The International Cessna^® 170 Association

Latka,

I'll say hello for you. He goes to the Super Hornet squadron in the spring.

Steve

Lee and Bruce,
Brings back a lot of memories about "mother Rucker" (Ft. Rucker). UH-1 Huey, UH-1M gunship, OH58 (Bell 206), AH-64 Apache, C-12 (Beech 200). I saved the best for last, C170A.

I started flight instruction in 1970 in a rented PA-11 65hp for $12/hour wet, $7 for the plane $5 for the instructor. (I was working for $1.72/hour at the time and 80/87 was $0.45/gal.) Then graduated up to the "high performance" 85hp PA-11 once my instructor thought I could handle the extra torque. Checked out in a C-150 so I could go take the private checkride in a radio equipped airplane. Total cost for private pilot license, $665.00

At 19 years old I bought a BC-12D 65hp Taylorcraft for $1800. Traded it in 1973 for $2500 toward the $7500 cost for a 1951 C-170A. Bought a 1958 C-180A on wheels and hydraulic wheel-skis in 1983 after I moved to Alaska. Sold the 170 after 11 years in 1984 to a friend who wanted to learn to fly. Put a carburated C-185 engine in the 180 in 1996. WOW! Bought a Super Cub on 30" tundra tires, floats, and hydraulic wheel-skis in 1990. Sold the Cub to buy a C-185 on wheels and Edo 2790 amphib floats in 1998 when I got tired of flying over-gross in the Cub. Got rid of the amphibs as soon as I could and bought straight Aerocet floats. Bought a C-195 in Texas with the 300hp Jacobs in 2003. After flying Cessna taildraggers 30 years, I hoped I was ready for the monster. It turned out to fly just like a Cessna taildragger. What a machine!

Then in June, 2006 after 22 years, the guy I sold the 170 to called and asked if I wanted my old airplane back for basically the same price he paid for it! How could I refuse an offer like that? It needed A LOT of TLC but was still a straight old airplane. I knew even if he gave me the plane I would be seriously upside-down with it before it was back into shape since I couldn't do the work myself. I finally got to fly N1715D Dec 7, 2006 for the first time since the engine overhaul, assorted repairs, and upgrades were completed. It flies exactly like I remembered. Can't wait until the paint and interior get completed. Don't ANYONE ask me how much $$$ I have into it. I'm just really glad I was able to get the old girl back into shape and the $$$ won't matter in 30 years or so when I'm still flying a really nice 170.

Also, for the last 31 years I have been an instructor, check pilot, and search and rescue mission pilot in Texas and Alaska with the Civi Air Patrol. I fly C-172s, 182s, 185s, 206s, and Beavers on wheels, hydraulic wheel-skis, and floats with the CAP.

I've never made any money flying but it's all been worth it. I've also never lost any money on an airplane, and when the stock market goes down, I can still go out to the airport and fly the airplanes.
Richard

X 27.1

equals



Gave up the Tweet in June for the Guppie. 113 landings so far and it is still a new and exciting adventure every time.

HMA170 wrote:Lee and Bruce,
Brings back a lot of memories about "mother Rucker" (Ft. Rucker). UH-1 Huey, UH-1M gunship, OH58 (Bell 206), AH-64 Apache, C-12 (Beech 200). I saved the best for last, C170A.

I got into a helicopter one day. It was down in Panama, a friend of mine suggested that we spend our day off down on the Army’s ramp on Howard AFB to try and bum a ride in a helicopter. Well needless to say the Army does things little different than what I am used to in the Air Force. We walked up to a crew chief preflighting a Black Hawk and asked what we needed to do to get a ride. He said all we needed to do was ask the pilot. Well the pilot said sure no worries. When we were walking to the bird he said as an after thought you guys might want to go and give your names and socials to the duty officer in case anything happens.

During the crew briefing the pilot said to important things; that the purpose of the mission was for him to receive an instrument check ride and that the helicopter was too heavy to hover on a single engine. (I thought no worries turbine engines never fail.) The take off was uneventful and we were on our way out to the VOR. This particular VOR is on an island a few miles off shore. I am sitting there with a stupid grin on my face as the shore line slips underneath us. We are cruising along for a few minutes when I feel the whole airplane sink out from under me and my first thought was that the evaluator pulled an engine on the pilot. I turned to see what was up and saw both pilots @&% holes and elbows and a lot of red lights flashing. My next thought was this thing can’t hover on one engine. Can it continue flying on one engine? I thought for sure we would be swimming back to shore. We made it back to the shore and the pilot said that they didn’t have a back up bird but if we wanted to we could come back by tomorrow and try again. I politely declined the offer and that was the last helicopter I have been in.

I fly a 1947 140 and 1954 a 170 b. The 140 was my first tail wheel plane.
A low powered tail wheel will put some manners on you. I have revisited the area of fundamentals. It made me a much better and more confident pilot. And it’s a hoot to fly.
Dave

Hey Bill what they didn't explain is it takes more power to hover than to maintain flight. I wouldn't expect any of the helicopters I fly to hover on one engine but many of the newer military models will depending on weight and environmental circumstances. On your flight or if I had a single engine failure I'm be limited to a run on airplane type landing. Not usually a big deal.

russfarris wrote:Well, currently (last three years) the Airbus A319/320/321; same airplane, just different fuselage lengths. It's a good airplane to work in, but since the flight controls are fly-by-wire, they all fly the same. Can't say that about the DC-3s I used to fly - they were all slightly different in trim, control pressures ect.

For personal aviation in addition to my 170, I have access to a 1960 Piper Comanche 180 - nice airplane, but quite a bit more than the 170 to operate and maintain. Flew a 1940 Piper Cub J-5 a few months ago - great fun! Russ Farris

How can you like flying an airplane that insults you on short final?

My day-job is ground school and simulator instructor pilot & examiner on the Hawkers (HS-125 & BAe125) at SimuFlite, DFW.

gahorn wrote:

russfarris wrote:Well, currently (last three years) the Airbus A319/320/321; same airplane, just different fuselage lengths. It's a good airplane to work in, but since the flight controls are fly-by-wire, they all fly the same. Can't say that about the DC-3s I used to fly - they were all slightly different in trim, control pressures ect.

For personal aviation in addition to my 170, I have access to a 1960 Piper Comanche 180 - nice airplane, but quite a bit more than the 170 to operate and maintain. Flew a 1940 Piper Cub J-5 a few months ago - great fun! Russ Farris

How can you like flying an airplane that insults you on short final?

My day-job is ground school and simulator instructor pilot & examiner on the Hawkers (HS-125 & BAe125) at SimuFlite, DFW.

"Don't think! Don't think!"

I bought a PA28-235 right after my private check ride in 86 and flew it for 2 yrs. Thats the only airplane I ever flew that you could stuff another one just like it inside and take off "legally". Next was a GC1B Swift with first a C-125 then a C-145. That plane taught me how to fly! I loved it. A low power tail dragger + high wing loading = light touch required. A side note on the stock Swift, it lands like a pussycat, don't believe the stories. In 2002 we traded for a 52 170B, no regrets.

Now in my professional life I demonstrate Space Shuttle go around procedures at BS Egypt . Sorry, I couldn't resist. Actually I am very envious of all you guys who get paid to do what we love. Congrats!

[quote=" Actually I am very envious of all you guys who get paid to do what we love. Congrats![/quote]

There's nothing to be envious about: You get to fly when YOU want to. The paid professional HAS to fly - even if they don't feel like it.

I thought about going for my CFI but the above fact combined with the resultant cut in pay I'd be taking just doesn't seem to be worth it. YMMV

regards

~Marc

I fly airplanes (SEL) Rotorcraft (Heli) and gliders. I've also flown hang gliders for 30 years but not in the last 2 years.

I originally joined the ARMY On Fiday the 13th of 1970 for the WOFT program but as luck would have it, I was a little too late. They were bringing so many people back from 'Nam that they had way more WOFT candidates than they could use, do I was told that with 20/25 in one eye I couldn't see good enough to fly. Prior to that they were taking any warm body that could walk and chew gum at the same time.

Fast-forward 30 years and I finally got my rotor-wing rating added on my ticket.

I still prefer flying tail-wheel but helicopters are just plain fun - as long as range and speed aren't important.......

regards

~Marc

The other plane I fly is a 1950 Piper Pacer which performs much as a 170. when people ask me to compare though I have to say that the Pacer is a snappy little plane which is cheaper to fly. But for long cross country flights the 170 is much more comfortable. Sometimes wish I flew for a living but instead run heavy equipment and trucks which really is not too bad. Lots more flexability to do things my way which I really like. Bill K

Ha, Ha George! He's refering to the infamous 50 foot radio altitude automated voice callout on the Airbus - "Retard, Retard". I try not to take it personally (the standard joke is the first one is a verb, the second is a noun) but since the thrust levers are in auto-thrust all the time - they don't actually move; don't ask me to explain - the call-out is to remind you to manually pull the throttles toward idle, disengaging the autothrust. Otherwise, it tries to maintain the airspeed bug and you float down the runway with power on. I certainly don't need the reminder, but the Airbus is flown around the world by pilots without the depth of experience of most First World crews...so the thinking goes.

On reflection, I feel lucky to have experienced airline flying from the DC-3 to the most advanced current models, including some classics in the middle like the DC-8, DC-10, 727 and 737. Unlike most civilian-only pilots, I have no turbo-prop time - only heavy recip and jet. The one airplane I wish I could have checked out in was the Lockheed Electra turbo-prop. When I was a kid in the 1960s, those National Airlines Electras roaring over my house in Florida got me interested in becoming an airline pilot in the first place.

I think the guys with the greatest careers are the ones that started in the late 1920s/early 30s in open cockpit mailplanes and Ford Tri-Motors, retiring in the 1960s on Boeing 707s and DC-8s - the first airline jets! Of course, many of them didn't survive that long...Russ Farris

Plummit wrote:[quote=" Actually I am very envious of all you guys who get paid to do what we love. Congrats!

There's nothing to be envious about: You get to fly when YOU want to. The paid professional HAS to fly - even if they don't feel like it.

I thought about going for my CFI but the above fact combined with the resultant cut in pay I'd be taking just doesn't seem to be worth it. YMMV

regards

~Marc[/quote]

You said it , bro! At the risk of sounding like a whiner, at the end of the day it's just a job. Obviously I love airplanes and flying, but the downsides like
spending half your life in hotels, getting up at 0500 one trip and flying a red-eye the next, checkrides, physicals (your meal ticket) grumpy flight attendants and galactically incompetent management tend to diminish the joy after, say almost thirty years in my case. Of course, quitting and falling back on my journalisim BA at this point would result in a massive pay cut. So I'll quit complaining now.

My good friend and fellow US Airways pilot Bill David said it best. He's an R/C modeler, homebuilder of his own full-size aerobatic design and all around aviation nut. To quote: "You're only really flying if you picked the destination yourself!" Russ Farris