Warrior 481 Gets a Useful Load Increase

I recently received an email from a friend whom I had not spoken with in a long time. He noted that I did not seem to be posting much in 2025 and thoughtfully wondered if I was OK. It was a good observation, I had suspended my flying for a time in the first half of 2025 due to a medical issue. This post is about what happened, what I did about it, and how it's going.

[Disclaimer: I am neither a physician nor an Aviation Medical Examiner (AME). While I am happy to share my experience in case it is helpful to others, please speak with your own physician if you are experiencing similar challenges.]

Miss Atomic Bomb

I was seated in an exam room whose decor utterly failed in its attempt at exuding a warm, homey vibe. I arrived planning on a routine check-in with a physician's assistant and did not expect any bombs to be dropped. The day was March 4, 2025.

"You're diabetic," stated the PA.

Castle Bravo nuclear test, 01 March 1954, public domain photo from the US government.

She continued impassively. "I'm putting you on metformin. Avoid eating refined sugar, white bread, and pasta. Any questions?"

Literally dozens. 

I stared at her in surprise. It was not great news for anyone to receive and particularly not great for a pilot. I was certain that she had no idea of the broader implications of delivering this message to someone in love with flight.

She paused for half a beat and, when my mental gridlock did not break sufficiently for me to ask her anything, she resumed speaking. "No questions, then? OK, come back in three months for a follow-up. Most people don't tolerate metformin well until they adjust to it. That will take a few weeks, so be sure to pick up some Imodium." With that, she was on to the next patient.

Later that day, I diligently searched for information about managing type 2 diabetes. Most sources I consulted began with a statement to the effect of, "If you've been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, your healthcare provider has already shared a diet and exercise plan with you."

Nope. In fact, on a later visit to the patient portal, I read the PA's notes from the appointment and became incensed when I read, "Patient has been counseled on an appropriate diet and exercise regimen." This grossly overstated the information conveyed.

The more I researched, the more dissatisfied I became with the PA's rushed and poorly-delivered diagnosis. At least she warned me about the side effects of metformin (if you know, you know), but there should have been much more discussion about the road ahead.

For Reasons Unknown

Type 2 diabetes is also known as insulin resistant diabetes, a name that gives better insight into what underlies the condition. Unlike type 1 diabetes that requires patients to take insulin, those with type 2 already make insulin, but their bodies cannot utilize it properly, leading to high blood sugar. High blood sugar is problematic for a number of reasons including damage to eyesight, particularly worrisome for pilots. Metformin is one of several drugs that help patients utilize the insulin their bodies already produce. In some cases, type 2 diabetes can be managed solely through diet and exercise with weight loss being a significant factor in reducing diabetes risk. While the risk factors and management strategies are well known, the underlying root cause of the condition seems less understood.

Type 2 diabetes often develops in middle aged people -- it used to be called "adult onset diabetes” -- and is linked to obesity. The normal fasting range for blood glucose is 60 - 99 mg/dL. The impaired or "pre-diabetic" range is 100 - 125 mg/dL. The result that triggered my diagnosis was 153 mg/dL. 

Another important physiological metric is A1c. Hemoglobin is a tetrameric protein consisting of two alpha chains and two beta chains. Glucose can chemically adduct on the hemoglobin alpha chain, a reaction driven by excess glucose present in the bloodstream. Increasing blood glucose levels leads directly to a higher percentage of glycosylated hemoglobin, also known as A1c. Whereas blood glucose levels fluctuate throughout the day, the A1c value reflects an equilibrium correlated to average blood glucose content over time. The normal A1c range is less than or equal to 5.6%, the pre-diabetic range is 5.7-6.4%, and anything 6.5% or over is considered diabetic. My A1c level was 6.9%. For context, many of the drugs advertised to lower A1c claim to bring levels down below 7% and the FAA wants pilots to be below 9% before even considering special issuance of a medical certificate. So I had an issue, but I was not a lost cause.

It will not surprise any pilots to know that type 2 diabetics treated medicinally require a special issuance medical. In this case, "special" means "lots and lots of bureaucracy". Type 2 diabetes drugs particularly concern the FAA due to the risk of hypoglycemia (low blood sugar) events that could lead to loss of consciousness.

Oh boy. 

March 4, 2025 presented me with a lot of information to process.

All These Things That I've Done

I undertook a number of actions right away.

I grounded myself from flying. Minimally, I did not want to fly again until I understood whether my blood sugar was under control and what the side effects of the metformin were going to be. Exceptions included a couple of instrument proficiency flights with Gilead and Tom where each was willing to act as pilot in command (PIC) for the flight. This covered me legally, but also in case the metformin actually caused a low blood sugar event while flying. I never experienced one, but could not predict that at the start. I also withdrew from flying rides at the Williamson Flying Club pancake breakfast for the first time in a decade, which is why I manned the tower/Unicom this year instead.

It's a bit inside baseball, but I delved deeply into logbook arcana. The FAA draws a distinction between logging PIC time versus acting as PIC. Pilots record PIC time in their logbooks and are allowed to do so provided that they were rated for the aircraft being flown (exceptions exist, such as for solo student pilots). Additionally, every flight also requires an acting PIC, but that time is not explicitly recorded in logbooks. A valid medical certificate is required to act as PIC and I had chosen to stop exercising mine. As a result, I continued logging PIC hours in Warrior 481 during these flights with friends because, even though I was not acting as PIC, I still met the logging requirements for PIC time. The FARs can be weird sometimes.

I radically changed my diet. I actually read nutrition labels now and largely eliminated sugars and significant carbs from my diet. The key, as with most things, is moderation and I have applied some simple guidelines based on my research. I have largely cut out pasta (while we have experimented with whole grain pasta, it's just not the same), bread, and white rice.

To help me understand how my physiology responds to different foods, I purchased a month's worth of continuous glucose monitor (CGM) biosensors. I waited until I was on my new regimen for a month, then spent a month as my own guinea pig. I learned a lot about the way my body processes carbohydrates. For example:

1. White rice is the absolute worst. Every time I had some white rice, for example, with Thai or Chinese cuisine, I would experience a whopping glucose spike. Per the literature, the basmati rice preferred for Indian cooking only results in a modest glucose rise. So I can still soak up my curry with rice, I just need to be prudent about the type of rice and consume it in moderation.
2. I can nip a glucose spike in the bud with a brisk 15-minute walk. This was a huge learning that I validated many times over. Consuming anything even slightly questionable could be remediated with walking, even white rice.
3. Bread can be OK in reasonable amounts. I found that I could easily handle my favorite Dibella's sub on a 7-inch "everything roll" provided that I also did not indulge in the bag of chips I historically consumed with my sandwich. Small victories. 
4. Beer is an interesting case. It is high in carbohydrates (high glycemic index), but alcohol inhibits breakdown of complex sugars into glucose (low to moderate glycemic load). Thus, the effect of a single beer on blood glucose level is highly dependent on an individual's metabolism. With the CGM, I found that a single beer did not spike my glucose at all. Similar results were obtained with hard ciders. Once again, moderation is key.
   
   As an additional twist, alcohol is contraindicated for those taking metformin. However, most sources indicate that the amount of alcohol in a single beer is insufficient to cause a poor outcome, specifically a nasty condition known as lactic acidosis. (In a nutshell, the liver is so busy processing metformin that it cannot handle metabolizing the alcohol and bad things happen.)

I started exercising daily. I have never been a gym guy, but since my childhood on the farm, I have always found solace in the woods. I am fortunate to live within a couple miles of multiple interconnected parks with well maintained, densely wooded trails that wind up and down through the terrain along Lake Ontario. These wonderful parks have been my salvation. Since my diagnosis, I have hiked almost daily with a goal of at least 45 minutes, but often extending to an hour or more. I track everything with an Apple watch, which shows that my typical walking pace is 15-16 minutes per mile or about 4 mph.

Top of the hill, Gosnell Big Woods Preserve.

None of the trails are particularly long, one to two miles at the most, but there are enough of them twisting through the various parks that I can mix and match routes as much as I want without resorting to laps (boring!) or treading the same path every day (also boring). All of the parks are large enough that it is easy to forget that they exist in a suburb, they are generally not very crowded, and immersion in the wilderness definitely soothes mental stress.

Sometimes, I had company. Deer in the Whiting Road Nature Preserve in early April.

On one memorable day, a full grown doe came charging at me from around a bend in the trail. I do not know which of us was more surprised to see the other, but the look of distress on her face was priceless as she put on the brakes while simultaneously contorting herself into a high speed U-turn.

Scene from the Whiting Road Nature Preserve.

What I call the Grand Staircase of the Whiting Road Nature Preserve Red Trail. Dexterous feet recommended, especially when coming down the hill.

Near dusk on the Gosnell Big Woods Trail.

Finally, I transitioned from my Third Class FAA medical certificate to BasicMed. This required assistance from my primary care physician's office. In short order, I had agreement from a different PA (not the one who laid the diagnosis on me in such an unhelpful manner) to do the exam and from the doctor to sign it off. My physician as unfamiliar with BasicMed, but when I likened it to a DOT physical, that helped. This path just makes sense to me. I was already contemplating making this change because after 15 years of perfect compliance reports for my sleep apnea treatment, the FAA still demands onerous annual reports. The idea of adding another condition to an already convoluted process that has delayed my medical in past years was daunting.

When You Were Young

When I was a 20-something graduate student at Indiana University, I walked the nearly 2 mile distance to the lab every day at least twice (there and back again), sometimes four times if I returned to the lab after dinner. I did it briskly, so much so that I recall a morning when a shop owner in downtown Bloomington set aside his broom and offered to race me. There was a valley between home and the university, so I literally walked uphill both ways. I left graduate school a lean 170 lbs and almost immediately gained 10 lbs when I started driving to work every day instead of walking. I weighed 180 when I earned my pilot certificate in 2002.

23 years later when I received my diagnosis, I weighed 223 lbs.

Four months after diagnosis (as of this writing), I am down 30 lbs and now weigh about 190 lbs. I am back within the normal weight range for my height. My wedding ring and a lot of my old clothes fit again; I've been rediscovering these things set aside at the end of the previous decade. My Apple watch indicates that my cardiovascular fitness has increased significantly and my resting heart rate is already lower than it was. My energy level is higher. Physiologically, I am more like the young graduate student I once was than I have been in a decade. I have even been stopped at the airport and told, "You're looking trim these days!" by multiple casual pilot acquaintances, even those unaware of my condition.

Put in a way that pilots will uniquely understand, Warrior 481 has undergone a significant useful load increase.

Read My Mind

When I returned for the 3-month checkup in late May, my official weigh-in revealed that I was down 23 lbs. The PA that originally diagnosed me had left the practice (bye!) and I met with a different one. She entered the room, popped open her notebook computer, paused to read what was displayed, and beamed at me with a pair of bright eyes that did all the smiling for her above a surgical mask.

"Have you looked at your latest data in the portal?"

Of course I had. My glucose and A1c numbers were back in normal range, if on the high end. I was unsurprised by the glucose numbers after a month with the CGM and was fully aware that my morning fasting numbers were already in the normal range.

I shared with her my dismay about the lack of information received with my diagnosis. I explained to the new PA that I had done my own research, described the changes I made in diet and exercise, and mentioned the out of pocket purchase of the CGM and what I learned from it. 

When I was done, she smiled at me again with her eyes. "Most patients are not this engaged. You've done really well and are likely on track to reverse the condition. I don't know if you appreciate how huge this drop in A1c is! It's all due to the changes you've made." 

I took a breath to interject and, seeing this, she nodded with understanding and got herself ahead of what I was about to say. "Yes, of course we don't know how much of it is due to the metformin versus the changes you made. But I'm inclined to take you off the metformin altogether. I think we can control this with diet and exercise." 

While the idea of eliminating the medication was very appealing, I balked at it because I did not know what the contribution from the metformin actually was. We discussed and ultimately agreed to halve my metformin dose and check again in another three months. This seemed satisfactorily prudent to me. Moreover, the fact that she was willing to have an actual conversation with me about my health after that wholly unsatisfactory appointment in March restored some of my faith in that particular office.

Smile Like You Mean It

To say that I walked out of the doctor's office that day with an extra spring in my step would be an understatement. I understood that I would need to monitor my diet going forward, but if I could control the diabetes without medication, the path back to a Third Class medical seemed like it might be relatively easy. We'll see how that goes.

My first solo flight post-diagnosis, SDC to PNE. My hangar neighbor Steve was on short final at SDC in his Bonanza.

Philadelphia City Hall, just a block from where I stayed.

I was also quite happy to get back into the air again. My first solo flight was to Philadelphia (KPNE) where I was an invited speaker at a scientific conference. It was great to reach Philly so quickly, but the ride there was a rough one. I hit my head on the Warrior's ceiling at least once. When I arrived, Northeast Philly Airport was not only extremely busy ("Negative, Ghost Rider, the pattern is full") but everyone was landing with a gusty 20 knot crosswind. Still, it beat driving and the flight home two days later was much more enjoyable.

At the Runway Bar & Grill, Bradford, PA (KBFD) with the WFC on 10 May 2025.

At Potsdam / Damon Field (KPTD) in Potsdam, NY with the WFC on 07 June 2025.

During my time away from the cockpit, I realized that I genuinely missed many of my friends from the Williamson Flying Club. It has been great to get back out and fly with these people again, to both log and act as PIC simultaneously, and to share the experience by flying with others.

Graduation day! 14 June 2025, The Harley School, Rochester, NY. Photo by Dena.

Other big changes happening in this timeframe involved The Bear, who shed her braces and committed to a college for next fall. On 14 June 2025, she graduated from The Harley School, a magical place that fosters academic excellence while emphasizing community. The Bear was a student there for 15 years before receiving her diploma, a "lifer": twelve grades, one year of kindergarten, and two years in the nursery program. This delightfully weird little bubble has been her academic home since age 3. The entire school population is roughly 500 students, slightly smaller than the size of my graduating class and The Bear's school experience there was significantly different from mine in all the best ways. The Harley School is one of the major reasons why I have been largely unwilling to move away from Rochester since she first enrolled. I am so proud of what she has accomplished and am excited about the opportunities she will have in the next chapter of her life.

Somebody Told Me

So here I am, in a better place than where I started 2025, but with more work to do. The next follow-up will be in August. If my numbers stay in the normal range, I will likely be taken off the metformin altogether. I hope this is the case. In the meantime, the trails call nearly as much as the sky.

When I think about the amount of progress I've made, I keep coming back to what my friend and fellow aviator Ed said to me over lunch at the Airport Diner in Potsdam in early June. "A pilot certificate is a powerful motivator." He was so right!

For many of us who were effortlessly healthy when we were younger, it is sometimes easy to fall into the trap of thinking, “I don’t need to take care of myself in that way, it was never necessary before.” Don’t. Even just a few short years ago, my primary care physician opined that I could essentially eat whatever I wanted without any adverse effect. Age has a way of sneaking up on all of us. That’s what happened to me. Don’t let it happen to you.

When Mr. Piper Dipped a Toe in the Turbine Waters

The Little Museum That Could

Exterior of the Piper Aviation Museum with a recently-added Tomahawk on display.

I am very fond of the Piper Aviation Museum. Obviously, it does not carry the prestige of the Smithsonian. It is not nearly so well funded as institutions memorializing other aircraft manufacturers like the Beechcraft Heritage Museum in Tullahoma, TN. It is most certainly no Air Zoo, with Smithsonian affiliate status earned through exquisite vintage aircraft restoration. Rather, I admire the Piper Aviation Museum because it has none of those things going for it. What it has in its corner are a meaningful setting (the Piper engineering building at the former Lock Haven, PA headquarters), a dedicated group of grass roots volunteers, and a supportive community of Piper enthusiasts (including Piper itself -- we'll get to that) that have generously donated aircraft to the museum. The museum has grown substantially since my first visit in 2013 to the extent that aircraft display space is now becoming a challenge. This is a good problem to have and speaks to a successful museum organization.

A portion of the WFC fleet parked in front of the Piper Aviation Museum.

On June 1, nine people from the Williamson-Sodus Airport / Williamson Flying Club arrived in six airplanes to explore the museum. It was the club's first visit to Lock Haven since 2018 (an excursion that I could not join). Not only did we have a great visit, but there was a surprise waiting for us on the main display floor of the museum that day.

Weather Uncertainty and Multiple Choice Routing

Date	Aircraft	Route of Flight	Time (hrs)	Total (hrs)
01 Jun 2025	N21481	SDC (Sodus, NY) - LHV (Lock Haven, PA) - SDC	2.9	2991.7

A common theme in pilot conversations around the Williamson-Sodus Airport, from our Chief Instructor through pilots of all experience levels, is the general observation that weather forecasting this year has been terrible. Weather factors for this trip included the always concerning combination of low ceilings and rough terrain over Pennsylvania combined with forecasts for strong, gusty wind. Given the terrain around Lock Haven, descent into the Susquehanna River valley in strong gusts can make for a very unpleasant ride. But we eventually decided to go and it was a good decision.

My previous visit to the Piper Aviation Museum was March of 2023. A synopsis of the Piper Aircraft Corporation is provided in that post, from its founding as the Taylor Brothers Aircraft Manufacturing Company of Rochester, NY to moving to Bradford, PA to a bankruptcy-driven buy-out of the company by investor William T Piper to a devastating fire in Bradford that brought the company to Lock Haven, PA just before introduction of the iconic J-3 Cub.

Running up behind Eight Five X-Ray at the Williamson-Sodus Airport.

We had nine people flying in six airplanes. Patrick and Elizabeth were in the WFC's Archer I, Tom flew his Cherokee 180, Gilead and Paula took Paula's Cherokee 180, I was solo in Warrior 481 (my original passenger, Jonathan, dropped out due to a scheduling conflict), Sam and Zoe helmed their "one-of-these-things-is-not-like-the-others" Cessna Skyhawk, and Dan zoomed past all of us in his recently completed RV-8A . At least two thirds of our fleet were Piper appropriate!

A right turn to the lakeshore to facilitate climbing over the clouds.

Although we deemed the ceiling adequate for the journey, pilots used a variety of  tactics to manage it. Tom, Dan, and I all took advantage of the break in the clouds existing over the Lake Ontario shore to climb to 10,500 feet and made the trip VFR over the clouds. Patrick, Elizabeth, Zoe, and Sam stayed below the ceiling in their two airplanes. Paula and Gilead requested a pop-up IFR clearance and flew at an intermediate altitude between those of us up high and the others down low. Personally, I did not want to deal with bumps at the lower altitude (everyone reported that they were not as bad as I expected) and was concerned about going IFR due to icing (Paula and Gilead did not report experiencing any). In the end, there were no bad choices.

A few miles north of Lock Haven, PA.

Closer to our destination, I found a suitable hole and spiraled down over the desolate and unforgiving forested terrain north of Lock Haven. I expected the gusty wind to create an uncomfortable ride down low, but the turbulence was mild. Even on the approach to runway 27R, despite being made against a gusty headwind rushing over terrain and through a valley, few burbles were hurled at the landing aircraft.

Piper Pilgrims

All four Cherokee derivatives and the lone Cessna parked in front of the Piper Museum. Jokes about the Cessna in our midst were bandied about, but the fact of the matter is that Cherokees were not built in Lock Haven, either; Piper built all Cherokees in Vero Beach, FL. Dan parked his RV on the main ramp at the opposite corner of the airport and stayed aloof from the good-natured Chevy versus Ford style taunting.

The addition of a Piper PA-38 Traumahawk Tomahawk was new since my previous visit. Introduced in 1978 as a two seat trainer meant to compete with the venerable Cessna 150/152 line, the Tomahawk never quite caught on and production only lasted about four years. The "Traumahawk" nickname is reportedly due to some stall/spin quirks, but I have read many opinions over the years indicating that they are generally good airplanes.

A current Piper corporate flag, a gift from Piper Aircraft, waved outside the former Piper engineering building housing the museum. We would soon learn that the company had bestowed an even more precious artifact upon the museum than that flag.

More airplanes recently mounted on poles, this one is a PA-30 Twin Comanche. The final death blow for the Comanche line, both single and twin-engined variants, was delivered by Hurricane Agnes in 1972 when the storm roused the Susquehanna River to overrun its banks and flood out the Piper factory. Much of the tooling for the Aztec, Navajo, and Comanche aircraft was destroyed in the 1972 flood and never recreated.

Off to Market

From the museum, we walked into town for lunch.

I've been coming to Fox's Market House for years and have never been disappointed.

A model Piper J-3 Cub hanging from the ceiling bestowed a particular sense of place on Fox's Market House.

Likewise, a payphone so ancient that it looked old even to me conveys a particular sense of time.

We enjoyed an excellent lunch at Fox's with service from the friendly staff. From left to right are me, Tom, Gilead, Elizabeth, Paula, Dan, Patrick, Zoe, and Sam. After lunch, an invigorating one mile walk due east returned us to the Piper Aviation Museum.

In the Footsteps of Jamouneau and Weick

5/6 of the WFC fleet parked outside the Piper Aviation Museum.

Cigarettes might seem an odd thing to find in an airplane museum, but a copromotion in the early 1940s between Piper and the manufacturer of Wings cigarettes led to giveaways of Piper J-3 Cubs during the weekly "Wings of Destiny" radio program. World War II brought an end to the promotion when Piper redirected all manufacturing to support the war effort.

A key example of a militarized Piper was the L-4 Grasshopper used for observation and other liaison tasks on WWII battlefields.

Added since my previous visit, a 1962 PA-23-235 Apache with twin 235 horsepower engines filled a corner of the main display floor. This is the second production Apache 235 ever built.

Kerosene Burner

The surprise of the day came when peering out at the main display floor from the second level of the museum. Among the familiar Pipers stood a newly-acquired one of a kind Piper prototype.

Those who read aviation magazines in the first decade of the 2000s will recognize it right away. At the time, anticipation ran high for the Very Light Jet (VLJ) market segment, personal jets that could be used by private owners or for air taxi operations. Manufacturers hoping to capitalize on the perceived opportunity included Diamond (with the D-Jet), Eclipse (with the 400), Cirrus (with the Vision), and Piper with the Altaire that was colloquially known as the "Piper Jet". Coincident with the Great Recession in 2008, these programs were all shelved except for the Cirrus Vision. The Vision went on to become the first certified single engine civilian jet and that achievement earned it the 2018 Collier Trophy.

Like many of its conceptual contemporaries, the Piper Jet design relied on a single engine. Only one prototype was built and test flown with great fanfare, which is why I recognized the aircraft immediately. It was a big deal in the aviation media of the time and seemed to fuel tremendous excitement.

The Piper Jet prototype has been wasting away on outdoor static display for many years at the Lakeland Linder International Airport in Florida. Suffering from the ravages of weather, the prototype was returned to Piper's main facility in Vero Beach for a new paint job, then donated to the Piper Aviation Museum by Piper. When we saw it, the museum had not yet publicly announced receipt of the aircraft (hence the surprise) and was still working to fully reassemble it.

In case there was any doubt about what we were looking at.

This one of a kind prototype first flew on July 30, 2008.

As suggested by this display, Piper seemed to be all in on the Piper Jet back in the day, which is why the sudden cancellation of the project was so striking.

I wondered how much of the instrument panel reflected the way the aircraft was equipped during its early flight testing. Missing instruments including the copilot airspeed indicator seemed important.

Clearly, the interior of the prototype was not nearly as polished as that of a regular production aircraft.

With addition of the Piper Jet to its collection, the Piper Aviation Museum has added yet another one-of-a-kind prototype (alongside the 1962 fiberglass PA-29 Papoose and the 1942 PT-1 tandem seat military trainer) to tell the story of how Piper Aircraft evolved over the years. To my mind, the evolutionary dead ends are some of the most interesting.

Piper Classics

A J-3 Cub is great on its own, but putting one on skis takes it to the next level! Unless it's summertime and the skis render it virtually useless. There is a time and place for everything.

I have always been a fan of the PA-24 Comanche. As a low wing, four place aircraft, Comanches somewhat resemble Piper Cherokees except that they embody a nuanced elegance that the later Cherokee design lacks. This particular model is special because it is one of only 148 Comanche 400 aircraft built. The "400" refers to the eight cylinder, 400 horsepower Lycoming IO-720 powerplant shoehorned into the cowling that gave this beast a 185 knot (213 mph) cruise speed. While these airplanes have their adherents, poor cooling for the back two cylinders is a known challenge with the design.

Another one-of-a-kind is still under construction, this reproduction single seat PA-8 Skycycle. It has sprouted tailfeathers since my last visit to the museum. The Skycycle was first flown in 1945, but never went into production and no prototype survived to the modern era. This example was a project started by Bob Erdman and donated to the museum by Erdman's family. The museum is endeavoring to complete it.

It's true! The J-3 Cub is the official airplane of the state of Pennsylvania. I earned my tailwheel endorsement in a beautifully-maintained 1946 J-3 Cub and had a wonderful time flying low and slow with the door open, a true stick and rudder experience.

So many Cubs! Two J-3s dressed in classic Cub yellow plus a silver J-2 Cub, the prior iteration tweaked by Walter Jamouneau to create the classic J-3.

A working plane. The PA-25 Pawnee is as a purpose-built agricultural aircraft, but these robustly utilitarian ships are also frequently used to tow gliders aloft. My first time on tow was behind a Pawnee in Boulder, CO.

A simple, utilitarian instrument panel makes perfect sense for a day VFR airplane, but I was forced to wonder how badly something had to go wrong to illuminate that prominent, instrument-sized red light. The chemical hopper was positioned immediately in front of the pilot, so close that bump-outs were needed to accommodate the pilot's toes on the rudder pedals. Note also that, as a taildragger with very different deck angles on the ground versus in flight, the hopper volume markings use different scales representative of both.

From the outside, the position of the hopper helps explain the Pawnee's long snout. This placement makes sense because the hopper should be close enough to the center of gravity that the balance of the airplane is not significantly affected as agricultural chemicals are added or consumed.

However, what really caught my eye was the long, rectangular tube mounted on the right wing labeled "automatic flagman".  Originally, spray pilots relied on human flaggers to mark each completed swath of farmland. After the pilot completed a swath, the flaggers would move their flags to the start of the next swath as a visual reference to the pilot as he completed a 180° wingover turn to spray the next row. Human flaggers -- who were occasionally drenched with agricultural chemicals as a job hazard -- were ultimately replaced by "automatic flagmen" that dispensed a biodegradable cardboard flag at the end of each row with the push of a button on the control stick. Today, the flags are virtual and the entire process is GPS-driven. However, the flying skills required of ag-pilots remain unchanged.

Fun fact: I've always had a place in my heart for the somewhat ungainly PA-22 Tri-Pacer or "flying milk stool". When I first considered an aircraft purchase in 2003, a friend suggested a Tri-Pacer in good condition that was for sale locally. I obviously went a different direction, even though I stayed within the Piper family. When I contemplate a Tri-Pacer, it represents on of those alternative paths in life not taken.

The PA-12 Super Cruiser was essentially a big J-3 Cub that was soloed from the front seat instead of the back and boasted extra horsepower. I earned my seaplane rating in a 1947 version on straight floats. The City of the Angels -- a name I cannot read without hearing the opening harmonies of the Journey song -- was one of two Super Cruisers to circle the world in 1947, the first time that such a feat was accomplished in light, personal aircraft. The partner airplane, City of Washington, rightfully hangs in the Smithsonian Udvar-Hazy Center.

Piper's earliest foray into low wing aircraft was not the Apache (1954) or Comanche (1958), though they were Piper's first production low wing aircraft. Rather, the sole 1942 PT-1 prototype was Piper's first low wing build, a tandem two seater intended to meet military primary and intermediate training needs. No further PT-1s were produced, but the practical lessons learned in building a low wing aircraft were undoubtedly parlayed into the Comanches and Cherokees that ultimately followed.

After breaking away from Piper, Gilbert Taylor was making a killing selling a Taylorcraft configured with side-by-side seating. In an effort to keep up, Piper introduced the side-by-side J-4 Cub Coupe in 1938. 

Note also the "72 flood" placard high on the door behind the J-4 showing the water line from Hurricane Agnes that changed the trajectory of the Piper Aircraft Corporation.

With one final look at the J-2, J-3, and J-4 Cubs, it was time to get underway for home.

In using the third floor bathroom, I became curious about how the rest of the space was used. The third floor of the museum included what appeared to be an event space as well as a yoga studio, something that I did not expect to find in the Piper Aviation Museum. It likely would have puzzled the chain smoking engineers (at the risk of playing too much into stereotypes) once employed in that building.

Through the Aerial Plane Wash

I spent more time nerding out at the Piper Aviation Museum than the rest of my cohort and I was the last to leave the museum.

As I taxied to the opposite corner to the airport for departure, I passed Dan in his RV-8A preparing to take flight. 

When I saw this ag-plane on the ramp, the phrase "crop duster on steroids" came to mind. What also stood out to me was that, despite the sleek, strutless airframe and the turboprop engine in the nose, the low wing configuration with a single, high visibility pilot seat was unchanged from venerable ag-plane designs from decades ago like the Pawnee.

We had some spotty rain showers to contend with on the way home and Rochester ATC was highly engaged in helping the group pick through weather. 

Recommendation

I love supporting the Piper Aviation Museum, it really is the little museum that could. It has grown substantially in recent years and still has the ability to surprise visitors with artifacts like a previously undisclosed Piper Jet! The Piper Aviation Museum is located at the southwest corner of the William T. Piper Memorial Airport (KLHV) in Lock Haven, PA. Airplane parking is available along the air side of the fence separating the museum and its parking lot from the airport as pictured earlier. Hours are Wednesday - Friday: 9 am - 4 pm, Saturday: 10 am - 4 pm, Sunday: Noon - 4 pm. It is closed on Mondays and Tuesdays. Adult admission is $12 with discounted entrance fees offered for 55+ and military ($10) or children 7-16 ($5). Children under 7 years of age are free. Guided tours are the most engaging way to explore the museum (I recommend Ed Watson if he's available), but the museum has recently implemented an audio tour that is quite informational. Hardcopy scripts for the audio tour are available for those who would prefer to read over listening. For those in need of a meal while visiting Lock Haven, Fox's Market House is highly recommended.

More / different photos from the museum can be found in my post from 2023.