The year was 1946. Twenty-one year-old Ernest O’Meal, originally from Newark, had visions of flying in the clouds and his dream was about to come true.

At age 21 Ernest bought a 1946 Piper J13 Cub airplane. After darting over the  skies of Wayne County for several years reality hit after a ‘mishap’ and the small aircraft was sold.

His grandson, Brandon O’Meal, who grew up in Palmyra, also has a love of flying and was fascinated by his grandfather’s story. Brandon, in fact, has the original prop from Ernest’s plane on his living room wall,   a testimony from that small mishap.

Now 97, Ernest was reminiscing about his days taking wing and Brandon thought it would be fascinating to see whatever became of his grandfather’s flight vehicle with the birds. Was it still around? Did it end up in a scrap yard?

Through research he found the plane by its tail number in the state of Washington. Through further networking, he was able to find the name and number of the current owner of the plane.  Brandon reached out to the gentleman  and realized that the plane was still in operation.

The new owner, Neil Cahoon, was very interested in the history of the plane, especially since he refurbished the plane and is teaching new pilots using the plane today - 78 years later!

An excited Brandon then decided to get the two gentlemen together via a Zoom call where they could chat about the plane.