I spent a few months in New Zealand, including some nights in Rotorua and a trip down the Shotover. Rotorua is funky and reeks of sulfur from the vents everywhere, and the Shotover jet boat ride is fantastic. But the highlight was a flying lesson in a Piper Cub over Wanaka, north of Queenstown. It's a bucket list must!

Well each of the four engines is €800, and at 5.7m wingspan it's over half the size of a piper cub (11m wingspan)... the cost probably wasn't that far off. I didn't look up any of the other components though.

The next video shows it with upgraded engines, that cost almost €1200 each... in this one the engines weren't powerful enough for three bladed propellers like the original, hence the upgrade.

In Alaska they take piper cubs and actually dip their wheels in water while flying.

Fun Fact: This aircraft weighs 800kg, over twice what a Piper Cub weighs, and 300kg more than a Piper's MAX take-off weight.

Maybe next time, he should try materials lighter than mild steel pipe and angle iron...

I know some guys in Alaska who do this in their piper Cubs, fun to see a vid

Holy smokes. WikiAnswers says:

"take off speed can vary from about 32 knots (about 37mph) with a piper cub to nearly 180 knots (about 205 mph) with some supersonic jets whose tiny wings dont produce much lift at slow speeds "

The CFI yelled at me about it, I'd done a few hundred landings by then and she thinks I pressed the right brake hard on landing?? Yeah thats what I did, the wheels touched down so I decided to smash the right brake to the floor. Puh-lease. My CFI's generally were pieces of crap, had to switch them every week or two because they kept leaving or generally flaking out. I came to the conclusion CFI must pay one notch up from fast food.

I wont forget the first instructor though who had > 5k hours and was superb in every sense. Except once he solo'd me (13 hrs in) he took off. I think he liked to solo people and then leave. He taught me a completely different method for crosswind landings though than every later instructor.

Most exciting flight school moment #2, a Piper cub crashing in front of me when it couldnt make it to the runway. Most exciting moment #3, a plane flying faster, under me, while I was on final approach and taking my runway. Most exciting moment #4, my CFI (probably the 5th!) following VOR radials with me under the opaque hood, and almost colliding with another plane (( from the SAME flight school )) at 2000 ft! Talk about a clusterfu*k company. (The 2nd flight school I went to.) Most exciting moment #5, grabbing the mixture knob instead of carb heat and killing my engine mid flight over the middle of Anchorage (no big deal but exciting having no motor running) . Most exciting moment #6, my first solo flight, and the tower comes on and starts giving me bizzare new pattern instructions I've never had before.

I have seen Piper cubs land in mere feet, and stand still airborne in the wind.