Crossing the century mark with friends and family in the Cub

Plane: Cub, 85 hp 
Route: 40I, Local 
Weather: Clear, 81 degrees, wind 180 degrees at 11 knots gusting to 17

As I had one of those milestone celebrations of my day of birth this year, quite a few friends and family came together to celebrate. Gina organized an awesome, surprise brewery crawl yesterday - in total, I think we visited 8 of the 12 breweries in the Dayton area. Tons of fun.

Rob and Abby and my sister came down from Michigan to stay with us and, as all are unabashed fans of Piper Cubs (as one should be), we headed to Stewart for some aerial adventures this afternoon. Abby hopped in front first and we set off on a short sightseeing run, her first J-3 time in just over two years. We flew over the lake again, though not backwards this time.

I pointed out the low lake levels, circling around some of the old foundations that are usually submerged, as I've been doing quite often this year. We passed by the glider port, then re-entered the pattern and I managed a rather good landing. It took a few flights but I think I've regained my touch with passengers on board.

Rob hopped in next and we followed a similar route. I think it was at some point during with him in front that I crossed the 100 hour mark - that's 100 hours of tailwheel time. It's a logbook milestone that I've been inching towards for quite some time when you consider many of my Cub flights are of the 0.7 hour variety. Nonetheless, between the Cub, Champ, and T-Craft all those entries now add up to three digits!

After we landed, my sister hopped in for the final flight of the afternoon. She's always up for vintage aviating and doesn't mind a steep turn or three - so we did the sightseeing thing along with some fun zigs and zags along the way. It was a tad windy but I brought us back in for one final nice touchdown on the soft grass.

All told, everyone had a good time in the little yellow airplane with the door wide open. Definitely my kind of late spring / early summer flight. Added to yesterday's fun, it was a perfect birthday weekend. It's certainly fair to say I'm starting this decade of life off on a very good note.

Flight Track: Google Earth KMZ File 
Today's Flight: 1.5 hours
Total Time: 330.6 hours