The International Cessna^® 170 Association

I was flying for 20 years or so in a club with a 150 and a 182. Getting board with the club and group efforts I was going to give it up. I was working as an A&P for a crop duster. He talked me into getting a tail wheel sigh off. The only way I could get a sign off is I had to buy a tail wheel plane. So I purchase a 1947 140. Got it to run right and fly straight. Really put the fun and excitement back in to my flying. So I wanted to rebuild or restore the 140. But before I did I wanted to see what 20k more would buy. I looked at a lot of junk, bought, rag wings, doors 2 engines, struts to rebuild the 140 and the last plane I look at was a 1954 170b well I had to have her and now I have 2 planes, Trying to sell the 140 from time to time. But fly them both. I have to put 4 or 5 hr in the 170 before thinking about selling the 140. What a learning curve.

Interesting posts.

I’m also from Galena AK. I’m Yukontools’ Dad and of course, his kids’ Grandfather which are the primary reasons we decided to retire up north.

I taught Yukontools to fly just after high school in a PA-18. After he and his wife moved to AK he didn’t have the opportunity or money to fly. In 2002 when we decided to build in Galena I saw this 172 in Ferndale MT for a reasonable price and I thought maybe I could trade Jon and his friend the airplane for house building labor. They went for the deal and that got him back in aviation.

When I bought my 170, 4339B, in 2002, I was airplane poor. I or my company (I was ¾ of my company) owned two Cessna Ag Trucks, a 1975 182 and a very nice rebuilt 160 hp PA-18. A friend called me and told me about an estate auction across the mountains in Hamilton that was coming up that had a 180 hp 170 B for sale and did I want to go. We had had a good spraying season and I had some money to “invest” so I said sure that we could take the 182. The weather was IMC the afternoon before the sale and the sale started in the morning so we ended up driving to Missoula and staying the night and then on to Hamilton the next morning. We looked the airplane over closely and although it needed new skin on the bottom of the rudder, a new rudder attach bracket assembly, radios, gyros and polish it was basically straight with no corrosion and original interior. The log books were complete and the airplane had spent it’s entire life in Montana. The bidding started and I just stood there and shortly it was up to 40,000. My Buddy poked me in the back and said “if you want it you’d better get to bidding”. He is much more of an auction sale expert than I. Well I got in and the bidding was going a thousand dollars a clatter. Shortly it was up to 49,000 and I was out. I paused a little and said fifty and the other guy quit. This was July 2002.

When I told my wife about our new purchase (the weather wasn’t good enough to fly it home the day I bought it) she frowned and asked if I didn’t think we had enough airplanes? Since then she has grown to really like the 170 especially compared to sitting in the back seat of the Super Cub.


Since then I have sold all my other airplanes. It was quite a decision between the Super Cub and the 170. I was the second owner of the 1953 Super Cub. I have seldom regretted my decision. Since I bought it I added a vacuum pump and gyros, KX 175 radio, intercom, seat covers, Atlee Dodge jump seats, a sportsman STOL a float plane kit, fixed the rudder and tail wheel assembly, new cables and polished it. I was able to do most of the work myself under the supervision of a friend and IA so the cost wasn’t prohibitive. The summer before we moved to Galena I found a set of Wipline 2100 floats in Fairbanks for a fair price so I bought them. I also changed the prop to an 80” Hartsell with the dampener. Last summer was my first experience with floats. Right now the airplane is sitting on Landis 3,000 skis.

I’ve been flying almost 40 years including in the Air Force and I think the 170 is the most enjoyable airplane I’ve flown. Cessna Ag Trucks had a nice light feel like the 170 but they don’t make a very good family airplane.

Buck Buchanan Galena, AK

Back in the early to mid 1980s my father found a good deal on a 170A located down in California – he lives in Eastern Washington. He had a Cessna 150 at the time but was looking for something that would hall more people. He purchased the 170 over the phone sight-unseen and flew down to California with my uncle in dad’s 150. Dad had no prior tailwheel experience but after three landings with the prior owner dad flew the 170 home to Washington with my uncle following in the 150. My uncle said he was sure dad would destroy the plane before they got home. He didn't.

Dad flew the plane regularly during the 1980s and 1990s but fewer than 30 hours per year from around 2000 on. Back in 1989 after graduating from collage, I purchased an early 1980s Harley. The Harley was just like the one dad had before becoming interested in flying. I rode it about every other day up until the late 1990s when I purchased a GoldWing - which was more comfortable for my wife. After purchasing the Honda I rode the Harley only about once per month if that.

Then a little over a year ago my brother mentioned dad was thinking about selling the 170 to purchase a Harley. I instantly called dad and we started working on a trade. Dad is now riding my old Harley almost every day and I’m in the process of getting my private pilot’s license in dad’s old 170. We are both having a blast!

Vew some pictures and read more at my web page:
http://www.mgcpa.com/mark/flying/c170/index.shtml

What a super pretty C-170! You sure did a nice job on it and I know you are proud of her. Bet your Dad is proud of both you and the 170. Enjoyed the photos. Keep them coming. I bet you have to hand out sun glasses on sunny days so people can look her over without damaging their eyes

Nice plane Mark. I just love a naked (natural no strips) 170. And it's your first post, welcome.

As a kid growing up, I was lucky to be around airplanes. My Dad and his buddies were huntin'/fishin' fools. They had various airplanes - a Champ, a Chief, a Stinson Station Wagon, a See-Bee, and a C170. As a kid I really wanted to learn how to fly.

My Dad was an independent business owner, but never went to college. His comment to me was that if I'd pay my way through college, he'd pay for a pilot's license. What a deal! I worked building grain bins throughout the summers to pay for school.

My freshman year in college my Dad brought the 170 to the town where I was going to school and I learned how to fly! I was in heaven.

After a few years it was on to a job. Dad and his partner decided to sell the airplane. I just couldn't swing buying it at that time - $10,000 in 1981. It ended up in Alaska and a member now owns it.

Due to life/expenses/etc I did not fly for many years.

Fast forward 20 years. I meet a guy at work who is a CFI. He bugs me about getting back into flying. I do. Then buy into a parnership in an Arrow. Get my instrument and commercial. My wife gets interested. Decides to learn how to fly. Gets her license (she was so excited she talked for 4 hours straight after passing her checkride!). I tell her we need our own airplane. And of course, it's got to be something cool. Something people would smile at when they see it a fly ins or breakfasts. It has to be a 170.

We search for the best possible one we can find. Find one we like. I get a cashier's check made out for what I think it's worth and can afford. We have our FBO fly us several hours in his Bonanza to look at the airplane. Do all the necessary stuff. I make an offer which is turned down. I say I'm sorry but that's all I can afford. We are getting into the Bonanza to go home and the guy comes running back saying "OK, let's just get this done with!" We're now the proud owners of a 170!

We've had a ball with the plane. Just what we need. Plenty of room for the 2 of us and all we can haul. It's been a really fun experience. No regrets. And the 170 bunch has been super and we've made some very nice friends.

I know it's an oft used expression, but "Life is pretty good, isn't it?"

OK I'll chime in. I was working on my private in 1975 and bought my first airplane, an Aeronca Chief. (Undoubtably the hardest tailwheel type I've flown, and I've flown quite a few types.) One year and 150 hours later I sold the Chief and began a search for a four place airplane.

The search started with a straight 170 A&P owned with 150SMOH for $5k. I got really close to that one but it needed fabric and I wasn't ready for that. So after a diversion or two looking at a triple tail Bellanca, a Pacer, and a few other things I found my '51 170A. I had it painted, joined the 170 Association, and flew it 150 hours that year. My fondest memory was our family trip to Oshkosh with a stop for fuel in Denver. Fill 'er up right? Good thing it was downhill to Kansas because I was in ground effect for miles after the takeoff

I only had that plane one year but it was always one of my favorites. I went on to C-180 and Lake Amphibians until about 1991 I decided I wanted to get back into a classic bird. That's what started my ten year love affair with the Cessna 195. I have been fortunate to own as many as six airplanes at a time and have probably owned nearly forty airplanes. Even though I just sold the 170 and am back into a 180 the 170 is truly dear to my heart.

markeg1964 wrote:...
Vew some pictures and read more at my web page:
http://www.mgcpa.com/mark/flying/c170/index.shtml

I enjoyed seeing the comparison at your webpage between the 170A and the new 172R. I believe the 172R cruise speed (141) is a typographical error.... but it's pretty interesting to see how favorably the 170 compares on so much less horsepower and cash outlay!

Bill Hart wrote:Awesome sorties but there are some noticeably absent………….. George?, Mile’s?

My own story of how I came to “own” (one never really "owns" artwork or airplanes....one just cares for them for a time...) N146YS, a 1953 Cessna 170-B is this:

My first airplane was a ’47 Aeronca 11AC Chief. I’d flown lots of C-120/140’s on pipeline patrol, but I have to agree with Dave Clark that the Chief was the most difficult taildragger I’ve ever flown….Especially when the rear aux tank was full of fuel and when operating in a crosswind! It was while flying pipeline patrol in the early 70's that I first came to admire the 170-B that sat at our home field owned by Will Bonaface, who I continue to run into even these days. But I digress…

After I traded the Chief for a Studebaker Starlight Coupe, I began to miss airplane ownership, and a few years later bought a Cessna 206…perhaps the most useful and one of the best all-around airplanes I’ve owned. But after six years of 206 ownership, and as much of my personal flying had become night/IFR I decided to get a twin and bought a ’62, A-55 Baron. (Later I discovered it to be the last personal airplane owned by a guy named Col. Roscoe Turner. http://www.fiddlersgreen.net/AC/persona ... Roscoe.php )

It too was a great airplane, and I managed to lease it to a friend who used it in his personal business and still got to use it myself as well. But after 5 or 6 years of $9K to $11K annual inspections, and combined with my friend no longer needing to lease an aircraft, I decided to sell the Baron and look for something else for my personal airplane.

Our kids having grown up/moved out, Jamie and I only needed a simple airplane for personal pleasure/travel and the occasional extra seating capacity of a 4-place airplane. I’d already owned a toy airplane (the Chief), a real hauler (the 206) and the rocketship/money-burner (Baron) and felt I wanted to finally own some sort of Classic airplane. It would have to be something common enough to be able to maintain and get parts for, yet be unique enough to be “classic”, and still be affordable to operate out of my own pocket without too much burden. I really wanted something not too common, and yet not too odd either. I had visions of a Cessna 190/195, and …since I live on a lake, I had visions of a Republic Seabee.

A really respected older pilot and mentor (who’d flown both types extensively) helped me solve the dilemma of which type of choice to make by asking me, “George, …Just exactly what is it that you like about the Seabee… the fact that it’s a really lousy boat? … or the fact that it’s a really lousy airplane?” !!!

So I started looking for a 190/195. At the time I was flying for the state of Texas and while waiting for the atty-general over at the prison in Huntsville I saw a really pretty polished-and-yellow C-195 land and roll out. I remarked to the line boy “THAT is the kind of plane I’d like to buy!” He responded that the one landing belonged to a local airline pilot who was offering it for sale. He told me the guy’s name (Ed Bridges) and …HEY! I used to fly with that guy! He’s a great friend I’ve not seen in 15 years!

I walked up behind him as he was putting it away in the hangar and said, “What a piece of S—t! You oughta get rid of that before you embarrass yourself!” We had a big laugh and re-union and caught up on each other’s lives, and then I told him I was looking for a classic like a C-195. He said, “Well, George, I’ll be happy to sell it to you, but I really oughta let you know why I’m sellin’ it!”

“Why? Is something wrong with it?”, I asked.

”No”, he replied, “but,…I’ll tell you the truth… every time I come in to land it…. Just about the time I flare and it’s floating just off the pavement…. I suddenly realize I have absolutely NO IDEA what it’s gonna do! I’m going to let someone ELSE wreck it!”

Since Ed is one of the better pilots I’ve ever known, I assumed there must be something I didn’t know about them and I passed on buying a Cessna 195. (I’ve since come to believe it was probably that particular airplane, as others have described them as fairly docile airplanes.)

Anyway, the discussion also gave me quite a bit of feel for the level of maintenance a BIG Cessna with a BIG, round, engine requires. (Hint: it results in BIG $ requirements and I’d already had that experience with the Baron.)

But that pretty, round tail, and the charisma of a conventional landing gear was still a huge attraction to me. I couldn’t help but think of the Cessna 170’s I seen throughout my early career and how I’ve always thought of them as good-looking, solid airplanes with reasonable operating costs and relatively simple maintenance issues. HEY! That’s it! Like a baby-190/195 without the expense!

I started looking. But I’d already had airplanes that needed real work to bring them back into condition and that needed continuous care to keep them that way (the Baron.) I decided that if I kept my airplane wishes simple enough, I perhaps might find an airplane in good enough condition I could be proud of it and enjoy it without it nickel-and-diming me until the pleasure was gone. I decided to look for the best-condition airplane I could find. In the late 90’s, I felt that the money I’d cleared after selling the Baron should allow me to pick a pretty fine Cessna 170 and have enough left over to build a hangar for it on the property I already owned.

I found one highly promoted on the Internet for an outrageous asking price (just reduced!) of $60K! It was very nicely promoted with pretty pics and text about favorable mods yet supposedly still very original and had been judged and given awards at Oshkosh and Sun-N-Fun, yadda-yadda-yadda....
But $60K was just too dang much money in the late 90’s for an airplane as simple as a 170 I thought. At that time, I felt that a good clean 170 should sell for high $20's to mid $30's. I couldn't imagine an old 170 with an original engine worth that kind of money, regardless of HOW much time and restoration effort had been put into it.
I continued looking around.

One day, while on another trip with the atty-general to the FTW area, with my copilot (his first day at work with the state) .. we borrowed the crew-car and went looking for breakfast. We came up on a small runway in the sticks with a restaurant on the field, and while driving down the hangar row towards the café, I noticed a polished and red 170B sitting in a hangar with a For Sale banner on it’s prop. I stopped the car and my new-hire copilot followed me into the hangar to look at it. As I got closer I suddenly realized it was the one I’d seen on the Internet. The hangar-keeper came out of his office and offered to show it to me. He was a friend of the owner, who’d just gotten an offer from a potential buyer on the plane.

As I looked the plane over, I quickly came to the realization that this airplane was very much like one which might have just rolled off the assembly-line in Kansas back in 1953. It was like NEW. New plumbing, wiring, hoses, pulleys, cables, glass, radios, instruments, panel, professionally-upholstered/completed interior (with original style and pattern-stitched fabrics, leather trim, wool carpet, wool headliner), paint/polish, tires, lights, screws, rivets….a new engine. New mount. New prop. All new exhaust. It had the P-ponk gearbox mod, new Cleveland wheels/brakes, original (new) metal wheel pants. BAS tail pull handles.You could eat off the floor beneath the carpet and also beneath the floor in the belly. The thing was entirely marinized with epoxy poliamide primer. It had no used parts on it that could be determined other than the datatag. All the controls had been reskinned and the wing re-jigged, disassembled, marinized, and then reskinned also. It was truly an all NEW Cessna 170-B.

The hangarkeeper then brought out two photo-albums documenting over 16 years of restoration work performed by it’s Bell Helicopter employee/owner. (Bell’s mfr’g plant is in the FTW area.) Suddenly it made sense why the guy thought the thing was worth so much money. It was a 16-year restoration effort of such quality as to make it a TOTALLY NEW 170-B! ALL new! Every bolt, nut, washer was bright cad-plated new! It was pretty amazing to see it in person.

I mentally balanced my checkbook and realized I had $55K available for an airplane with the rest reserved for a hangar, and that this airplane really, truly, probably WAS worth $60K! Maybe more!

I asked the guy, “How much is the seller considering from the potential buyer?”

I nearly choked on my own racing heart when he replied, “$42K.” I think I went into arrhythmia and did my best to maintain a calm demeanor. “What’s the least you think he’d actually take for it?”, I queried with my best attempt at a bored-sounding voice.

“Well, his wife and he have to close on a house next week and he needs $40K for a down payment…. I’d imagine Forty-THREE $K would sound better to him than $42K!”, he replied.

I said, “Well, call him up and tell him you’ve got a guy standing here that’ll pay him $43K for it right now if he’ll sign off a new annual inspection.” (I could plainly see it didn’t need an actual annual inspection, having been judged recently and so clearly in the pristine condition it was in…but you guys know how I am!)
Remember that I was doing my best at keeping my composure throughout this ordeal and letting no one know I was already familiar with the history of this plane. ( Imagine the viewpoint of my copilot, a new state employee on his first day at work, ...and on his first leg of his first flight he sees his captain seemingly stroll into a hangar and after a few minutes of casual conversation, write a check for an airplane, and then turn to leave for breakfast at the local cafe.)

Well, the seller took me up on the offer, and I paid him additional to install Whelen strobes on the wingtips. The seller threw in the presentation materials he’d developed for Oshkosh/SunNFun and the winner’s letters so it can be parked in the winner’s circle at those events. And the copies of the magazines where it was the cover-airplane and the feature article. (May '97, Cessna Owner) And a few boxes of spare parts he'd acquired as he spent years trading/dealing for 170 parts.

The most expensive annual I’ve ever had on the plane in the 7 years I’ve owned it was $275 when it got new spark plugs. Like any airplane, there’s a few small things I feel it still needs, but…. It’s generally pretty nice to be flying a new plane! Especially a classic like a 170!

And that’s my story.

I have always been fascinated with classic airplanes ... I got my license in 1995 in a C-150, then had to take several years (7+) off from flying because of school, training, etc.
When I could finally afford a plane in 2003 or so I thought I would be better off with a "newer" airplane that would not have as many maintenance headaches for a new / inexperienced owner. I bought a 1997 172R and flew her for several years. Incidentally, the book cruise is 122 knots, so 140mph is probably accurate. Not sure I've seen quite that fast, but I don't push the engine too hard.

Fast forward to last fall ... I have more time in the 172, more friends around the airport, and more experience with ownership. Started building an RV-8 and wanted to build some tailwheel time. I like to surf the internet while working the night shift and look at airplane ads... found '49V on ebay, watched the auction until the end with no bids, then called the guy and made an offer. They flew it out here for inspection (with an RV-8 as a chase plane, which I got some stick time in!) and I've owned it since. What a great airplane. I haven't done a lot of traveling in her yet, as I am still building time and getting comfortable with having the little wheel in the right place, but I thoroughly enjoy the 170.

Thomas

Velvet wrote:That's Bob & Carol Coats. ("Where the hell is Cabool?" They used to have patches with that).
Yes, he's a past president, and you won't meet nicer folks anywhere.

Velvet

thanks, Velvet- they were great to us for sure. had a pile of C170 pictures displayed in their house too, very cool

Beware George, I never understood how and why some pilots were struck with Seabee dementia until I went for my first ride in one this summer. We took-off from pavement and landed on the Ottawa river then returned to pavement. It was all fun except the 1 litre a min fuel burn. Fortunately for me, I was later cured of the disease after several 170 treatments.

Bill Hart wrote:Awesome sorties but there are some noticeably absent………….. George?, Mile’s?

Let’s see if I can give you a longer story than George.

Iowa, knowing you like photos, I'll scan a few from my old albums and update this post later.

My earliest clear memory is at about age 3 circling my grandmother’s house in a J-3 that Dad had restored from an L-4. Dad later sold the Cub to help finance his Airframe & Engine and Commercial Pilot licenses. Even though he went on to be an airline pilot (Piedmont Airlines 1961-1988) we never had another “family” airplane.

Fast forward to 1977. During my fourth 3-month session on a work/study program as an engineering trainee at Kennedy Space Center 600 miles from home, I got bored with the beaches and bars. A friend at work suggested I join the Patrick AFB Aero Club and learn to fly. I took my first lesson on 9/29/77, about 3 days before my 22nd birthday, and soloed on 11/19/77. I hadn’t mentioned to my family that I was learning to fly, so the day I soloed, I called Dad and gave him the news. I think it was the first time I remember him being at a loss for words. (The airplane I soloed and eventually went on to take my private check ride(s) in was N3370V, a 1974 C-150M, and is still in Brevard County, FL, but is now in private hands).

I went on to get my private ticket (on the second try ) in early June of 1978, on the very last day before leaving Florida to finish my last year of college at the University of Tennessee. I joined the UT Flying Club and flew their 1970 C-172 as money and time allowed. In June of 1979, after graduation, I went to work at the Air Force’s Arnold Engineering Development Center near Tullahoma, TN, and joined the Cumberland Flyers, who owned a 1966 C-150 and a 1946 J-3. I like to tell folks that I learned to “drive” airplanes in a 150, but learned to “fly” in the J-3 ($9.50/hr wet, but still more than I earned in an hour at the time).

Things went well for a few years until the club accumulated enough active members that scheduling the airplanes became a problem. After several times of showing up at the airport only to see the airplane that I had scheduled being flown by someone else , I decided that I NEEDED my own airplane. Aerospace was on the up-side of its cycle at that time, so I had saved up about $10,000 working overtime for most of 1981. So, being single with ready cash and a desire for my own wings, the search was on.

I had joined EAA in 1980 (#161257) and thought that homebuilding was the way I wanted to go. In the midst of my search for a project, sometime around May of 1982, as I was wandering around an old shade hangar on the south side of Tullahoma Airport (THA), I noticed a couple of old high-wing, round-tailed taildraggers. I could detect some Cessna lineage, but didn’t really know what they were. All I knew then was, that just sitting there (one even with flat tires and a cowling full of bird nests) they looked like they were poised and ready to go fly. (170’s STILL impress me that way. ) At that point I decided that I wanted to fly worse than I wanted to build, and besides, what ego wouldn’t be stroked by showing up in an airplane as cool as one of those! (Sidebar: The nicer of the two was a 1950 A-model now owned by forum member philnino, then owned by his father.)

After finding out that the planes in the shade hangar were Cessna170’s (both A-models) and flying examples were running in the $7K to $9K range, as well as the fact that there was a good support organization known as The International Cessna 170 Association , I began to search for the one that would, in George’s words, be mine to care for. Over the next few months, I looked at and “test flew” several 170’s. All were in my price range, but none really “floated my boat”.

My flying and search for an airplane had also kindled Dad’s desire to become re-involved with general aviation. He had always been fond of Stearmans (Stearmen?, Stearmi?) and was at Stone Mountain Airport, east of Atlanta, GA, looking at one when he noticed an older gentleman walk out to an old faded green-on-white Cessna 170B tied down in the grass, and place a For Sale sign in the window. Dad walked over and took a cursory look at the airplane, and thinking it looked fairly straight, took down the phone number in case I might be interested.

I called the owner, and he said he was selling due to health difficulties. He told me that the airplane had just over 1250 hours total time (fairly low, even then), that he had purchased the airplane in the late 1950’s, and that he was only the second owner. He also said he had all of the airplane’s records back to the factory, including the original Test Flight Report.

Over the July 4 weekend of 1982, I went down to see it, and although the paint was faded and chalky, I agreed with Dad that it was a nice straight airplane, with no corrosion that we could see through the inspection covers. (I don't even remember if we unzipped the headliner. ) The logbooks and records were in fact all there. There was a 337 for a major repair from an apparent ground loop or hard landing when the airplane was only a couple of years old, but the repair was done well enough that it wasn’t apparent on the airplane. The only question was the engine, as the airplane had been sitting outside and not flown much recently. Before I made an offer, the owner allowed Dad and me to run the engine, then change the oil and check the screens. All was well.

The owner’s asking price was every penny I had saved for an airplane, and he wasn’t willing to budge. I left disappointed at not being able to come to terms, but the more I thought about it the more I had to have THAT airplane. After all, it was a 1955 model, and I’M a 1955 model! For about the next month, I may have slept, but didn’t rest a single night, thinking about that 170. In early August, in desperation, I called the owner one last time to see if he still had the airplane, and if he would be willing to negotiate on the price. Luckily, he hadn’t sold the airplane, but was still firm in his asking price. The airplane was out of annual at the time, so on a whim I asked him if, before the transaction, he was willing to ferry the airplane down to Bear Creek airport (now Tara Field, 4A7) to an AI of my choice for an inspection and any required repairs. To my surprise he agreed!

When the annual was complete, I met the owner with two cashiers checks in my pocket, one for what I was trying to get him to come down to, and the other for the difference between that and the asking price. As a last-ditch effort, I offered him the first check and the cost of the annual, but he wouldn’t bite. I ended up giving him both checks, and he paid for the annual, as agreed. All of a sudden, just like that, I was the caretaker of N3498C, a 1955 Cessna 170B, serial number 26541. Way

At the time, I had about 200 hours or so total time, with about 75 hours of tailwheel time in my flying club’s J-3. As I recall, Avemco only required a minimum tailwheel time and no time in type for the liability-only insurance that I had arranged, so I could have just flown it away. But my confidence level wasn’t up to that; after all this was BIG airplane compared to the J-3. After three stop-and-go landings with the (now previous) owner using me as a voice-activated autopilot, and both of us stomping around on the rudder and brake pedals on landing, he suggested that I get some dual before attempting solo.

The next day, Dad introduced me to Frank Hancock, a retired Eastern Airlines captain who hung around Bear Creek and instructed in old airplanes for no charge, just for the fun of it. I don’t recall that Frank uttered a single word for three stop-and-go’s. When we were done, he said, “Nice airplane, good job” then signed my logbook. My next flight was with Dad, the umpteen-thousand-hour airline pilot, in the right seat. Prouder moments are few and far between, and probably only include the births of my two daughters.

My trip home to THA later that day was about an hour and a half, and I landed just in time for the local EAA meeting. I had been right those several months previous, standing there in front of those two A-models: With all those folks from the EAA chapter there for my arrival, my ego was suitably stroked. 98C has done that for me many times since.

Those are some great stories! Here's mine...

I guess I first became aware of the 170 back in 1974. I was a new CFI, and to get some publicity for the flight school I worked for I came up with the idea to solo one of our students on his 16th birthday, in five different airplanes. I myself was only 19 years old at the time.

Thomas Joseph was the young man's name, and one of the airplanes we were going to use was his Dad's 1955 170B, N4449B. I had never flown a 170, but I had lots of tailwheel time in T-crafts, Champs and such. It was a beautiful airplane, with a nice Aluminagrip paint job.

The most excitement I had was demonstrating a take-off from the right seat - I forget exactly why, maybe a soft-field demo. As we accelerated, my seat came unlatched - yikes! I had the good sense to let the yoke go, but my hand slipped off the throttle, and of course my feet were nowhere near the rudder pedals. Thomas grabbed the airplane as we went veering off the left side of the runway - somehow he got us back on the pavement while missing the runway lights in the process. I learned about making sure your seat was locked that day...

Thomas soloed on his birthday the 170B, 172, 150, Taylorcraft BC-12D and a Cherokee 140. It must have been a slow newsday in Ft. Myers, Florida as the event was covered by the local paper and TV station. I had used one minute of Andy Wharhol's 15 minutes of fame.

Tom's Dad let me use the 170 for only gas and oil, and I took full advantage of it. It was my favorite of the airplanes I had access to, and I flew it close to forty hours. It eventually went up for sale for the then princely sum of 6,000 dollars, which was about 5, 995 more than I had at the time.

Fast foward 24 years. I'm flying in the right seat of a Boeing 757, heading for San Francisco. The subject of little airplanes came up - at the time I owned a 1946 Stinson 108. Ron Bliskie, the captain, mentioned he had a 1952 170B. Out came the pictures; it was a stunning, original polished aluminum airplane, authentic right down to the large N-numbers on the wing. 1,900 total time, 460 SMOH. I heard myself asking Ron to please call me first if he ever decided to sell it. Not exactly the strongest bargining position to be in!

A few years later, I got the call. In January 2000 it was mine. Well, I knew that 40,000 was the upper end of 170 prices, but I haven't regretted it at all. Plus, it's a minor piece of aviation history...in 1956 it survived a mid-air collision with a Continental DC-3! I didn't know that at the time I bought it. N8143A was the cover story of the September 2003 EAA Vintage Airplane magazine.

After 600 hours in six years, I'm convinced this is the most affordable
classic airplane I can own. It has carried me and my family safely all over the southeast U.S. It's a keeper! Russ Farris

Bill, your Dad wouldn't have been Sherman Hart, would it?

In my 727-200 days as a flight engineer with Piedmont, I flew with Captain Hart many times. He was a real gentleman and a true airman.

I remember having to stop for fuel in Las Vegas from Charlotte to San Francisco (the 727 was a marginal coast to coast machine) with Captain Hart - in the short 20 minute turn he managed to find the time to go into the terminal and play a few slot machines! Russ Farris

Russ,

You may have flown with my dad, Harris Bowen, who was with Piedmont from 1961 to 1988. He flew captain on the 727 from CLT to SFO before he was promoted to the 767.

Miles