The International Cessna^® 170 Association

I recently received a donation for the upcoming auction in Duluth from a long time supportor - Airtex. After sending an e-mail thanking them for their donation I received this reply from their President Dodd Stretch.....

Kyle,
Good morning. As always, it is my pleasure to donate to your convention. Airtex and 170’s go back a ways. I have attached a photo to give you an idea. The photo shows my grandfather, founder of Airtex Albert Stretch, and my father, Donald Stretch, at the ripe age of 14, departing Trenton, NJ, for a two trek to Alaska in 1958. I am also still trying to track down this aircraft. If you have any leads, I would be very thankful. Good luck with your convention, and have a good day.

Sincerely,
Dodd Stretch
President
Airtex Products, Inc.
http://www.airtexinteriors.com
mrairtex@aol.com
215-295-4115

I'll also include the picture he sent.

I can only see N29 for the N number. It's got the D style rear window so it's a 55 or later (I think that's right). Anyone know of this aircraft or where it might be? It would be nice to return a favor to a long time contributor!

N2984D is a 1955 170B, registered in New Jersey. It is SN 26927 , and registered in the current FAA directory. ( Without the current owner's permission I would not wish to publish his personal data or address, but anyone who knows how could look it up.)

Of course, that doesn't give the historical info on the plane, but that info fits the known data of the subject airplane. There's no guarantee that N2984D was anywhere near N.J. at the time of the photo, and unless we researched it's previous ownership, we don't even know if it would be worth spending any time or money on. If late model 170's with that first two-digits of the registration number was researched, then their historical registrations were examined, perhaps the aircraft could be located. But.... not sufficient information was given in this query.

For example: was this airplane in the pic OWNED by Mr. Stretch? THAT would be an important piece of information because historical owners could be searched at FAA database by any title search company.

But if it's merely a picture of Mr. Stretch boarding a RENTED or a BORROWED airplane.... then this would be almost impossible to positively identify without knowing at least a former owner's name or some other data.

George
Is there any way to enlarge what is written just behind side window on fuselage ? Might help solve the mystery.

Bill CFZXO 170-B

cfzxo wrote:George
Is there any way to enlarge what is written just behind side window on fuselage ? Might help solve the mystery.

Bill CFZXO 170-B

Airtex Products
Morrisville, PA

The "D" window says the plane is a 1955 or later. Looking at the paint scheme, I would suggest it is a 1956 model. George, is there anything in the FAA registry for the limited "N" number info that matches a 1956

All 98 of the 170Bs that had a registration number starting with N29 were manufactured in 1955. I'm not sure how George narrowed it down to one specific plane except there is only one of the possible 98 aircraft that is still registered in N.J. It is however just as likely to be the one fitting the criteria that's registered in Pensylvania, Maryland or Delaware.

I've sent Dodd an e-mail as well as a link to this discussion and hope he joins in and answers some additional questions.

Thanks so far.....

Gar it is just as easy to go to the FAA.GOV site and do a search.

But I can do one better. I happen to have the entire FAA Database as of Dec 2008 on my computer and from that I've extracted all the 170s. From this data I can find all the 170s that have a registration starting with N29. You can not do this at the FAA or Landings site.

Anyway from the data I have there are still 64 170B aircraft on the FAA registry that start with N29, again all are 1955 models. With out any more info I'm afraid it is impossible to track this exact plane down with searchable data that is available.

I can provide the name and addresses to all the aircraft and Dodd could then track down the phone numbers and call. He could also visit the airports locally in NJ that the plane George identified is likely to be and find the owner that way and see if it is his families old aircraft.

A sure fire way though would be for Dodd to order the CD for each aircraft and research the ownership. At $5 a CD $320 would get all of them.

There is no guarantee that the subject airplane still retains the N29XX registration number. It could be anything, these days. (I didn't "narrow down" that particular aircraft, I simply used the FAA database to find a 170B registered in NJ starting with N29XX. It was just one example.)

An easy method, I've already identified. As long as paying for the info is not a problem, simply call a Title service in OKC such as Insured U.S. Title, and have them walk across the stree to the FAA and look at the archived records for the airplane which was once owned by AirTex or the family. I'll bet it would cost less than $200 to have the answer within a few days.

His mother might still have his Grandfather's old log book/books somewhere. If he could find that it would solve the mystery. I know lots of families keep old family books and papers.

Harold

Good idea, Harold.

Here's what I did receive from Dodd......

Kyle,

Good afternoon. Thanks for your efforts as well as your clubs effort. The 170B was owned by Airtex Products or my grandfather, Albert Stretch. I believe he had the plane for a year or so prior to this photo in 1958. Unfortunately all those with any information are no longer with us. Hope this helps.

Sincerely,
Dodd Stretch
President
Airtex Products, Inc.
www.airtexinteriors.com
mrairtex@aol.com
215-295-4115