Piper L-4J Grasshopper "LN-MAV": Noseart

L-4's in the field mostly had very simple nose art. Either nothing at all, or a plain white pencil stroke figure with a name written beside it. The ones that carry noseart today usually puts some more effort into it. And there were some.. that had great nose art but they were very few. My danish L-4 fellows has done a great job on their noseart. However, I also respect the ones arguing that an L-4 should not have nose art as this was very rare in WW2.

A very good friend and "Aviation artist" in the north of Norway has created the below sketch for me. He has chosen Martha Vickers as the model, she was a very popular WW2 pinup girl. A youtube clip here.

Most L-4's has a name, at least today.. I've chosen a cool aviaton name: "Maverick". Why ? Well, ever since the plane came to Norway (1947) it has carried the national registration LN-MAV. Now, every hobby pilot has seen Top Gun at least 8 times, right?.. and Maverick is constantly referred to as "Mav" by his colleagues. But the expression "Maverick" refers to wild cattle which the cowboys needed to catch and brand, often using a lasso.
From Wikipedia:
"Maverick is a term, usually referring to cattle, for an animal that does not carry a brand.^[1] In the period of the United States open range, such animals were relatively common. Many cows would give birth in wild or semi-wild conditions, not be located in an annual round up, and their ensuing calf could thus grow to maturity without having been captured and branded for ownership. The term derived from Samuel Maverick, who, among his other claims to fame, was notorious for not branding his cattle. "

So, dressing Martha Vickers as a cowgirl was done to get some connection to a real Maverick wild cow. I'm very grateful to Roald Olsen, the aviation artist for taking such a lot of time and effort to make me a unique nose art. He will be coming down from the north to paint this on the side of my aircraft some time in the spring.