Piper Aircraft Museum

My guide, Pauline
Bill Piper's silver Cub and far left, his Buick convertible

My visit to the Piper Museum was exceptional. Since the small town of Lock Haven , Pennsylvania was having a parade down on Main Street for some reason, I had the entire museum to myself and the person in charge had the time to give me a personally guided tour. My tour guide was Pauline, a very pleasant woman who it turns out was a personal friend of the Piper family, and so, had a great deal of personal information to share. The museum is small, but has a great display of the history of the Piper Aircraft Company as well as a small hangar with some of the most beautifully restored Piper aircraft I have ever seen. There is also one of Bill Piper's own personal J2 Piper Cub and his Buick Convertible among others. I had to ask Pauline, why the Piper Cub owned by Bill Piper was silver and not "Cub yellow"? She explained that, that particular model was built before Bill's father, William Piper, chose the now famous color yellow for the Piper Cub. Seems the first Piper Cubs were silver. For more pictures, go to the "Photo Gallery".

Kent, NY to Lock Haven, PA

The rain Gods were against me today! I left the house this morning at 10:30 and I didn't get twenty minutes away before the rain started. I pulled into the gas station in Elba, NY and waited for the rain to pass, then continued on. As I got south of Batavia on route 63, the sky got uglier and uglier, until again drops started to fall, so I turned around and returned home. By 4:00pm in the afternoon, the skies where sunny and warm, so I dicided to take off again. This time, by the time I reached the area near of Mt. Morris on Route 390 south, I had to put on my rain suit as I would ride in and out of rain showers for the next three hours. Nearing the Pennsylvania border, I rode out of the band of rain that was traveling west to east, and the sky became sunny again.
The ride thru Pensylvania was very nice, especially an area on PA. Route 284. Turning off of Route 15 south onto Route 284 near Buttonwood, PA, the road tuns into a narrow two lane road that winds thru the valley and along side a small stream. The road is a joy to ride since it winds thru a forested hilly area. Great fun on a bike! Four hours after leaving home, I arrived in Lock Haven.

Off To Lock Haven, Pennsylvania

Route to Lock Haven, Pa.
Piper Twin Comanche

The weather for this week end is looking good, so it looks like I will be pointing the bike toward Lock Haven, Pa., and the home of the Piper Aircraft Museum. Piper Aircraft has been responsible for building some very good planes over the years, and probably none more famous than the legendary Piper Cub. My Dad had a Piper Twin Comanche that we flew to Santiago, Chile and back, in August of 1968. A trip that took us to ten countries in four weeks.

More Trips Planned

Dearborn, Michigan is one of the destinations that Sharon and I will be heading to. We plan to visit the Henry Ford Museum there. http://www.thehenryford.org/ Another weekend trip I plan to make will take me to the Piper Aviation Museum in Lock Haven, Pennsylvania. http://www.pipermuseum.com/ And of course the Big Daddy of them all....EAA AirVenture in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. "The Worlds Greatest Aviation Celebration". http://www.airventure.org/
This year will see the worlds largest passenger airliner, the Airbus A-380, make its debute in North America at AirVenture. This is the worlds only true double decker airliner with a passenger capacity of 525 in mixed seating. See the first A-380 to land at London Heathrow here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HvR1Oe6CfoQ