In 1999 I met retired Airline Captain Maury Seitz in Northern Texas – and his J-5 Cub “Sentimental Journey”.
As a 16 year old Maury had soloed THIS Cub and when he retired he searched for it all over the USA, and found it, belonging to a Chief in an Indian Reservation! He bought it back and then flew it many years. His specialty were (are? I have no idea if he is still alive!) aerobatics in the Cub. He took me for an impressive ride with loops, spins, rolls the day I made these pictures … The photos were made around Decatur, TX.
Flyer59 what a lovely post, with great photos. The J-5 in due course became the PA-12, two of them being the first genuine ‘light aircraft’ to go round the world. One of these Piper Super Cruisers has pride of place at the National Air and Space museum.
http://airandspace.si.edu/collections/artifact.cfm?object=nasm_A19500101000
Aerobatting a long wing old timer takes a bit more testicular fortitude than I am equipped with, although a nice display routine can be done using mainly low G manoeuvres, keeping it between half positive G and three G. The clipped wing 90HP Cub is a creditable performer, and in the 1960’s could be found placing well at the Intermediate level.
Look, this is the “City of Washington” when it was still in storage at the NASM in 1999
And here a link to one of Giles Anderson’s articles of competing in a J3C ‘clipped wing’ Cub.
Very interesting, thank you. The young Bob Hoover flew aerobatics a lot in the J-3 Cub. That’s how he learned about energy management!
Cruising around the net would indicate that Maury no longer owns the J-5, but was alive and giving talks about his history with the plane a couple of years ago. He posted elsewhere that he was still flying in 2010, at 81, and in the final stages of re-restoring the J-5 at that time. Planes like that live forever and apparently their owners don’t do too badly either . Neat.
Thank you, Silvaire. I was just going to send an eMail to TX to find out …
Back then, on the same trip, I met this old pilot who was building a GEE BEE in his little hangar at his grass strip. We would go visit him and all his friends were hoping that he would ever FINISH the plane and kill himself in it … Some years later he died, … before the first flight.
Good post Flyer, some people, and some planes should just never have to get old…
Hi! I’m Maury’s youngest daughter. He’s still alive & well in Grapevine, Texas. He sold the Cub several years ago after getting in and out if the cockpit and maintenance costs became somewhat problematic.
He’d love to hear from you! His email is [email protected]. Just put “Cubby’s Friend” in the Subject line!
UPDATE: My father, Maury Seitz, took his final flight this morning at 4AM, Texas local time. He was 90 years old. He will be sorely missed by all who knew and loved him and his stories.
