The International Cessna 170 Association

I realize this is a long shot, but does anyone happen to recognize the airplane below? The picture isn't high enough resolution to see the N number on the vertical fin, and I can't find any pictures of this airplane in any of the popular photo search engines, and some of the more obscure ones. I have no idea how old the photo is, and I'm not desperate enough to Google the entire list of extant 1952 B models to find out.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. I have reasonable reason to believe that it is NOT Craig Ryan's airplane N8250A prior to engine swap, but with only this angle to go on, I can't be absolute in this statement. If anyone can dispute my affirmation, it would make my quest a little easier.

That looks like George Horn's '52, before the right side landing light if it is his. Maybe at Spicewood Airport NW of Austin?

Hey George! Got your ears on?

hilltop170 wrote:That looks like George Horn's '52, before the right side landing light if it is his. Maybe at Spicewood Airport NW of Austin?

Hey George! Got your ears on?

146YS is a '53.

I'm mainly interested to see if that base is paint or natural aluminum. If it's paint, it's a really nice color and I'd like more information about it.

Never underestimate a millennial with an internet connection.

A little creative sleauthing lead me to the Monroe, WI owner. Now back to studying for my ME commercial checkride tomorrow...

Russ Farris' old plane. Has a remarkable history of having survived a mid-air back in '56. There's an article I read about it in some aviation magazine years ago. When Russ had it I'm quite sure it was polished. He was another originality nut of the first order! Even kept the dinged skin from the mid-air in place if I recall correctly.

Ryan, how'd the checkride go? No way I could pass that one today! What ride is next? Multi instructor?

I remember those days fondly. Mainly because it was affordable. Back when I took it I paid $60/hr. wet for a C-310C. What a great plane! You know you're getting old when you can remember paying $8/hr. wet for a C-150 and when the types of planes you used to fly are now in museums.

n2582d wrote:Russ Farris' old plane. Has a remarkable history of having survived a mid-air back in '56. There's an article I read about it in some aviation magazine years ago. When Russ had it I'm quite sure it was polished. He was another originality nut of the first order! Even kept the dinged skin from the mid-air in place if I recall correctly.

Ryan, how'd the checkride go? No way I could pass that one today! What ride is next? Multi instructor?

I remember those days fondly. Mainly because it was affordable. Back when I took it I paid $60/hr. wet for a C-310C. What a great plane! You know you're getting old when you can remember paying $8/hr. wet for a C-150 and when the types of planes you used to fly are now in museums.

I thought so, too, but this is N8169A. I was convinced it was N8143A, but finally got in touch with the young lady whose father owns the airplane. I believe she is a relative of the current owner of N8143A, who is a current Association member.

I would enjoy seeing N8143A as well. I dug up some of Russ' old posts to see if he had any pictures of the airplane. No joy. This airplane has the best color combination that I have seen to date. I'm interested in what colors silver and red were used. All of the other airplanes I've seen mimicking natural aluminum are too dark. This looks just right to me, and the red probably helps. It's hard to tell if it's brighter than the original red, but Insignia red is pretty bold.

Checkride was postponed until Thursday. IFR and LIFR are going to make it too difficult to do the air work since this is my initial multi rating. MEI next, then ATP hopefully in January or February. I need to secure an airplane to do a SE ATP, and I want to do my ATP SES next year as well, then I believe I'm done for a while and will just concentrate on 56D.

Yeah, I agree, it's very difficult to find a good paint color that mimics polished aluminum. I think maybe a non-metallic rather than metallic helps. Some time back I had a picture of a 180/185 in platinum or titanium (I forget which) color which really captured the polished aluminum better than any silver color I've seen. Of course that picture was on a computer that crashed.

I'm off from KMEM to KRDU later this afternoon. You're right about the weather. Lousy day for a checkride.

Why the SE ATP? Stick with something practical and just go for the ATP MES! Here's my dream job. Where I now work I flew with a guy who collected ratings. As a senior wide-body captain he didn't own a house but he did have more FAA ratings than anyone. Clearly had his priorities in the right order! He long since retired but last I saw him he was complaining about how expensive it was going to be to get the tiltrotor rating. He even had the ATP gyrocopter rating before the FAA got rid of that one!

Ryan Smith wrote:

hilltop170 wrote:That looks like George Horn's '52, before the right side landing light if it is his. Maybe at Spicewood Airport NW of Austin?

Hey George! Got your ears on?

146YS is a '53.

I'm mainly interested to see if that base is paint or natural aluminum. If it's paint, it's a really nice color and I'd like more information about it.

Yes, mine is a '53 year-model...(and carries a '53 year model paint scheme)....but carried on the FAA registry as a '52 model since it rolled off the assembly lines in Nov '52. (At one time it was carried on the books as a 1970 model... the year it received it's first U.S. Airworthiness Certificate after being re-imported from So. America.)