The International Cessna 170 Association

Hey Folks,

New guy here. Just finished the purchase of a 170b N3106B. My second airplane, I sold my Taylorcraft a few months ago to make the down payment because I wanted a more capable cross country airplane to explore more of Alaska and the lower 48. The 170 is the perfect corner for me since its a comfortable traveling machine with some capability as a bush bird that I can still afford to operate. Looking forward to being part of the club.

-Michael

Michael - welcome!

Good looking bird! I like the paint job! You've got shoulder straps and tail pull handles. And on my phone the pics seem to show a pretty straight bird.

Where are you located, tell us more about yourself and the bird/purchase and I'm sure others will ask for more pics too!

Michael,

Welcome! Great looking airplane. We look forward to hearing about it and your trips.


Dave

Thanks!

Yes it really is a nice looking bird. It was fully restored in 1998 and has been hangared and exercised but not flown hard since then. In that respect it's actually a much nicer bird than I needed. I wanted a low-time engine because I know the c-145 overhauls are kind of a hassle and I was mainly just looking for a good base-line airplane I could use to commute to Talkeetna, Alaska seasonally and put on big tires to continue to sharpen my skills while I'm up there, and then have a nicely equipped airplane to putt around the California desert with in the wintertime. I was really starting to get decent at flying the Eastern Sierras and Death Valley area in my Taylorcraft when I sold it. So I came to the pacer/170 conundrum but I had always wanted to have a 170 one day for aesthetic reasons and I just couldn't bring myself to look at pacers with the same enthusiasm. I had been shopping for about 4 months and had had a couple of very promising leads fall through when the previous owner of this bird called me from my wanted ad on Barnstormers. He was right down the road in Long Beach and it turned out to be a beautiful corrosion-free airframe that was nicely equipped with 650 hours on the engine. The price felt very reasonable so a few days later I brought it to the great people at CP aviation at Santa Paula airport for a pre-buy and they confirmed my suspicions that it looked like a great airplane so we did the deal the following day.

Its got a nice basic panel with a kx-155b and a Garmin 296 mounted to the door post. As you noticed it has BAS handles and non-intertial harnesses. It's got p-model 172 wings with long range tanks (56 gallons I think?), because a hangar fell on it in the late 80s. I figure that might be a neat thing to have if one day I resolve to do the Lycoming conversion. The first thing I'd really like to do to it is put wheels-aft 180 gear on it or possibly just lady legs if I could find some for cheap. I just think it is a cool mod because you barely change anything about the airplane but you get better takeoff/landing performance and a better stance on the ground.

A little bit about myself, I fly commercially in Alaska year-round for two different pt. 135 operators. In the winter I fly 207s, Gipps Airvans, and now the Caravan for an operation in Bethel and commute from Los Angeles, where I grew up, every two weeks. Last summer I began flying Beavers and 185s on wheel skis out of Talkeetna to the glaciers of the Alaska Range. Very excited to use my 170 as a tool to continue to explore Alaska and sharpen my bush flying skills.

Will post more pics as I take them!

-Michael

Hi Michael! Glad to see you found what you are looking for.

When will you migrate to Talkeetna? Good chance I'll be in the area around the end of May for a few days.

Happy Flying! Keith

WELCOME Michael! I see you were smart enough to opt-out of the red/green argument!