Winning 170A

[mike roe]

A 170A won Grand Champion Gold Lindy at Oshkosh.Owned by Steve Jacobson from Texas.Restored by a shop in California.(Del Air I think).This plane was original and beautiful.I took 3 hours and looked at it intensivly.It is 99.5% original.Polished with red trim.Steve actually soloed in this plane.It deserved to win.

[Indopilot]

If it is the one I was told about, the owner has over $300 K invested. Wonder what you could do with $500 K ?

[iowa]

anyone have a pic of it?
iowa

[mike roe]

I dont know how much money was invested,but alot of time was.The plane spent some time outside in Florida.Had some serious corrosion problems.All of it seemingly taken care of.The restoration tech spent alot of time researching thru Cessna to keep it original.This plane was at the 170 convention.The skins started to show signs of corrosion from the salt air.They spent a day at Oshkosh polishing it out.$300.00,hard to say.

[mike roe]

Add 1 more zero to that previous post.

[Bruce Fenstermacher]

They spent a day at Oshkosh polishing it out.$300.00,hard to say.

$300? I'd say it's pretty easy to say Steve spent more that $300 Mike. (Your correction is noted MIke, I just couldn't resist.)

Steve's plane looks really nice as you approach it and you know it's special but at 100 feet it's difficult to put your finger on why it's more special than others next to it. It's not till you get close and start to look at the details. Then for some of us who have studied what an original Cessna might have looked like, do you realize you may be looking at the closest to an original Cessna in great shape that you may ever see. That is the moment you know why it looked special.

It is nice to see Steve is not afraid to fly the airplane having flown it to Galveston and tying it down in the storms and salt air on the ramp. He flew it on our "Bombing" mission as well. Yep at the end of the week as I helped Steve load the plane for his departure the skins shine was showing the effects of the salt air. But it still was looking very special.

[doug8082a]

If it's the one I'm thinking of I had several phone conversations with one of the guys from Del-Air (Chris? or Kevin? I forget...) regarding originality topics and also sent them a couple interior parts. This was a serious restoration project. I'd love to see pictures of it.

[Bruce Fenstermacher]

From Paul Wood:

Bruce
There is a cry for pictures of Steve Jacobsens 5752C on the forum.
No I still haven't learned to post pics...maybe this winter when
there's snow on the ground again! I like the tailfeather pic because
of the reflection behind me. The green and white is Frank's
(OldPokey) 56 172. I have no idea about the money numbers they are
throwing out but i do know it was a twenty seven year project.
Thanks Steve, I don't feel so bad now.

Steve Jacobsen's 170A at Galveston Photo from Paul Wood

[4583C]

Thanks Bruce I took that shot of the tailfeathers to remind myself which N number to vote for, for "Peoples Choice" which he also won. Congratulation to Steve on a job very well done. With the "Lindy" win Steves head may have grown enough to fit that hat he bought in the auction!

[mike roe]

Like I said,I spent 3 hours at Oshkosh going over this plane.Steve did nothing but praise the young fellow who did the work while I was their.Some people can do the work,some pay to have it done.as in this case it takes 2.A devoted owner and a good technician.

[170C]

Steve's plane is a beauty and it doesn't make any difference who did the work, its a fantastic looking plane and one to be proud of The fact that Steve has a long history with the plane makes it even more special. My only disappointment is I failed to see Steve or the 170 @ Oshkosh. He must have had it well hidden when I went out looking. Congrat's Steve Missed you Sat @ the 170 flyin @ GPM---you weren't out flying the DC-3 were you? By the way, Steve got another 15 minutes of mention in Flying Magazine an issue or 2 ago as he was with Les Abend when they did their DC-3 type rating(?). Gee, those airline guys get to do all that neat stuff Yea, I'm jealous And by the way, that photo of Steve's plane @ the convention with that green & white plane in the background-----------BOY HOWDY, WASN'T THAT ONE A BEAUTY

[GAHorn]

I didn't do the actual restoration work on my airplane either, but I have contributed lots in many different ways to get and keep it this way.
These beautifully restored airplanes are never "owned" by anyone... they are like works of art that we are caretakers of.
Thanks for sharing it with us Steve. Congratulations on the awards and thanks for all the hard work you do to get it to it's condition and share it with us.

[bsdunek]

It is gorgeous! Congratulations, Steve.

[iowa]

marvelous!
the gold standard
of what mine could be!
but...i'm still working on my L4
dave

[hilltop170]

Since you guys asked, here are some pictures I took of Steve Jacobson's 1950 C-170A, N5752C in Porterville, CA September 20, 2006. I was across the ramp at Ray Woodmansee's, Ray's Aircraft, getting a new prop installed when I looked over and saw the "new" C-170A. I couldn't believe my eyes.

The last picture is of Chris who is the young man who did most of the work on 52C. He spent about 15 minutes with me explaining what they had done to the plane. If I heard him correctly, most of the skins were replaced as well as any other airframe part that was not 100%. They were just installing the interior and instrument panel and everything inside and behind the panel looked as good as the outside. Of course the pictures speak for themselves and many of us got to admire 52C at Galveston.

I was hoping Steve might write about the restoration as it did take a long time and has many interesting stories. I spoke with him briefly at Galveston but can't remember many of the details.

How about it Steve? Come on and write an article for The 170 News or at least post your account of the restoration in the Forum, we all want to know.........