An amenable book on about the evolution of the famous Piper Cub series of aircraft; while it is not the only book about this topic, for Cubs have been around for more than half a century, the peculiar way in which its narrative has been constructed will certainly call your attention.

It is a pity that only a few flying clubs - especially in Europe - have taildraggers like the Piper Cub in their fleets. We will not lie to you: flying an aircraft with a conventional landing gear requires far more dexterity than one with a tricycle gear, and aircraft like an Ercoupe or a Cessna Skylane are peanuts to land when compared with the apparently innocuous Cub.

Training aircraft used for basic pilot training, like the Cessna 152 are pretty good, but having tried these, we have to say that frankly, they cannot even compare with the old, rag and tubes tandem flying thing. Take offs and landings using aircraft with that little wheel under the tail are far more demanding in skill and perception that those performed with the more common and popular gear with the wheel in the front.

However, taildragger pilots are generally of a higher quality than those trained exclusively on tricycle aircraft.Taildraggers are intimidating because they are in a sense, like aerobatic planes and require a very delicate handling, so, if just getting into one of these makes your pulse go higher, imagine what is like to start a really STOL landing with no flaps at all, sliding and skidding the flying thing just above the stall, only to bring it to Earth and stop it almost immediately.

You can land a Cub like those fighters of WWII on their aircraft carriers, but without hooks. There is an urban myth in this regard, but we could not confirm it: apparently, a marine officer who could not get into the naval aviation arm landed his PA-11 in an Argentine aircraft carrier, in the aeronaval base at Puerto Belgrano. We could not confirm this, but the story is indeed technically feasible.

Flying a Cub is a pleasure, and not a job: with a deck filed with avionics, what you have is a lot of work to do. Indeed, avionics are useful for flying into controlled spaces, but with a Piper Cub you take a stroll in the air instead of worrying about gyroscopes, radio frequencies, suction pumps, procedure charts, control clearances and such things. And the STOL capability of Cubs turn them into incredibly safe aircraft: when flying under visual conditions, even over urbanized areas, you can spot any landing place you like in case of an emergency, even a park or a football field.

We are actually acquainted with commanders of aircraft such as B-747s and MD-88s that, nevertheless, keep their Cubs in their hangars, only to go out every weekend with their taildraggers; they praise the Cub in every respect. In our opinion, it is a pity that it is becoming increasingly hard to keep engines like the Continental A65 running; these are the finest example of economical engines.

An hour of flight on a Cub with a A65-F engine would cost you just 30 euros.We hope that the new-generation engines like comparable Rotax models will eventually get certified to replace the old engines, so that we will be able to keep Cubbing longer.

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