cathy Babis - The airfield was 40I, Red Stewart Airfield. It's still there, and it's still a great place to fly. I know, I did 22 hours of dual in a Champ there in October. You had the privilege of flying with the founder. Red is gone now, but I had the privilege of flying one hour with his son, Cub, and meeting all the other great people at the airport. I can't wait to go back, whether it's just to fly in for a visit, or maybe an aerobatic or sailplane lesson.

Thank you for sharing this. You brought back memories of my own first encounter with another wonderful taildragger, the Aeronca 7AC Champ. I flew her over ten years ago to a small grass field called Keymar in northern Maryland. The memory of that crisp, clear morning flight and the touch and goes over that terrific grass field are enough to entice me back into flying after a long absence. It's time to fly again!

I learned to fly in taildraggers, which in those days was considered "conventional gear". The Cubs, T-Crafts & Aeroncas were our way of affording our costly hobby. As is the case with many among us, in the quest for more effective use of aviation, I transitioned to faster flight & IFR became the norm. Now, as I get older, I`m plannining to transition back to slow flight in the form of LSA. I now look back & the "low & slow" of the Cub days seem to be the best memories. I loved those early morning flights over small Michigan towns on a sunday morning in summer.

Of all the planes I've owned and flown, the J3 is my favorite. I've flown over 1000 hrs in taildraggers and still find the simplicity and fundamentals of flying the J3 to be the most enjoyable flying of all. I fly out of Venice AP in the winters, and know Buchan well. It's back to a J3 for me.

I purchased a CUB about 5 years ago just to get a tailwheel endorsement to get ready for the completion of my RV-6. At this time I really dont care if I finish the RV-6. Flying the CUB low and slow, enjoying the landscape, makes a person enjoy the simple pleasures in life.

Luscombe a great old airplane. In 1967 I had a fresh commercial (all in Cessna). No one would give me dual in the Luscombe (heel brakes on left side and no radio). I read a bit about tail wheel technique and got in and flew it. Went up high and tried to see what tricks the airplane had in store but found a very gentle airplane. Was soon able slip in to three point on the numbers landings. Most fun airplane I ever owned.

OK, another story, also circa 1967. Another grass strip in Orlando was Hoquist Field. A vintage airport with a bunch of oldtimers hanging out, etc. I was out there one day and a guy who worked on gas pipelines and traveled across the US was there with a LUSCOMBE OBSERVER!!!! Google it up. Anyway, I was admiring this very cool airplane and he offered me a ride in it. Another one of life's great experiences. Only many years later did I realize how lucky I had been and how rare this airplane was.