Alpha

Piper PA-18 Super Cub

The family’s red Super Cub is affectionately called “Alpha.”

Your pilot spins the propellor and the little engine roars to life. The moment you climb into this zippy 2-seater you can feel it: Alpha wants to be in the sky. Alpha eats sky. You will fall in love with this plane.

“It is the closest thing,” Paul says, “to a pair of wings that you strap on.”

The Piper PA-18 Super Cub is a much-beloved plane among bush pilots but Paul Claus has made a few modifications that put Alpha into a different class altogether.

Alpha has been stripped down to bare bones weight – under a thousand pounds, and fitted with super-squishy wide-rimmed “bush wheels” to take you to the farthest reaches of the wilderness, to land and take off on a dime.

“All cubs are good,” says Paul. “Some are just better.”