Rat Plane Pictures

[hilltop170]

OK guys-
We've heard all the talk about the virtues of this rat plane or that one but we don't have any good pictures to back up the claims. We need to see what real rat planes look like and the judges need a baseline for future competition.

Keep in mind, the rat planes have to be airworthy and in annual in order to be considered.

I'll start with one that can no longer compete (due to being lured to Mena for a simple landing light installation by a previously mentioned individual which turned into a complete restoration) but had great potential with its 41 year old paint, interior, and engine overhaul. The old look will be missed.

Click on pictures to enlarge.

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[hilltop170]

There's another good candidate in California.

[Bruce Fenstermacher]

Oh I see how it is. Richard reads that I've cleaned 6 years of oil deposits of my Rat Plane and NOW he starts a picture competition.

[KS170A]

The "airworthy" part eliminates photos I have when I first saw the airplane we bought 10 years ago. However, the previous owner provided me copies of some taken some 20+ years prior to that. The old photos do no justice to the brush-painted yellow N-number! By the time we bought it, the upper surface of the airplane was faded, almost completely. After collecting dust in a west Texas hangar for 18 years, I changed the tires, oil, battery (the old lawn mower battery had to go), gasoline, and fired it up. Compressions all in the high 70's.

[hilltop170]

Oh I see how it is. Richard reads that I've cleaned 6 years of oil deposits of my Rat Plane and NOW he starts a picture competition.

Bruce-
It's ok to post some old pictures with your normal amount of "operational accumulations". That 6 years of deposits should just be a minor add-on anyway in the scoring. Besides that, I didn't think of the picture thing until today.

A true rat plane should be able to stand on it's own deficiencies.

p.s. I never thought you would let George talk you into washing it with WD-40 either.

[AR Dave]

hilltop170, I recognize Wick's! Used to be an abandoned 170 sitting by the driveway.

[Bruce Fenstermacher]

Unfortunately it would seem I never documented my 170 at it's rattiest. You see one of the benefits of owning and operating a rat plane is you don't feel compelled to waste time taking photos of it. Truth be told when I was at the AutoZone to buy something to cut through the 1/8 layer of black goo and bugs on the belly, I actually had my hand on a gallon of WD-40. But I just couldn't bring myself to buy it over the stuff in the purple plastic bottle for half the price.

I wanted to mention before a bunch of pictures appear that a true rat plane is not one until being declared by the owner. There are a lot of good candidates out there of course but lets not flood our site with examples until they are declared.

Another reason you don't want to declare a plane to be worthy of the category is that the category is not well understood. Case in point.

The very first time I saw my clipped wing Cub I was at a fly-in with my wife Teresa. We would walk around all the airplanes and naturally make comments about what we liked or disliked about each. It was toward the end of the day when the Cub arrived and parked on the opposite end of the parking area from us. I could tell something was just not right about this Cub as the wings were just to short. I realized I must be looking at a clipped wing version, something I'd not seen before.

I told Teresa we must make another trip across the way to look at this plane and off we went. To say that Teresa's fun meter was about pegged after a day around airplanes would be an understatement but she followed me anyway.

As we got closer to the Cub it became more evident that this airplane was an excellent candidate for a rat plane category. Of course I took the opportunity to tell my wife about all the things that were wrong with this Cub. Big mistake. Because all the time I was telling how bad it was I was really thinking this thing just needs some TLC.

As we walked away a friend approached and asked us if we were interested in buying the Cub and he told us the asking price. It was a good price and I had just inherited some money that was burning a hole in my pocket. I spent the next 3 days trying to explain to my wife why we had to buy this airplane I'd just declared the worst derelict I'd ever seen anyone take into the air.

The moral of the story. Be very careful what airplane and to whom you declare it to be a rat plane candidate.

[jrenwick]

Bruce, I always admire people who take in stray dogs, cats, and airplanes.

[170C]

Bruce, are you saying that your Cub, prior to your purchasing it, was so ugly that only a mother could love it

[W.J.Langholz]

We use to say

You had to tie pork-chops to it to get the dogs to play with it.

Bruce, it has to fly more than say 150 miles at one time and in current annual also.

W.

[voorheesh]

Looking at 1715D, it appears there is a panel under the cowling that blocks air from flowing out. Wonder what the story is there? Is that a gascolator drain at the rear end of the panel? Maybe this is some kind of AK deal to keep the engine warm? I've never seen that before and just wondering.
I like airplanes that are flown alot and where you don't worry about every little scratch or stain. This is probably because I do not own a Oshkosh prize winner.

[Bruce Fenstermacher]

I think what you are seeing voorheesh is an illusion. That panel is the first belly panel behind the firewall and the exit of bottom cowl.

[Bruce Fenstermacher]

As for my Cub after I bought it it stayed at its base, Farmers Pride, in Pennsylvania for a few weeks. But the first thing I did was remove, inspect and repaint just the wing struts.

After just that amount of TLC I had several people approach me and ask if the Cub was the same Cub that had been flying out of there for the last year or so or was it a different Cub. Now if you are talking about the normal yellow Cub, to the novice it can be very difficult to tell one apart from another, but my Cub is/was GREEN AND WHITE. How many green and white Cubs can there be.(*see below) When I said it was the same one they asked what I'd done to make it look different and that had it looked the way it did now they would have bought it.

After owning my Cub for 10 years (and lots more TLC) I just this past summer had a fellow approach and ask if this plane was ever at Farmers Pride and if so he wished he' had bought it.

(* Incredibly there is another green and white Cub at my home base. While it is not a metal flake green and the white is actually a cream, they are so close in their appearance that more than once the owner of the other Cub has arrived at the field and thought someone has just stolen his Cub and is it departed the runway.)

[Curtis Brown]

This what my panel used to look like before I restored.

[Bill Hart]

I can wrap this up! I am going to the airport and will take some photos tomorrow. Is there a trophy?