The International Cessna^® 170 Association

So far I have left the excellent condition factory wheelpants on my newly acquired 170B. However, I can't quite make up my mind if I want to leave them on or not.

Due flying in/out of some rough strips in the past, I've flown all my other taildraggers pant-less with 8.00 tires (140, Tcraft and Citabria). I like being able to see the brakes on preflight and having easy access to the valve stems as well. However, the 170B is in MUCH nicer condition than all of the previous aircraft (new paint and very straight no damage history airframe) so I'm hesitant to fly it into anything other than nice smooth grass strips. It's not exactly a speed demon either, so I'm wondering what I'd loose in speed by going pantless with larger tires. All comments and suggestions would be welcome.

Here's a pic of the plane WITH pants: http://dfwpilots.org/gallery2//displayi ... m=2&pos=33

Decisions, decisions.

Any loss of speed would come from the 8.00 tires. Having flown mine with/without pants (6.00 tires) I've not noticed ANY difference in speed despite Cessna's claims to the contrary .

You've got a beautiful 170 there. I don't know what sort of "rough strips" you were thinking of going into, but you might want to consider what effect that might have on a nice new paint job - tail surfaces, under the wings, and other places where dirt and stones can get thrown up. Having just gone through the expense of paint, I'd probably opt to save the paint job.

My $.02

I agree with Doug's comments, the speed change will be negligible, but the damage from thrown stones, mud, etc. up under the wings and onto the tail will certainly be a factor without wheelpants.
Of course, as you noted, wheel/tire access/inspection is easier without them, and rough strips will tend to damage the pants, which'd be a shame.
I keep my pants on and use it on moderately rough grass strips without difficulty. And I much prefer the ability to takeoff/land/taxi on wet grass and pavement without throwing water/mud all over the airplane and windshield.

When I was in the air taxi business and a Cessna dealer, the first thing I'd do to a new plane was remove the "speed fairings" for all the rasons previously stated. Next thing was to open the airframe up (remove all inspection panels, wig tips, etc.) and spray the interior with a corrosion inhibiting solution.
Rudy

When I got my plane it had 800 x 6 on it. I debated going to smaller tires and adding wheel pants as I like the lok of wheel pants. However the 800's were new so I decided not to change and grew to like the looks of the 800's. This annual just completed I needed new tires so I went to 700 x 6 rather than 800's as the 700's will fit under some of the wheel pants. The 700's still "look good" (bigger than 600's) but will still work when I decide on pants.

Harold

After about two weeks of flight testing for speed, under all altitudes and wind, we found that wheel pants added 1 mph at 105 mph speed range on 600x6 tires. 800x6 tires cost 1 mph.

I'm kind of a no pants guy. I had polished moon hubcaps on my polished 195 and have 6:00x6 tires and painted moons on the 170. Besides all the other reasons I can stand on the tire and clean the windshield without getting a ladder.

I like the looks of the pants though on an airplane that's polished or high quality paint job.

I keep my pants on most of the time - can get in too much trouble otherwise.

Beautiful 170! and nice pants too.

CraigH wrote:So far I have left the excellent condition factory wheelpants on my newly acquired 170B. However, I can't quite make up my mind if I want to leave them on or not.

EMERGENCY AIRWORTHINESS DIRECTIVE

Effective immediately, all C-170/C-140 "excellent condition factory wheelpants" have been deemed unairworthy and must be removed within 5 flight hours or one lunar cycle, as published in the Airman's Almanac.

Your Friendly FAA Adminstrator

For your convenience I will be glad to take them off of your hands for safekeeping.

ROTFLMAO! Good one Mike.

KMac wrote:I keep my pants on most of the time - can get in too much trouble otherwise.

Beautiful 170! and nice pants too.

Reminds me of the lyrics of a tongue-in-cheek country-western song (poking fun at Johnny Cash).....

"I keep my pants up with a piece of twine.
I keep my eyes wide open all the time.
I keep a look out for the tie that binds...
Because you're mine.....
.... Please pull the twine!"

After looking at several 170's with no pants and larger tires, I'm probably going to go that route sometime within the next 6 months. I've run either 8.00 or 8.50's on my last several planes and really like the look and feel of them. Parking a few planes down from Jon Blocker's 170 with 8.50's pretty much sealed the deal for me.

Sometime early next year I'll probably have a pristine set of metal wheelpants up for sale.

i decided to put this under this thread
as it seemed the best place to go.
here is a picture of my plane and the
original owner's wife and son in 1951!
NO wheel pants.
and i see that these were added according to the frame log
in 1964! (see pic of 170 flying)
now, of course, i have the polished aluminum pants
and am wondering if i should leave them on?
thanks
iowa

I like both looks, big tires or nice stock wheel pants. Since I don't have a set of nice stock wheel pants I prefer the big tire look just a bit more.

As with anything I have that was stock for my plane I'd never sell the wheel pants if I had them to remove. I'd just keep them as part of the plane for a time when i might want them or for the next guy.

hi bruce
you can see that the pants that i have now
(avatar pic)
are different from the ones in the 'flying' pic above.
so they are not original.
the previous owner paid a lot for them,
so i suppose i should keep them
for the next guy (or gal)
dave