Two questions about the PIPER CUB

Howdy folks,
I was browsing the web and came upon this odd photograph of the Piper
Cub strung on wires above the ground. Apparently it was used to launch
aircraft and catch them without landing/takeoff.

Here's the pictu
http://www.ww2incolor.com/gallery/us...ipercub_brodie

Anyone seen that before? Was it practical? Did they actuallly use it?

Secondly -- and this has nothing to do with the above question -- I am
interested in purchasing some land out in the country and would like to
be sure I can eventually fly a Cub or Super cub into "my backyard".
Anyone know how many acres are needed for a decent grass landing strip?
Please no answers like "2 acres can be attempted/CIA bush style" . I
want safety in mind! I have some options to get maybe around 25 acres,
but not sure if that's enough.

Thanks for your time folks. I look forward to your response.

If you buy a super cub, you can just about it fly it out of your garage
:-) I think there's a picture going the rounds of someone airborne
while flying out of a hangar somewhere.

Paul kgyy wrote:
If you buy a super cub, you can just about it fly it out of your garage
:-) I think there's a picture going the rounds of someone airborne
while flying out of a hangar somewhere.

There certainly is a pic of the Maule doing that down in Moultrie.

wrote in message
Secondly -- and this has nothing to do with the above question -- I am
interested in purchasing some land out in the country and would like to
be sure I can eventually fly a Cub or Super cub into "my backyard".
Anyone know how many acres are needed for a decent grass landing strip?
Please no answers like "2 acres can be attempted/CIA bush style" . I
want safety in mind! I have some options to get maybe around 25 acres,
but not sure if that's enough.

The Pa-18-150 requires 400' ground roll for take-off on a standard day at
sea level, and less for landing. Double that to 800' with clear approach and
departure corridors (no tree lines and not over your neighbors house) and
you should be happy.

D.

wrote:
Howdy folks,
I was browsing the web and came upon this odd photograph of the Piper
Cub strung on wires above the ground. Apparently it was used to launch
aircraft and catch them without landing/takeoff.

Here's the pictu
http://www.ww2incolor.com/gallery/us...ipercub_brodie

Anyone seen that before? Was it practical? Did they actuallly use it?

Scanned from "Mr Piper and His Cubs" Devon Francis,Iowa State Press - a
interesting book if you want the Cub's history:

"...It was at the invasion of Okinawa, which had to be neutralized lo
permit the use of the air forces' mightiest bombers on the Japanese home
islands, that the virtuosity of the lightplane reached a new high. Back
at Fort Sill, Capt. Tony Piper had experimented with as nmty-yet
workable-an idea as ever was inflicted on pilots.
Known as the "Brodie Device," and named not for the man who jumped off
the Brooklyn Bridge but for an army lieutenant named James Brodie who
pushed for it, it was engineered to permit an L-4 to take off from and
land on a cable strung between a brace of stan*chions. The airplane with
a hook at (he center of gravity atop the wing was mounted in a heavy
nylon sling that dangled from a trolley on the cable. To take off, an
L-4 pilot opened his throttle, sped down the cable, and yanked a lanyard
to free his hook. Landing, he jock*eyed his plane to engage the hook in
the sling.
Tony Piper was one of the first to try out the Brodie Device. Curious
about what reduction in drag would result from removing the landing
gear, he flew off and on the Brodie without wheels-naturally without
authority. The risk was not in an accident. It
was in all the explaining that he would have to do if he crashed the
airplane. The Brodie, happily, worked.
For Okinawa, army artillery had heen set up in the adjoining Keraina
ReUo Islands to shell the Japanese defenses. It needed pho*tography and
air observation, but the Keramas had no suitable area for a landing
strip. The Brodie Device had been installed on some LSTs. The first such
ship, in tact, to be outfitted with it was chris*tened the USS Brodie.
The pilols were ready. They had been schooled by Lt. Earl B. Montgomery,
a pilot with the 77th Infantry Division Artillery.
Brodie cuds zeroed-in the rounds from the Keramas onto the Okinawa
Japanese. Not a pilot or airplane was lost.
Joe E. Brown, the comic, flew in Cubs to entertain the troops. So did
comedian Bob Hope, ("A Cub," wrote Hope in a newspaper column, "is a
Mustang [fighter] that wouldn't eat its cereal.") So did Ernie Pyle. He
flew off a Brodie to his last assignment, a rendezvous with a sniper's
bullet on le Shima."

On 30 Nov 2005 11:40:47 -0800, wrote in
.com:

Howdy folks,
I was browsing the web and came upon this odd photograph of the Piper
Cub strung on wires above the ground. Apparently it was used to launch
aircraft and catch them without landing/takeoff.

Here's the pictu
http://www.ww2incolor.com/gallery/us...ipercub_brodie

Anyone seen that before?

No.

Was it practical?

Brodie thought it was.

Did they actuallly use it?

Not much, I gather.

http://stonebooks.com/archives/050807.shtml

http://www.aerofiles.com/brodie-rig.html

... I have some options to get maybe around 25 acres,
but not sure if that's enough.

If the acres are all square, you will be buying a box
that is roughly 1040 feet on each side. The diagonal
would be 1470 feet.

If the property is rectangular rather than square, the
dimensions would get longer.

Marty

I beg to differ. An acre is 43560 sq ft. So that makes
it 208.7' x 208.7'.

I beg to differ. An acre is indeed 43560 square feet, but 208.7 x 208.7 is
one of an infinity of shape factors. For instance, it could be one inch
wide by about a hundred miles long.

Jim


"Flyingmonk" wrote in message
oups.com...
I beg to differ. An acre is 43560 sq ft. So that makes
it 208.7' x 208.7'.

wrote in message
oups.com...
Howdy folks,
I was browsing the web and came upon this odd photograph of the Piper
Cub strung on wires above the ground. Apparently it was used to launch
aircraft and catch them without landing/takeoff.

Here's the pictu
http://www.ww2incolor.com/gallery/us...ipercub_brodie

Anyone seen that before? Was it practical? Did they actuallly use it?

Strangely enough, there has been a cub (I think it was a cub, but it might
not have been one) with this rig at OSH for several years, now. It has some
pictures and storyboards explaining how it worked. Very interesting.
--
Jim in NC

Never mind, he was talking about 25 square acres not 1 square acre
anyways. I jumped the gun again. :)