If you’re considering a bare-minimum, entry-level airplane, it’s tough to beat the high-wing Pipers of the late ‘40s. It seems everyone and his brother was offering a minimum, entry-level airplane following the war—Globe, Luscombe, Aeronca, Porterfield, Ercoupe, Cessna and others—but with the legacy of the Cub as a reference, Piper’s various models also are excellent choices.

From 1945 through the early 1950s, you have your choice of a variety of two- to three-passenger taildraggers, typically for less than $20,000. Most of these airplanes are capable of cruising at 70 to 85 knots with a reasonable load, and they’re among the most economical airplanes to operate.

Virtually all those models were derived in one form or another from the basic J-3 Cub, updated and renamed the PA-11 Cub Special after the war. (For you trivia buffs, the original J designation stood for Walter C. Jamouneau, Piper’s chief engineer in the early ‘30s.) J-3s were adapted to an amazing variety of configurations, including, would you believe, a biplane. Depending on how you count, there were nearly a dozen tailwheel models produced, from the basic PA-11 Cub to the PA-20 Pacer. They’re all economy champs, simple, efficient airplanes perfectly suited for the pilot who wishes to economize on both purchase price and operating costs.

Gilbert Pierce of Germantown, Tenn., is one of those pilots. First licensed in 1990, Pierce was determined to fly at a minimum cost, although he didn’t start off with a high-wing Piper. “After I learned to fly, I almost immediately began building a Kitfox,” says Pierce. “I took three years to finish the Kitfox, and it was a fun-flying little airplane. The problem was the ‘little’ part. The Kitfox was just too cramped and slow to be practical as a traveling machine.”