The windsock whipped back and forth above us as we completed the external preflight and checked the cowl fasteners one last time. Climbing into the bright yellow 1940 Piper J-4 Cub, one of my longtime flying friends, David Wilkins, and I fastened our seat belts and purposely made our way down the preignition checklist. With the “before start” list out of the way, we continued through the “engine start” portion, then inched forward to check the heel brakes and flight controls before moving on to the run-up.
The weather briefing we had reviewed a half hour earlier promised a 20-knot headwind that would require two fuel stops on the 130-mile trip from our home airport in Kennett, Missouri (KTKX), to Little Rock Air Force Base (KLRF) in Arkansas. The windsock promised that getting the little yellow bird into the air would be a white-knuckle affair. We knew the flight would be anything but smooth.
Twenty minutes into the flight, he called, ‘Your plane,’ and I gripped the stick…
The J-4 differs from its more recognizable cousin, the J-3, in that it features side-by-side seating instead of the tandem arrangement more commonly found in tailwheel aircraft from the prewar and postwar era. It went through several variations between 1938 and 1942 before the attack on Pearl Harbor brought to an end any future iteration. The J-4’s cockpit is wider than the more common J-3,…
Source www.planeandpilotmag.com
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