{"id":3001,"date":"2014-09-11T18:23:49","date_gmt":"2014-09-12T01:23:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.mechadigital.net\/?p=3001"},"modified":"2021-08-26T20:37:56","modified_gmt":"2021-08-26T20:37:56","slug":"112-cub-barn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/112-cub-barn\/","title":{"rendered":"#112 The Cub in a Barn"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Cub in a Barn<\/strong><\/p>\n

There is a recurring legend in aviation.\u00a0 It\u2019s one of those stories that keep popping up in different parts of the country and involving different people.\u00a0 I\u2019ve always thought it was interesting because it is popular among non-flyers and flyers alike.\u00a0 It is the old story about \u201cthe cub-in-the-barn\u201d.<\/p>\n

From time to time an airplane will surface.\u00a0 It was either a flyable plane or a kit that was never finished.\u00a0 It was disassembled and, for lack of a better facility, is usually stored in somebody\u2019s barn.\u00a0 There it languishes for years, perhaps under a tarp and largely forgotten.\u00a0 And then it gets found.\u00a0 Usually, somebody is able to buy it from the inheritors for a song.\u00a0 That\u2019s an important part of the legend.<\/p>\n

Many years ago, I learned how universal the legend was.\u00a0 I was living in Florida and traveling all over the country to perform my airshow act.\u00a0 We\u2019d put our Cub in its trailer along with the big duck cage which housed our troupe of seven performing ducks.\u00a0 Off we\u2019d go until shortly before we got to one of the agriculture inspection stations.\u00a0 We\u2019d stop short of the station, put the ducks in their little catch cage, bury the cage under luggage in the truck and then proceed through the inspection station.\u00a0 At one station in particular, the same officer would saunter out and greet me.\u00a0 He recognized the rig.\u00a0 We\u2019d wander back and he\u2019d stick his snoot in the trailer where the Cub sat.\u00a0 Then he\u2019d always turn to me and ask,<\/p>\n

\u201cYou don\u2019t happen to know of an old Cub in a barn anywhere, would you?\u201d<\/p>\n

Interested in flying, he was aware of the recurring legend and hoped that HE would find such a plane and make it his own.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo, I haven\u2019t seen one lately\u201d, I\u2019d answer. \u00a0I was thinking, \u201cyeh, sure, if I find a Cub in a barn I\u2019m gonna tell YOU about it!\u201d.\u00a0 \u00a0He\u2019d wish me a good trip and we\u2019d be on our way.\u00a0 We\u2019d stop a mile down the road, put the ducks back in the trailer and continue on the trip.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not that there are no Cubs in barns.\u00a0 They are there.\u00a0 It\u2019s just that there aren\u2019t too many of them and they are not all Cubs.\u00a0 When I rented a little farmhouse a few years ago, there was a 172RG stashed in the barn.\u00a0 It had been wrecked many years before.\u00a0 The wreckage lay, covered with dust , in the barn and there were a lot of salvageable parts on it.<\/p>\n

\"Neiport\"<\/a>
A Nieuport biplane at a WW1 airfield<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Years ago I came up with a story based on the concept.\u00a0 The story concerns a U.S. pilot who is shot down over occupied France during the second world war.\u00a0 He is hidden by a French farming family in their barn.\u00a0 In that barn he finds an old Nieuport biplane that has lain there for years.\u00a0 Over the weeks, he puts the old World War 1 fighter together and eventually escapes in it after a dogfight with a Messerschmitt in which he is victorious because he can out-turn the more modern fighter.\u00a0 I still think it could be a good story if properly written and produced.<\/p>\n

And that\u2019s the legend of the \u201cCub-in-a-barn\u201d.\u00a0 They are rarely Cubs.\u00a0 And you\u2019ll probably never find one.\u00a0 But the legend contributes greatly to the romance of aviation.<\/p>\n

Keep checkin\u2019 those barns.\u00a0 And Happy Swooping!<\/p>\n

Brian<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“They are rarely Cubs. And you\u2019ll probably never find one. But the legend contributes greatly to the romance of aviation.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":3003,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[35,49],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3001"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3001"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3001\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3003"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3001"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3001"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3001"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}