The International Cessna^® 170 Association

Connected with the guy who rebuilt my plane. It was in Victorville CA. The guy had the engine rebuilt, found out he had cancer and he flew it home landed in the desert in his front yard tied it up. There it sat for 20 years, the tie down ropes dry rotted off the wind came up and damaged one wing. Somewhere in there the guy died. His nephew somehow ended up with the estate and sold it for $10k. The plane was in good shape, very little corrosion, just sun baked. I love learning the history of these birds. Fills in the giant gap in the logbooks (which I have back to new).

Great story. Mine sat for 13 years in a dry hangar after it was restored. Didn’t take much to get it going again. Theses pictures show before and after restoration which was done in the 90’s Before it was restored it was lounging outside in Texas. I have every piece of paperwork from the delivery to the first owner in 1952

I too was researching the history on my aircraft as i was_looking for all the bits to it also A gliding club committee had owned it previously and they just kept pulling bits of it until nobody had any idea where these bits were or were they serviceable . One committee member who we will call “Frank” had the engine at home . [well that’s what i was told].
I knocked on “franks”door and a lady[??] answered the door. She told me that I couldn’t speak to “Frank”. OK, was my answer. I am looking for an engine “Frank “ had stored for the committee at the gliding club. Well I can’t write here due to decency what then she said to me . It appears the new committee had the Police involved due to money being missing at the Gliding club . Some glider had been sold and that money was being held in trust by “Frank’.By this time I am retreating up the path to the front fence backwards . I am fearing for my safety. . Next she yells to me get around the back ,there’s a shed there you can scrounge around in . BBut what is “Frank” going to say about this ? i nervously enquired . NOTHING ,he’s dead . This shed had an earth floor with flooding and a very salt environment . 90% of the aircraft parts had been stored on the floor were now useless. The was a cessna cargo door face down on the dirt floor eaten away but on top of the door was a pile of paper work and a log book [engine] in a sealed plastic bag. No engine … There was a STC for the cargo door and receipt from Harry Delicker in the bag .

ALLEDGEDLY, the engine was sent to a shop on the other side of the country for a quote and overhaul. It disappeared also but about 12 years later ,the crankshalf turned up in another aircraft and in another engine when that aircraft passed through our shop. There are far and few Cont.O-300,s in this country . The crankshalf serial was an odd numeral number and it caught my eye . The log books for the engine “lost” was in the pile of paper work in “Franks” garage .

Gotta what out for those Australian “ladies”…. things can “boomerang” on ya’.

I’ve posted this before but it’s been a while and this seems like an appropriate topic to repost it under. Evidently at one point in time every flight was entered in the maintenance logbooks, and the first three lines of this page are quite interesting:

cessna170bdriver wrote:Evidently at one point in time every flight was entered in the maintenance logbooks, and the first three lines of this page are quite interesting

When our airplanes were built, I don’t think they had Recording Tachometers, so every flight had to be logged to record aircraft Total Time, TSMOH, etc.

Cool stories. A gentleman in Ohio owned, flew, and updated N1981C for about 15 years. He passed away, and another gentleman from Texas bought it from estate. He flew her 1.5 yrs then sold to me to enjoy. I got the hot potato “time for a new engine”

Here is a video of the previous owner flying to OSH then Alaska: https://vimeo.com/69349670

I do believe this is what flying a 170 is all about. Friends, adventure, and scenery.