Photos for Flight Home 2006  (the photos may take a moment to download)

A vintage 1939 Piper J-3 Cub and its pilot flew from Corona, California to Lock Haven, Pennsylvania. Lock Haven is the location of the original Piper Aircraft manufacturing plant. From Lock Haven we flew to Oshkosh, Wisconsin for the EAA AirVenture airshow. After the airshow, we turned for home.

PART I - California to Lock Haven, Pennsylvania then to Poplar Grove, Illinois

Follow along on this adventure by reading the logbook pages and viewing the photos. The journey is more about the people and places than the time spent in the air. After completing the adventure, we found rural Americana was much the same as it was when this little airplane was first built.

Duffle bag in the rear baggage area, back pack in the front seat.  The simpler the better.  (6/12/06)

Ever wondered where old cars go to die? (6/12/06 somewhere east of 29 Palms CA)

Twenty-Nine Palms Airport.  Correct me if I am wrong, but do you see even ONE palm tree? (6/12/06)

Flying over a valley, too remote and desolate for man to have found and destroyed, this ancient river bed tells its story of time through erosion of multicolored rocks and soil. (6/12/06)

Just add water to our desert and "Tahh Dahh!"  Farmland complete with crops.  Okay it took some elbow grease as well.  The Colorado river winds its way between California and Arizona. (6/12/06)

Sunrise in Buckeye, AZ.  Flying east early in the morning has its advantages. (6/13/06)

Whoever is in charge of placing mountains on this earth is doing one heck of a job.  Every motorist on Interstate 10 likely enjoys this little beauty. (6/13/06)

Just when we were getting comfortable with the colors of brown, grey, and beige, the Good Lord mixes things up with these cottonwood trees in a remote river bed.  You should have seen me scrambling for my camera to get this shot. (6/13/06)

Now this is what I call an airport terminal.  Free coffee and donuts. (6/13/06 Wilcox, AZ)

No caption necessary. (6/13/06 Wilcox, AZ)

Ooops!!! I do believe we just flew over El Paso International Airport.  When did they put that there? (6/13/06)

Quite a change of colors and terrain today.  (6/14/06 northeast of Carlsbad, NM)

Yes, those are old cars scattered around the property.  Evidently this man is unaware of the mass burial services available as shown in an earlier photo.  But then, he just may prefer the family plot method. (6/14/06)

Hmmmm, no HazMat here, just a naturally occurring, indigenous body of water in a rural area.  What the heck did I just say?  (6/14/06)

As the Cub gets ready for a well-deserved nights rest, I prepare to board the luxurious airport loaner car.  (6/14/06)

Len Miller is the Quanah, Texas airport manager.  A fascinating man of 91 years.  His recollections of aviation, his time in the Army during World War II and his Cub experiences were both entertaining and heart-warming .  Thanks for your time and generosity, Len. (6/14/06)

The photo was taken through the morning haze about 600 feet above the ground.  Farmer's fields and rivers take on a whole new meaning when viewed from above.  (6/15/06 Oklahoma, I think)

Meandering rivers lined with trees bring back memories of childhood adventures of hiking with my brother.  (6/15/06)

Our first stop for the day was our last stop for the day.  The winds were well above 24 knots at ground level.  We decided to wait the winds out before moving on.  This Fixed Base Operator (FBO) is one of the nicest I've ever seen.  (6/15/06 Hinton, OK airport id 2O8)

Rerouting the flight to move through the high wind area as quickly as possible.  (6/15/06)

The shapes and patterns from above tell a story of how people make a living.  ( 6/16/06)

I wonder if the owner of this property has any idea of how remarkable his work looks from above.  (6/16/06 somewhere in either Oklahoma and Missouri)

One of the gentlemen at Camdenton put my Cub in his air conditioned hangar so I could change the oil.  (6/16/06)

The mighty Missouri River in the early morning light.  (6/17/06)

The first fuel stop, Mark Twain's childhood home.  How appropriate!    (6/17/06)

The Muddy Mississippi.  (6/17/06)

Do the words "Flat" and "Green" come to mind?  (6/17/06 Illinois)

With the doors and windows open on the Cub, one feels like they can almost touch the scenery as it passes.  (6/17/06)

Rural towns with quiet neighborhoods embodied the quality of life in the Midwest.  (6/17/06)

The narrow cabin in the Cub allows for great viewing on either side of the plane.  (6/17/06)

Thank God the Garmin GPS found this field with a north/south runway.  Besides, the airport was very nostalgic.  (6/18/06 Urbana, OH)

Just as we were getting fueled, two more Cubs on their way to Lock Haven arrived. (6/18/06 Du Bois, PA)

My friend Len Buckel, from San Diego unloading his Cub at Lock Haven.  Len is 75 years young and has flown his Cub here every other year for over a decade.  Definitely makes my trip rather ordinary.  (6/18/06)

Helen shared her experiences and respect for Mr. Piper with us this afternoon.  Helen started working for Mr. Piper sewing the material on the wings just after high school in the early 1940's. (6/18/06)

My lodging while in Lock Haven.  It's far more reasonable than it appears.  (6/19/06)

We met the author of the newest version of the most definitive book on Piper Aircraft history.  Mr. Roger Peperell autographed the copy I purchased.  (6/19/06)

After flying the Cub off of the grass runway all morning, I couldn't pass up this vanity shot of "us" together.  This was the 10,001 photo taken with this digital camera.  (6/19/06)

This is for Emma, my granddaughter .  The lady who owns this plane told me of her years of battles to purchase it.  She finally got the plane and her husband painted it the way she wanted.  (6/20/06)

This is for Caleb,  my grandson.  Okay Caleb, how cool would it be to fly in this plane?  (6/20/06)

I count 7 kids and four adults in this photo, God love 'em.  Wait, on second thought, it looks as if Mom's expecting.  Well, they will need a bigger tent next year.  (6/20/06)

Loren Peters, retired U.S. Air Captain on the left and Don Guth on the right did a fantastic job of restoring a cousin of my Cub.  Two very fine gentlemen from Florida.  (6/20/06)

Mr. Cal Arter, aviation enthusiast, hosts hundreds of the fly-in pilots for a BBQ and corn roast at his summer home on the golf course.

Conversations stopped, and most everyone watched every plane's landing as if the pilot needed their undivided attention to insure success.  (6/21/06)

I suspect this is exactly what we look like seconds before touch down.  (6/21/06)

Mr. Frank Baker, the author of "Piper Cub Tails," and I finally meet in front of his Cub.  (6/21/06)

Grandpa taking his grandson around the patch in their Cub.  (6/21/06)

The big radial engine powered biplane makes a perfect landing.  (6/22/06)

Downtown Lock Haven as seen just after takeoff.  (6/22/06)

When we landed on Sunday, there weren't any planes parked on the grass.  (6/22/06)

The evening corn roast.  The lady in the blue top takes your money (50 cents for an ear of corn).  The lady in the black and white print top gives you a napkin and paper dish.  The lady in the pink top with stars, helps first-times like me to butter their corn.  Yep, you dip it into the big jars filled with water with hot butter floating on top.  Yes, it does work perfectly.  (6/22/06)

This Cub sustained the worst damage of last night's storm.  As bad as it looks, the repairs shouldn't be very difficult.  (6/23/06)

I received a message that someone wanted to talk to me at the airshow office.  Mr. Fidelis Miltenberger had read my magazine article about wanting to hear from pilots who knew of grass strips along my route.  He told me about the oldest continuously used grass runway in the USA located in Cumberland, Maryland.  His recollections of learning to fly in a J2 Cub at age 19 were exceeded only by the story of his friend who used to put a parachute on his dog and toss him out of the plane.  The dog always landed safely albeit reluctantly.  (6/23/06)

A very small portion of the 450 pilots who attended Mr. Shrack's dinner at his diary farm.  The diary is known to be one of the largest in Pennsylvania.  (6/23/06)

This little guy was very friendly.  (6/23/06)

A very realistic reenactment of a World War II battle was staged right in the activities area of the event.  (06/24/06)

While it's physically impossible to get all of this gear in the Cub, the scene created by this pilot makes you want to give it a try.(06/24/06)

Sharon Best, the proprietor of the Carriage House B&B, invited me to an afternoon tea party on the front lawn.  Later I found out that she and the other guests were on the back porch drinking beer.  That explains the poor service at the tea party.  Perhaps it was something I said at breakfast.   (06/24/06)

Do you remember the photo of the Cub with the broken landing gear.  If not, just scroll down to the photos taken on 6/23/06, you can't miss it.  Well the landing gear is all fixed up, save the yellow covering material.  He'll be good to go when the rain stops.  Cubs were designed for quick and inexpensive repairs.  (6/26/06)

Poor little Cub.  It's cold and soaking wet.  Now it has to suffer the humiliation of being tied down in the grass again because there wasn't any tie towns on the hard surface.  Note the very low clouds against the hills behind the Cub.  The ceilings were far to low to fly out of the valley and over the mountains.  But we are ever-hopeful that tomorrow will bring us the window in the weather we need to fly west.  (6/26/06)

Oh Yeah!!  This is living! A corporate hangar and sitting next to an L-39 fighter plane.  Note that the Cub seems to be sitting a little higher on its landing gear attempting to impress its hangar mate for the night.  Cubs do that, you know.  (6/26/06)

We just left Lock Haven on our way to Clearfield.  The Cub was flying really well.  Reminding me of a puppy when you take the leash out of the drawer and him for a walk.  I must admit even with the dark clouds above, it felt great to be in the air again with my old friend.  The forested hills below offered no suitable place to land in an emergency, so the sparsely located farmer's fields were stored into our memory should they be needed.  (6/27/06)

On the ground at Clearfield, PA the weather began to deteriorate rapidly.  The weather briefer told me to find a place to stay for the night because a line of thunderstorms was on its way east.  (6/27/06)

Safely in a new hangar, the Cub reluctantly settles in until tomorrow.  We shared the hangar with a bashful little one-place homebuilt airplane.  I'm sure they'll get along just fine.  (6/27/06)

Thickly forested hills in western Pennsylvania are beautiful but not very pilot-friendly to land in.  (6/28/06)

Rural communities fascinate us.  Each home represents someone's world.  Each world co-exists with their neighbor.  All together a community is created.

Reminds me of our sandbox and toy trucks when we were kids.  (6/28/06)

The best way we found to know what town we were over.  (6/28/06)

Here's a perfect example of why we found it so difficult to land.  Scenery like this passed just below us all morning long.  (6/28/06)

Sometimes I'd close the bottom half of the door and rest my arm on it as we flew along, just like riding in a car.  (6/28/06)

A very disorganized vehicle cemetery.  (6/28/06)

The Ford Tri Motor arrives at New Philadelphia, Ohio airport to give rides in the morning.  (6/28/06)

Terry Henry and Glenn Davis, two guys who epitomize what aviation is all about.  (6/28/06)

Old McDonald had a farm, and a lake, and a forest, and a lot of money. E-I-E-I-O (6/29/06)

This old McDonald did well with his farm.  So he dug a lake in his back yard.  But he couldn't swim, so he built a corral for his horses that lived in a big white barn next to the lake.  He loved his mother so much, he built her a two-story palace at the far end of his estate.  E-I-E-I-O  (6/29/06)

While we enjoyed the forested mountains of Pennsylvania, the flat farmlands of Indiana and Illinois were more comforting to fly over.  (6/29/06)

Now that's a perfect sky to fly under.  We continuously look for angels sitting on top of the large clouds.  (6/29/06)

Hmmm, I wonder what would happen if I flew our shadow down the centerline of a highway filled with speeding cars?  (6/29/06)

The Cub felt right at home at Poplar Grove Airport.  (6/29/06)

PART II -Poplar Grove, Illinois to Oshkosh, Wisconsin then home to California

(left) Out the window of flight 684.  (right)  Out the window of the Cub...Hmmm interesting comparison.(7/19/06)

(left) Steve and Tina Thomas have created a pilots dream.  (right)  Darren and Kelly stopped for fuel on their way to Oshkosh.(7/20/06)

Bern's Cub on the left, Tina and Steve's Cub on the right.  Kind of looks nostalgic doesn't it?  (7/21/06)

Excuse me, but is the Cub's nose just a little higher than normal?  Just what you'd expect from a Cub when a vanity shot is taken.  (7/21/06)

The  Pietenpol Annual Fly In is held at the Brodhead  all grass aerodrome where hangars are filled with vintage aircraft.  (7/22/06)

No fancy Pepsi booths at the fly-in, just this little guy making a living the old fashion way.  (7/22/06)

Jo Ann and Frank Baker were kind enough to share their home and dinner with me.  (7/22/06)

A Wisconsin campground on a Sunday morning.  Swimming pool and a lake to cool off in.  (7/23/06)

Safely tiedown at Oshkosh along side of Frank Russo's Cub from Sonoma, CA.  (7/23/06)

This gleaming Spartan Executive was perfect in every detail.  (7/24/06)

Beach Boys Concert before the big storm.  (7/24/06)

The morning sun attempts to push itself through the overcast skies.   (7/25/06)

Last night's storm leaves droplets that give character to polished metal props.  (7/25/06)

Hmmm this shot was so easy it was done with one hand behind the photographers back.  (7/25/06)

More than a dozen perfectly restored Howard DGA's arrived on Monday morning.  (7/25/06)

Yep, they had the poster again with Bugsy and me larger than life on the wall in the member's pavilion.  (7/26/06)

The Beech Staggerwing is the most beautiful airplane ever built.  (7/26/06)

The red Corsair with the big nasty radial engine passed both of the P-51's easily.  (7/26/06)

This poor guy just crashed under the wing of the Cub.  But it looks like a restful sleep.  (7/27/06)

I have no possible explanation for this.  Any ideas?  (7/27/06)

And you thought the Cub was roughing it!  (7/27/07)

Contours of different crops create some fascinating visual effects from 700 feet.  (7/28/06)

Every once in a while we get a photo that amazes us.  This one is one of my favorites.  No, I'm not getting better at photography, the subjects are foolproof.  (7/28/06)

Could this be a result of drinking while driving a tractor?  (7/28/06)

Almost feels like you could touch the top of the church steeple doesn't it?  (7/28/06)

Dyersville International Airport, aviations version of "Field of Dreams."  (7/29/06)

Looking out of the Cub's side window as we depart on a Dyersville lush grass runway.  (7/29/06)

Dave Kramer and I take a spin in his vintage 1946 Ercoupe.  (7/29/06)

The movies site for Field of Dreams.  (7/29/06)

The movies site for Field of Dreams from 500 feet.  (7/29/06)

Dave and Joan Kramer gave tours of everything from the Dyer house to the airport.  (7/29/06)

Iowa continues to provide inspiring landscapes.  (7/29/06)

How perfect is this?  The Cub anticipates a lazy Sunday morning with other vintage planes, though they have yet to be awakened from their hangars.  (7/30/06)

Why on earth would anyone build this little guy?  Only a mother could love this little fella.  (7/30/06)

The two firefighters from the Creston Fire Dept who came to fuel the Cub.  (7/30/06)

All better!  The number 3 cylinder is repaired and being reassembled.  Soon I'll be on the road back to Beatrice, NE.  (7/31/06)

We were thinking military weapons bunkers.  Anybody recognize these?  (8/1/06)

An airport with a hard surface runway crossed by a beautiful turf runway adjacent to a golf course.  Did we just win the aviation lottery or what?  (8/1/06)

Now here's a view of some giant silos you don't often get from you car.  (8/1/06)

A quiet neighborhood in a very small town in rural Nebraska.  (8/1/06)

Yes, we did that bad thing again.  Note the Cub's shadow just ahead of the oncoming motor home.  (8/1/06)

Contour farming gave way to mechanical irrigated crop circles in western Nebraska.  (8/1/06)

Kind of reminds me of a drawing my kids did that deserved a place on the front of the refrigerator.  (8/1/06)

We prefer charts and compass to GPS.  But we'll never leave the ground without the GPS.  (8/1/06)

The GPS is mounted on the crossbars just above the passenger seat.  The view of the heavens isn't bad either.  (8/2/06)

Our route of flight home.  (8/2/06)

The sun finally woke up and backlit the wisps of clouds surrounding us.  (8/2/06)

To the right of the interstate a set of railroad track led to lower terrain.  (8/2/06)

From here we had to climb to 9,000 feet to safely clear desolate terrain.  (8/2/06)

No time to spare.  Those puffy clouds would soon join each other and become thunderstorms.  (8/2/06)

Huge build ups were just right of our course but seemed to be stationary.  (8/2/06)

This is the second time on the adventure this has happened.  Immediately after putting the Cub in the hangar, the jet sticks his nose in the Cub's tail.  Thank goodness the Cub is a tail dragger.  Those executive jets are just like dogs!  (8/2/06)

Interesting contrast between the Midwest (left) and the southwest (right).  (8/3/06)

Once again, we'd like to thank whoever is in charge of placing mountains next to interstates.  Good Job!  (8/3/06)

The early morning sunlight created long shadows for better definition and richer colors.  (8/3/06)

Okay, put on some piano music, relax and imagine flying the Cub on a perfect morning.  (8/3/06)

The motor home is our next victim.  Can you make out the shadow of the Cub just behind him?  (8/3/06)

That's the old Route 66 in front of this roadside business.  I believe we stopped here when I was a kid.  (8/3/06)

In honor of this historic highway, we chose to fly at exactly 6,600 feet.  (8/3/06)

The Petrified Forest National Park - photo #1.  (8/3/06)

The Petrified Forest National Park - photo #2.  (8/3/06)

The Petrified Forest National Park - photo #3.  (8/3/06)

These roofs look very 'tired'!  Okay, it's not that funny.  (8/3/06)

This FedEx truck is about to get 'Cubbed.'  The shadow is hard to see; it's on the shoulder right next to the driver's door.  (8/3/06)

Arriving over Sedona, AZ.  (8/3/06)

We had to circle until the sun broke through the clouds, but it was worth it.  (8/3/06)

The rewards of flying a small airplane are gaining perspectives like this.  (8/3/06)

Did one of you request another vanity shot?  Probably not.  (8/3/06)

Leaving Prescott meant circumnavigating rain shafts.  (8/4/06)

Passing through a rain shaft freed some of the bug carcasses and dust from the Cub.  (8/4/06)

Just like a car wash's blow drier, 75 mph airspeed dried the Cub's airframe in minutes.  (8/4/06)

Just east of the Colorado River, this was the best photo of the day.  (8/4/06)

A new rural California neighborhood and an established rural Midwest neighborhood.  Hmmmm  (8/4/06)

Vanity shot of "Us" moments after landing at Corona.  This adventure has ended but the next one is already in the planning stages.  Thanks for coming along... see you next time.