Although Cub nostalgia keeps purchase prices high, the world’s premier utility aircraft is also a terrific fun flyer. Ham-fisted pilots give the model a tarnished accident record, so check the logs carefully for properly repaired damage.

In Alaska, oversize tundra tires or bushwheels are a popular addition and make sand and gravel bar landings possible.

In the process of completing its evolution from the 1935 Taylor E-2 Cub, the Piper PA-18 Super Cub developed a distinctly split personality. It became both one of the finest STOL working airplanes ever created—whether unmodified or equipped with an eye-watering multitude of STCs, wonderfully easy to maintain, worth enough money to be almost investment grade. But it also had a definite dark side, a Mr. Hyde persona lurking in an accident rate for runway loss of control and impact with obstructions on takeoff and landing that is painfully high. …