Best Day of Flying - Super Cub in Alaska
The month of October was perfect timing for me dust off my wings and take to the air again. My upcoming trip to Alaska was the perfect motivator for me to get back in the air. I hoped that my trip to Alaska would involve a small plane with me at the controls and my wish came true. I had to get brushed up on my skills before I left for Alaska.
I called up a flying friend who is an instructor and asked him if he would fly with me until I got polished up enough on my flying skills to keep from hurting anyone and anything. We spent a couple of hours in a Cessna doing the standard touch and go maneuvers as well as practicing everything from straight and level flight to stalls. It came back to me much faster than I thought it would.
I was put in contact with an experienced aviator in Fairbanks, AK by the name of Pete Haggland. Mr. Haggland was born and raised in Alaska and has been flying for most of his life. He is a certified flight instructor, president of EAA Chapter 1129 and he owns several aircraft. Mr. Haggland has a private air strip next to his house. He offered to take me up in his Super Cub if the weather cooperated while I was there. The weather did cooperate and I did get to go up in the Supper Cub. As a matter of fact, I got to log almost two hours of tail dragger time for the first time. I must say that while it was not the easy to land a tail dragger for the first time it was a load of fun. I am hooked and plan to get my tail wheel sign off in the near future.
We left the snow covered private strip next to Mr. Haggland’s house and flew down to Fairbanks International (FAI) to fuel the plane and do some practice landings on the hard surface where landing a tail dragger is a little less forgiving than on grass or snow. After fueling the plane I climbed into the front of the Super Cub. I felt like I was in paradise even though the temperature hand only climbed into the teens and I was wearing bunny boots, gloves, and a parka. I completed more than a half dozen three point landings with different flap settings. I then tried a couple of wheel landings. I must not have scared Mr. Haggland too much because he let me land back at his private strip which was covered with a few inches of fresh show.
I can not begin to tell you how much fun this was. This is still not number one on my list of Best Days of Flying, but it definitely ranks up there pretty high.