Thanks to Bob P. for finding this on www.historylink.org.
On April 12, 1951, Lieutenant John W. Hodgkin, age 42, a pilot stationed at McChord Air Force Base, flies his ski-equipped Piper J-3 Cub from Spanaway Air Strip to the top of Mount Rainier (14,410 feet), establishing a new world record for a high-altitude landing. However, when Hodgkin prepares to leave, the engine will not start in the rarefied air and he is forced to spend the night on top of the mountain, huddled in the Cub’s cockpit. The next morning, Hodgkin will push his airplane down the snow-covered face of Nisqually Glacier, glide, without power, to frozen Mowich Lake, at the 5,000-foot level, and land safely on the ice. With the help of a National Park Service ranger and 20 gallons of gasoline, dropped from an Air Force rescue plane, Hodgkin will take off again and return safely to Spanaway. He will be charged in federal court with landing a private aircraft in a national park without permission and be fined $350. Hodgkin, whose escapade captures newspaper headlines for four days, tells reporters he undertook the flight to demonstrate the feasibility and usefulness of using light aircraft for high altitude rescue work and mountain warfare.
Pilot with a Passion
John Wilfred Hodgkin (1909-1989) was a Lieutenant in the U.S. Air Force Reserve, attached to the 14th Troop Carrier Squadron, 61st Troop Carrier Group at McChord Air Force Base in Pierce County. Stationed at Thule Air Base in Greenland during World War II (1941-1945), Hodgkin had been reactivated during the Korean War (1950-1953) to fly Douglas C-54 Skymasters on the polar route to Japan, providing airlift of personnel and supplies for United Nations forces. The 61st Troop Carrier Group also flew combat missions into North Korea, carrying ammunition, supplies, and equipment to besieged UN forces and returning to Japan with wounded personnel and evacuees.
Hodgkin, an experienced mountain climber, glider pilot, and photographer, had a passion for landing his small Piper J-3 Cub at high places. With photographs, he documented numerous landings on slopes in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, including Mount Whitney and Mount Shasta, and wrote an article for national magazine titled “I Land Anywhere.” His goal was to establish the world record for a high-altitude landing and he had been planning a quick trip to the top of Mount Rainier (14,410 feet) for several weeks.
His Piper Cub
The Piper J-3 Cub is a light, single-engine aircraft, manufactured from 1938 to 1947 by the Piper Aircraft Corporation in Lock Haven, Pennsylvania. The fuselage, made of welded tubular steel, and the wing assembly, made of aluminum, are covered with fabric. The small, unpressurized cabin has accommodations for only the pilot and a passenger, sitting in tandem. The Cub uses a tail-dragger configuration with a fixed landing gear. The wheels can be easily removed and replaced with skis for landing on ice and snow, or with pontoons for water landings. Used extensively by the military during World War II for intelligence gathering and artillery spotting, the Cub, designated the L-4 “Grasshopper” by the Army, had the well-deserved reputation for being able to land anywhere the pilot dared to go.
The original Piper J-3 Cub was equipped with an air-cooled Continental 65-horsepower engine, with a service ceiling of 11,500 feet. In order to reach higher altitudes, Hodgkin replaced this with a Continental 85-horsepower engine, giving him a service ceiling of 15,000 feet. The Cub lacked an electric starter-motor, therefore the engine had to be hand-started by spinning the propeller. The plane also lacked a two-way radio. (continued)