An Australian pilot has set another milestone for CubCrafters.
Rather than disassembling his new Carbon Cub UL and shipping it home to Port Macquarie, New South Wales, Australia, David Green chose a more adventurous delivery method: Flying it there himself from the company’s factory in Yakima, Washington.
Green’s Carbon Cub UL — nicknamed “Dusty” — departed Yakima July 22, 2026, and began an epic 30-day journey.
One of his first stops was EAA AirVenture Oshkosh in Wisconsin, where Dusty joined the world’s largest gathering of aviation enthusiasts before continuing east toward the Atlantic.
The flight included long overwater legs, rapidly changing weather, international border crossings, permits, customs, and the logistical challenges of keeping both pilot and aircraft moving across multiple countries, CubCrafters officials noted.
By the time Green arrived in Port Macquarie on Aug. 20, he had logged approximately 16,800 nautical miles and nearly 144 hours of flight time.
The journey is believed to represent an unofficial world record for a flight of this type by a Cub-style backcountry aircraft, company officials added.
“Flying Dusty home from Yakima to Australia has been a heck of an adventure,” Green said after arriving in Port Macquarie. “Nearly 17,000 nautical miles across oceans, continents, and some incredibly remote parts of the world, and the Carbon Cub just kept going. The airplane performed beautifully, and I trusted it every step of the way.”
CubCrafters officials say that trust is one of the most important aspects of Green’s accomplishment.
While very few Carbon Cub owners will ever undertake a journey as ambitious as his, the qualities that make such a flight possible are the same ones that matter every day in backcountry aviation: Reliability, durability, efficiency, and confidence in the aircraft, they pointed out.
“We focus on reliability and safety, and as a result, this is the kind of adventure the Carbon Cub is capable of,” said Brad Damm, Vice President of CubCrafters. “David could have put the airplane in a container and shipped it to Australia. Instead, he pointed the nose toward home and flew it more than halfway around the world.”
“Very few people are ever going to take their backcountry airplane on an adventure like David’s,” he continued. “But whether you’re crossing an ocean or heading into a remote strip, you need to trust your airplane to go the distance. That’s what we build at CubCrafters — aircraft you can have confidence in when the pavement, the airports, and the roads are far behind you.”
From 37,609 Feet to Australia
Green’s journey is the latest in a series of flights demonstrating the breadth of the Carbon Cub UL’s capabilities.
On Oct. 28, 2025, a Carbon Cub UL piloted by Jon Kotwicki climbed to a verified altitude of 37,609 feet over the California coast, establishing an unofficial world altitude record for Cub-type aircraft. The flight surpassed the previous 30,203-foot benchmark established by pioneering aviator Caro Bayley in a Piper PA-18 Super Cub in 1951.
In July 2026, another Carbon Cub UL, N21UL, demonstrated a very different kind of capability, completing the first transatlantic flight by a Carbon Cub UL. The aircraft traveled approximately 6,900 nautical miles from Idaho to Poland and accumulated 94.5 flight hours while crossing the United States, Canada, Greenland, Iceland, and Europe.
Now Green and Dusty have taken the Carbon Cub UL even farther, flying approximately 16,800 nautical miles from Washington State to Australia.
“Records are fun, but ultimately these flights aren’t really about records,” Damm said. “They demonstrate what the airplane is capable of. Most owners aren’t going to fly at 37,000 feet or halfway around the world. But when they point their airplane toward somewhere remote, they can know they’re flying an aircraft engineered and built to go the distance.”
Dusty’s Flight By The Numbers
- Departure July 22, Yakima Air Terminal (KYKM), Yakima, Washington
- Arrived Port Macquarie (YPMQ), New South Wales, Australia, Aug. 20
- Elapsed Journey: 30 days
- Flight Legs: 22 substantive travel legs
- Total Recorded Flight Time: 143 hours, 40 minutes
- Estimated Total Distance Flown: 16,800 nautical miles
- Countries/Territories Visited: 16
- Longest Flight Leg by Time: 12 hours, 13 minutes from Goose Bay, Canada to Reykjavik, Iceland
- Route: Washington, Wisconsin, Michigan, New York, Maine, Canada, Iceland, Scotland, Guernsey, Italy, Greece, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, India, Bangladesh, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Australia
- Notable Stops: Oshkosh, Goose Bay, Reykjavik, Wick, Guernsey, Bergamo, Rivanazzano, Heraklion, Cairo, Ath Thumamah, Abu Dhabi, Ahmedabad, Nagpur, Chittagong, Mae Sot, Chiang Mai, Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, Surabaya, Broome, and Birdsville.
- Final Leg: Birdsville to Port Macquarie — 7 hours, 9 minutes
For more information: CubCrafters.com
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