170 4-place plane...? ? (Split Topic)

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170C
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170 4-place plane...? ? (Split Topic)

Post by 170C »

(the following quote posted for continuity due to the split topic-moderator):
TravisL wrote:.... I am in the process of completing the sale of my 1950 140A and trying to find a 170B to replace it. The only reason for selling the 140 is that I want to move up to 4 seats so I can take the whole family flying instead of one kid at a time. People seem to really be hanging onto these planes now.

I'm looking for something in similar condition to my 140 pictured here - https://flic.kr/p/HFqTeX


Travis, are you related to the late David Eby? I owned that plane when it was registered as N9693A and sold it to Dave in July of 1989. Previously belonged to J D McNeil in Saginaw, TX.
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Re: Selling 140, Wanting 170B (Split Topic)

Post by TravisL »

No, I bought it from a guy in South Carolina back in 2014 and have been flying it since. He had purchased it from Dave a few years prior to that. It's a great flying plane though and the only reason I'm selling is to go to 4 seats. The guy that is currently planning to buy it lives in Washington DC, so it will be migrating back East for a while.
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Re: Selling 140, Wanting 170B (Split Topic)

Post by 170C »

Thanks for your reply. I had talked to the person in South Carolina several yrs ago. I learned to fly in a ‘48 140 and your plane was my second aircraft. My reason for selling it was the same as yours, to get a 4 place plane. Good luck with your search for a 170. Let us know what you end up with.
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Re: Selling 140, Wanting 170B (Split Topic)

Post by GAHorn »

170C wrote:Thanks for your reply. I had talked to the person in South Carolina several yrs ago. I learned to fly in a ‘48 140 and your plane was my second aircraft. My reason for selling it was the same as yours, to get a 4 place plane. ......
:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: Sooo...(with' that single-place half/rearseat)....you now have a THREE PLACE PLANE... :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:
'53 B-model N146YS SN:25713
50th Anniversary of Flight Model. Winner-Best Original 170B, 100th Anniversary of Flight Convention.
An originality nut (mostly) for the right reasons. ;)
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Re: Selling 140, Wanting 170B (Split Topic)

Post by 170C »

Tried to depart a 2000’ grass strip where I hangared for 21 yrs on a semi-hot day with four men. Aborted at the halfway point realizing O-300 powered Cessna 170/172’s aren’t true 4 place airplanes. Removed the temptation to do that again. :!:
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Re: 170 4-place plane...? ? (Split Topic)

Post by GAHorn »

I know what you mean, Frank! One of the earliest trips we made in N146YS was when Jamie and I left our place west of Austin to go down to Dry Creek (TS07 in NW Houston) to pick up former Historian Cleo Bickford and Wendell Wyborny for the purpose that we were all going to attend the Galveston Air Show that day. It was a big event...the B-2 Bomber was going to make a low-fly-by and we all wanted to see that, plus some Assoc'n Members (one from FL) were coming from all over to attend.
Anyway, landed at Dry Creek with 30 gals of fuel and running a bit late, Cleo jumped into the back seat behind me, Jamie moved to the back and Wendell jumped in the rt front seat and we taxiied to the north end of that grass strip. The early morning dew was still on the grass...(which also might have benefitted from a mower)...and the pressures of landing at Galveston before the Noon airport-closure-time was pressing us... and my mind was on getting airborne. I don't even recall if I knew how long the turf rwy was I was so distracted with getting to GLS before Noon and it was already past Eleven A.M. (Ans:3580')

N146YS was still relatively new to me and I hadn't yet learned to appreciate it's 7655 cruise prop which only generates 2230 on takeoff. (generates about 118 HP)
The wind was non-existant and I firewalled that throttle and Humid-Houston-water-vapor whirled off the propeller-tips as the airplane just barely rolled...most of that movement was remaining momentum from taxying onto the runway....
DryCreek.jpg
DryCreek.jpg (11.33 KiB) Viewed 15923 times
As we eventually approached the mid-point of the runway the Airspeed Indicator finally jumped up off the "40" which was the lowest indication it could register.... As we passed Wendell's House (3/4 down the rwy on the right) the Airspeed was finally at 60 and it sank-in on me what a bad job I was doing with regard to decision-making.

"Expletive-Not-Deleted", involuntarily came out of my mouth.

Cleo started laughing...

Wendell said, "This engine sure has good oil-pressure."

"Expletive-Not-Deleted-LOUDER".... and those trees and short power-line at the south end slipped beneath the belly and the full view of a well-developed neighborhood came into view over-the-nose.

I think I felt my face FLUSH as I realized how unprofessionally I had just lucked out with my wife and friends on board. :oops: But no one commented further.

We were the last plane to land at GLS on Rwy 13 and as we rolled off the Rwy I felt the tailwheel go flat. :? We blocked the air-show for the next 30 minutes while the local Mx shop got a dolly beneath the tailwheel and towed the airplane off for a flat-repair.... Just one more thing to make that day memorable for me.

The 170 is a 4-place airplane in the sense it has 4 seats for reasonably-sized people if you only have half-fuel and no baggage and plenty of runway without obstacles. :?
'53 B-model N146YS SN:25713
50th Anniversary of Flight Model. Winner-Best Original 170B, 100th Anniversary of Flight Convention.
An originality nut (mostly) for the right reasons. ;)
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Re: 170 4-place plane...? ? (Split Topic)

Post by GAHorn »

I don't view it as a short-coming, however. I see it as "adding interest" to the flight-planning experience, sort of like figuring out cruise altitude in a 727-200 on a hot day...

It re-introduces real flight-planning to the equation... EACH and EVERY time.
'53 B-model N146YS SN:25713
50th Anniversary of Flight Model. Winner-Best Original 170B, 100th Anniversary of Flight Convention.
An originality nut (mostly) for the right reasons. ;)
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Re: 170 4-place plane...? ? (Split Topic)

Post by 170C »

Once in a while we learn something about our planes and about ourselves 8O . Found out pucker power doesn’t improve engine power :lol: They are really good engines, but as Clint Eastwood said, “We have to know our limitations “!
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Re: 170 4-place plane...? ? (Split Topic)

Post by GAHorn »

I think this pretty well demonstrates the concept. (I also have watched this video from the standpoint of takeoff techniques. I notice he first (starts out leaving about 50' of rwy behind that he'll later wish he hadn't).... forces the tail up prematurely (adds drag) then when he realizes the futility of an abort...he forces it back down hard into the turf (more drag) Luckiest takeoff ever made (and think I know just how he feels): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6BoKzLw ... m5w03c010c
'53 B-model N146YS SN:25713
50th Anniversary of Flight Model. Winner-Best Original 170B, 100th Anniversary of Flight Convention.
An originality nut (mostly) for the right reasons. ;)
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Re: 170 4-place plane...? ? (Split Topic)

Post by cessna170bdriver »

Rock Springs Wyoming, enroute home to California from the 2010 170 Convention in Benton Harbor Michigan. Time noonish. Elevation, 6765. Temperature about 80F. Two souls on board, luggage for 2 weeks plus an extra suitcase with about 75 lb of Dad’s old tools I had been hauling since Florida. About 3/4 fuel to keep GW around 2,000lb. I did a full throttle run up and leaned for maximum RPM. As I pulled onto the 10,000 ft runway the last thing I heard over the automatic AWOS on the CTAF was “Density altitude nine thousand five hundred feet.” The roll was somewhere in the vicinity of 4000 feet, and I cleared the far threshold by about 50-100 feet (about the amount of drop in runway elevation). Fortunately the terrain continued to fall out from underneath and about 20 minutes later we’d made it all the way up to 8500.
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Re: 170 4-place plane...? ? (Split Topic)

Post by c170b53 »

Flew out of there after Longmont at gross mid-day, it’s a good yardstick.
Jim McIntosh..
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