Vistiting with the Locals...Airplanes?

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Ryan Smith
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Joined: Tue Nov 25, 2008 4:26 am

Vistiting with the Locals...Airplanes?

Post by Ryan Smith »

The 170 stalker strikes again. Now with unlimited travel anywhere in the globe, nothing is out of reach for him. In this episode our daring protagonist moves from taking pictures to taking flights! Stay tuned to see how it all unfolds.

Some have probably seen my recent project of documenting original placards. As of today (25 September 2018), I’m about 90% complete with the interior placards for the 1952 B model. Those that are originality-inclined can probably do the math on how much common there is to the other year models, but suffice to say, it knocks a large chunk of them out, too. With my new job, I’m playing hot potato with crew bases, and this month finds me in Knoxville, TN. Because it’s the most commutable base for me outside of my final destination of Charlotte, I have my car which comes in handy for reserve sitting.

This reserve period, I only had a two-day trip. Knoxville to Philadelphia to New Haven, Connecticut on Sunday morning at 0500, and the reverse on Monday morning at the same time. This means that my day ended around 0930, and I was going to need to fill up a day. It took a while for the dots to connect in the days leading up to it, but I thought that I would check in with a reasonably local-to-my-current-post fellow purist, Charlie Beyer. Charlie is patient to a fault and one of the kindest and genuinely helpful people I’ve ever met. After sending him the remaining list of what I was looking for, he remarked that his dad’s airplane had two of the remaining four placards I needed to measure. The plan and excuse was in place...but Charlie was not.

Charlie recently retired. Then he didn’t. Then he enrolled in an A&P program during the evenings. If I have 1/4 of the energy he has at his age, I’ll be ahead of the curve. Unfortunately, Mondays are his long days and he wasn’t going to be home until midnight, only to turn right back around and do the same thing again the next day. While he was going to be totally unable to meet me at the airport for any sort of supervision or visitation, He kindly offered the instructions to access 20D, and remarked that if I felt that the airplane needed to be exercised, that would be okay, too. My decision making on whether or not I’d take him up on it was finished he got the full sentence out of his mouth and I began eyeballing the weather hard in the days leading up to the drive out. There was a system moving up from the gulf that was dumping a lot of rain, but forecasts were good VFR by the time I was supposed to be down there. Fingers crossed!

As soon as I could reasonably call crew scheduling after doing my post-flight walk around and handing the aircraft off to the next crew, I was calling to be released from duty. After seeing the hotel I was booked into, I tried to check in, but my paperwork had not yet come through from the agency that we use to book crew rooms. I was impatient and told them that I’d be back around 2100-2200 that evening for check in. I quickly left Knoxville in my rearview mirror and careened down the highway as quickly as I could. The weather further north and east of Fayetteville was still pretty scuddy and quite a few of the hilltops were enshrouded in clouds. The clouds turned to rain, and by the time I got to Chattanooga, the rain was pretty intense and had caused a pretty bad accident on the highway. Eventually, the gridlock eased up and we were moving at a much better pace. As I drew nearer to my destination, the rain eased up, the lower clouds parted, and fair skies prevailed with an overcast layer about 10-12,000 feet. Weaving through the countryside, I eventually found myself on main street a few miles north of the airport…familiar territory from when I was in the area in 2016 doing UAV work.

I finally end up parked outside the FBO and walk inside to introduce myself to the fine folks that worked there. Charlie remarked that he was going to contact with the airport manager to let him know that a crazed lunatic was going to have his grubby meathooks all over his airplane and not to call the police too quickly. The lady behind the desk opened the gate and I drove down to the group hangar where 20D resided. On my way over, I see N1647D pulled into the alley by the mechanics on its way to the shop for an alternator installation. After I was done with my temporary distraction, I park in front of the correct hangar. I cracked the doors after putting the code into the padlock, and the dim afternoon light quickly illuminated a familiar figure parked front and center. My heart raced. Many of the details I was too ignorant to fully appreciate 2 1/2 years ago were culminating in some serious sensory overload. I quickly opened the doors all the way and pulled the old girl outside to get a better look.

Let me take an aside for a minute. If I am attached to N2256D at a level 10 on a scale of 1-10, I would rate my affection for N2320D at a 9.99, but only because the ownership of my airplane by my grandfather, and later father means something. My 170 was the first 170 I fell in love with as a kid…as far back as I can remember. 20D was the second. I received a stack of 170 News issues from my father that were from my grandfather, and a rather stunning picture caught my eye. It was that airplane, and even then, I could tell that airplane was something special. One of my absolute favorite 170 pictures is the one we have in the 1952 archives in the MX Library of the airplane tied down at the 1996 Convention in Albertville. That picture is what I see in my mind’s eye when I think of the perfect 170B. I eventually made contact with Charlie in 2013 or so and got a few pictures and some good stories from him. I still longed for more. I had a contract UAV flying position in Huntsville in March of 2016 that left me with quite a bit of free time…time that I used to go meet Charlie in person, get to know him, and ride in his airplane with him. I got the aerial tour of south central Tennessee, including several of the local distilleries. We even flew down the Tennessee/Alabama state line and Charlie pointed out the differences with how Tennessee was surveyed (or the lack thereof) and how Alabama was surveyed. The difference was the age of the states. Charlie would know a thing or two about that…he and his dad were surveyors for quite a long time. In any case, I valued my time with Charlie and enjoyed making a connection with such a remarkable person over the shared loved of a particular Cessna 170.

After standing back and staring, then walking around and taking it all in, I head to my car and retrieve the calipers, ruler, and notebook I have been using to document placards that are still permanently affixed to the airframe and get to work. After making my measurements for literally every part of the placards, I put the measuring tools away and begin to take photos of known original fixtures and such in and around the airplane. Charlie painted the airplane and put a new interior in, but took excruciating steps to keep everything as original as possible. Luckily, his father did such a good preservation job with the airplane, there was plenty of stuff that had seen little more than a cleaning rag over the years. That’s the stuff I was really excited about, and examples come fewer and further between as we lose years to the sands of time and owners desire a refresh of tired, 65 year-old paint that has had varying degrees of care and preservation depending on the nature of the airplane’s previous caretakers. With two-owner history and the current owners having the airplane since she was a teenager, that isn’t much of an issue on this bird. It’s about 1400 at this point. I decide to grab my flight bag out of the car and do a preflight on the airplane. All was well, as to be expected, so the only thing left to do was saddle up and go. Though I teach quite a bit in 56D, I still prefer to fly from the left. Charlie found that flying from the right was more comfortable as he grew up learning to fly with his dad in the left seat, so the push-to-talk was on the right. No big deal…it actually added to the charm of being able to fly this airplane.

Engine primed, mags on both, master on, propeller area clear, starter pulled…rapid clicking coming from the other side of the firewall. Starter pulled….same result. Landing light on…same result. 

I send Charlie a quick text message and ask him his wishes. Not long after, he I get a phone call from him with instructions on how to get into his main hangar and some options for servicing the battery. I took the easy option of replacing the dead battery with a known good one sitting beside the battery charger. Battery box lid off (complete with the remains of the famous orange Reading Batteries lid placard!), old battery out, new battery in. Cowling latched, hands washed, back inside the airplane. This time when I pulled the starter, the engine turned over with ease and caught on the second blade. I let the airplane idle for a minute and the ammeter showed no abnormal indications. By this time, the storm clouds that were looming to the west began to unleash a torrent of rain on the airport. I nosed the airplane towards the open hangar door and inched up to it, shut down the engine, and ran to pull the airplane back inside to await the passing of the downpour, which ended as quickly as it began.

I took the time to ensure that everything under the cowling was as it was supposed to be, and checked the cowl latches for security. Since this airplane doesn’t have additional safety latches, I was more paranoid than usual about ensuring they were properly seated and latches engaged. Fortunately, these latches are in much better condition than many in the fleet, and the baffling made a positive seal all around the nose bowl, so no issues were to be expected.

I pulled the airplane back out of the hangar, and called Charlie to let him know that everything was good to go with the other battery and that with his blessing, I would go fly around for a little bit. He didn’t hesitate to give the the green light. I pulled my car into 20D’s parking spot in the hangar and closed the doors behind me. The engine fired on the first blade, and I proceeded to taxi out to runway 20. This was really happening.

The engine was making good oil pressure, transition was smooth, mag check was uneventful, and I was running out of things to do. I make a call on CTAF, taxi past the hold short line, and advance the power to full. Though my airplane and 20D are pretty similar on paper with respect to airframe modifications, there are about 2000 fewer hours on 20D, as well as 20 fewer years since refurbishments, so the airplane just felt tighter and newer. The tail came up almost immediately, and we were soon off the ground and climbing. The airplane was rigged very well and the engine was strong, so I was seeing 250-300 more feet per minute climb than I’m used to seeing out of a 170 with a cruise prop. I leveled out at 2000 feet and headed southwest where I arranged to meet a longtime friend at the Decatur Municipal airport on the western edge of Huntsville. I almost went to Moontown, but that was further away from my friend in Madison, and I didn’t want to get mud on Charlie’s clean airplane landing on grass! I did a comparison in cruise speeds and found 20D to be somewhere between 6-8 MPH quicker indicated than 56D is without wheelpants. Groundspeed on ForeFlight corroborated this after flying some different tracks to get some average speeds to account for the winds aloft. 

Winds were variable at 8 knots at Decatur, so I setup for a straight-in pattern entry to runway 18 since the airport was a ghost town. I found there to be a little more crosswind than anything else, but the airplane was rock solid and I squeaked a pretty nice wheel landing out of it. I taxied to what I thought was the FBO and shut down and took some more pictures. One of the line guys pulls up in the fuel truck and asks me if he can help with anything. I remarked that I was just awaiting a friend. He kindly pointed me to the new FBO on the northern end of the field, so I taxied back up there and saw my friend’s car pull in as the prop was ticking to a stop again. I walk in to greet him, and he looks out in disbelief at the airplane from afar. “Wait until you get up close” was my only response. Matt is no stranger to Cessna 170s…I shamed him into getting his tailwheel endorsement in 2016 while he was working in Fayetteville, NC. I was not a CFI at the time, so he flew 56D with my friend and CFI, Dave Chesney. Matt didn’t fly again until I shamed him into meeting me in Goldsboro after I WAS a CFI, and got tailwheel current. He is a CFI himself, but finds more pleasure these days out on the gun range when he’s not working for a NASA contractor at Redstone Arsenal. I got nothing but gleaming eyes and high praise from anyone that was out there and saw the airplane. Everyone can tell that this is a special airplane. 

Eventually, I needed to make my way home, so I fired up, took off, and headed northeast, doing some air work along the way. She’s a well-behaved bird. After a bit of difficulty finding the airport in the later afternoon sun, I eventually line up for runway 02 and squeak out another crosswind wheel landing. After exiting the runway and taxiing to the fuel pumps, I see that they are locked and no self-serve kiosk is in place. There wasn’t any point in running to another airport to try to fuel up, so I settled with leaving cash to cover my fuel and any other incidental expenses incurred in my 1.3 hours of absolute bliss in the Beyer family steed. I tucked the little lady snugly back in her hangar, and called Charlie back to gush over his fantastic flying machine. He was happy to hear my debrief and interested to see how his airplane stacked up to other machines.

I recount this so that I can share my travels and experiences with other 170 people, but mainly to brag on Charlie. I don’t have enough words in my vocabulary to properly describe the respect and admiration I have for the man. He’s without question, one of the most intelligent, kindest, passionate, enthusiastic folks I’ve ever met. That isn’t just my perspective either. Walk with Charlie in any of family-owned restaurants that line main street Fayetteville, and you’ll find a bevy of folks that welcome him with open arms by name. I don’t know for sure, but I suspect that, given the condition of the airplane and the ownership history, not too many folks have had the ability to hop in that airplane without one of the family in the other seat since 1965. The fact that Charlie trusted me implicitly with an irreplaceable, priceless, winged family heirloom means a lot to me. Over 5,000 170s were produced, but only took on this one’s identity.

I tend to over-personify things, so you’ll no doubt have noticed that I refer to airplanes in the feminine often, including this text. Airplanes are built in fixtures with parts identical to the next airplane down the line, but there is still a bit of je ne sais quoi that seeks into an airplane from the hands of the workers that built them. It’s a direct reflection of their mood and attitude that day, and those sentiments meld into the airplane, giving it a soul, so to speak. That soul is further cultivated and honed by the caretakers over the years…so it’s easy for them to be imprinted by human interaction. Sometimes the reverse is true, and the radiant soul of an airplane imprints on the person. This is the case with two 1952 Cessna 170B’s for me.

Charlie, I know you read the forums here some, and will likely see this. I owe you a debt of gratitude for your friendship that I’m not sure I can ever repay. I’ll try my hardest, but know that your generosity is noted and appreciated more than you may comprehend or believe. I hope the next time I’m in the area, your schedule is less encumbered. Flying your airplane unsupervised was one of the highlights of my life, but sharing friendship is something that can not be replaced or substituted.
Attachments
The Lear Omnigator indicator previously occupied the far left panel hole. Lots of factory original interior paint in this shot...take note of the glare shield.
The Lear Omnigator indicator previously occupied the far left panel hole. Lots of factory original interior paint in this shot...take note of the glare shield.
Beautiful.
Beautiful.
Quite possibly the most beautiful profile in aviation. There are quite a few that rival...all have round tails.
Quite possibly the most beautiful profile in aviation. There are quite a few that rival...all have round tails.
User avatar
brian.olson
Posts: 228
Joined: Mon Aug 14, 2017 12:04 pm

Re: Vistiting with the Locals...Airplanes?

Post by brian.olson »

Ryan - your writing is as eloquent as it is informative and inspiring. Thanks for sharing!
Brian
1950 170A
N5762C s/n 19716
n3833v
Posts: 857
Joined: Tue Apr 23, 2002 6:02 pm

Re: Vistiting with the Locals...Airplanes?

Post by n3833v »

Great story. It is great when people have exclusive trust in others such as you have earned.
John Hess
Past President 2018-2021
President 2016-2018, TIC170A
Vice President 2014-2016, TIC170A
Director 2005-2014, TIC170A
N3833V Flying for Fun
'67 XLH 900 Harley Sportster
EAA Chapter 390 Pres since 2006
K3KNT
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