Funny story; yesterday I had a funeral to attend (not the funny part) and it was a 3+ hour drive so I elected to fly instead.

So I decided to take the Carbon Cub and at the same time conduct some business at several local FBO's at the regional Class D airport about an hour away by air in the town where the service was being held. At this airport I was flying to there is a large full service jet-set type FBO, a small local FBO and flight school, and a community college aviation academy. Both the large FBO and the community college flight center are on the south ramp. The smaller FBO is on the north ramp with the commercial carrier terminal in between.

I parked at the large FBO first (because they had the cheap rental car), went to the funeral, came back and talked to the guys there. Contacted ground to taxi over to the aviation academy, talked to those guys for a bit, and then got back on ground frequency to taxi up to the smaller FBO on the north ramp wwaaaay (about a mile) at the other end of the airport. Wind was out of the north at around 15+ gusting to over 20, so taxiing all over heck and gone was a pain.

Anyway, after I was done at the smaller FBO I was tired of taxiing all over the darn airport and asked the ground controller for a A-3 departure on 34L, which was the closest access to the active runway from where I was and allowed me to mostly taxi into the somewhat increasing wind, much preferable to a mile long taxi with a gusty quartering tailwind. Only problem was it was about 4/5th of the way down the runway. Well, that runway is more than 6000 feet long and with a minimum 15 knot headwind (or even without the wind) I wasn't worried a bit about taking off with less than 1500 feet of runway in a Carbon Cub.

However, ground control sure was worried about it. I'm pretty sure no one had ever asked them for that before. They had to think about it, confirm my request, make sure I didn't 'really' want A-5 (at mid-field) instead, and then (I think) call someone to make sure it was okay. Finally, it was approved but only "at my own risk". So of course I made a rolling turn accelerating onto the runway, hit full power, and was airborne (with the headwind), in just a few feet.

From the tower it must have looked pretty instantaneous. On the way out the tower controller (who sounded like a more seasoned guy) wished me good day and said he would explain the difference between a Cub and a commercial jet to the ground control guy.

Made me laugh. Anyone else have any interesting stories flying a Cub type aircraft into larger airports?

I take my -170 into San Antonio Int'l quite often. I will advise tower of my intentions to land and clear at certain taxiways to make my taxi shorter. They usually are receptive to my requests. I will also request to land on the crosswind and offer to LAHSO of the main runway. I usually tell them I will clear at the first or second taxi along the crosswind runway. That tells them that I only need 300-500 of the almost 2000' to the intersecting runway. This technique of informing them of my aircraft's capability helps re-assure them that I'm not asking for something I can't do.

On departure I will also ask for intersection departures. The FBO I use is usually very near the end of the runway favoring the south winds. So I make sure that they realize that I will be ready as soon as I hit the hold short line and am able to immediately turn 30 degrees right upon lifting off. They like the slow guys to make this immediate turn to clear the departure corridor. (oh by the way it lets me fly right past the tower, a wave or thumbs up helps express my gratitude.) Do this a couple times and they learn that "this guy is easy to work with, and is willing to help us, so we will help him."

But the best part of flying fun taildraggers at bigger airports is watching all the jet jockeys drool as they taxi by. You know they wish like Heck they could change places right ten.

I'm hangared at a class D airport so they already know I'm flying before I reach the threshold on take off and have to taxi a ways on landing to reach the first taxiway. As a result they give me lots of latitude like clearing me to land long when I call in and letting me take off from any intersection I ask for. If there is another plane (or more) in front of me on a taxiway to the active runway they will often offer me an intersection clearance while the other planes taxi to the beginning of the runway. Like someone stated before, once ATC knows what you can do, they often let you do it. It helps them get traffic out of the way of others.

I've only been "in the club" for a few months, so I only have a couple anecdotes.

First, opposite of what some others have commented, I had a good experience in Brownsville, TX. The controller there noticed my plane and offered a midfield departure (at the taxiway that the ramp lead to). So that was nice.

Mostly though I just really enjoy get the smiles, waves and questions from the jet charter guys when going into places that are filthy with charter traffic. They may get to fly every day, but it sure looks like I get to fly what they would pick if given the chance.