History of 55C: Part 1

Here is the first installment of hopefully many more that highlights some of the cool history of this classic airplane. Taken around 1940, the photo is of the previous owner, Hal S. (on the right in the flight helmet and goggles) in front of what I'm told is a Fleet 7 biplane. When I opened this at work for the first time I found myself completely lost in thought for about half an hour thinking about what was going on that day and piecing together what little I know about him. Here, he's at the airport with some buddies maybe just chocking the airplane after a discovery flight with the guy on the left.

Maintenance update

I just got word from the maintenance shop that the shoulder harnesses and tail pull handles were installed without any issues. What this also means is nothing new was found in the process of pulling back the headliner or crawling down the belly of the fuselage. All good things!

I also got word that the magneto is done and should be arriving in the mail today. If things continue to go smoothly, the plane will be buttoned up and ready for an acceptance flight and hopefully the trip to her new home.



-- Post From My iPhone

For now.

So Tim and I decided to leave the plane here to get the maintenance it needs, while we head back to California this afternoon.  I can't say that there's not a little bit of disappointment that we won't be able to fly ourselves home and arrive in style.  While both of us know that we really couldn't have wished things to turn out any better, I can't help but feel a like a kid who dropped my ice cream cone.  "But I really waanted to fly back home through South Dakota and over the Rockies!"

For a while we tried to convince ourselves that it would make good sense to find a way to come back and finish the trip we started.  If nothing else, we've had a heckuva time sharing our adventures so far on this blog and with everyone commenting.  It's definitely anti-climatic to end it by boarding a commercial flight.  But ultimately our adult selves won out, and we realized that as much as we wanted to, we just couldn't justify the time and costs to come back here ourselves.   So we'll head back home, and Tim's coordinating with a flight instructor to fly our plane back sometime in the next week or two.

In the meantime, we'll continue our adventures (on the ground and in the air) back in California.  I'll see if I can do better about posting them here.  We've got a list of places we want to go that grows longer every time we think about it.

So....  That's all folks.  For now.

We'll be back!

Slight change of plan

For the last few days 55C has been at the maintenance shop receiving a few minor fixes and having things looked over by an aircraft mechanic I've known for a while. Nothing major was found but the mechanic did find an issue with one of the airplane's magnetos, no not an evil super-villain flying around inside the engine, but a device made of copper wiring and magnets that spins and generates an electrical pulse to the spark plugs. The mechanic tells me that having the magneto refurbished is very straightforward but unfortunately it won't be available until Monday - not in time for our planned Friday departure.

The magneto's job is to deliver electricity to the spark plug just as the piston is near the top of its travel in the cylinder. The spark ignites the fuel and air mixture pushing the cylinder back down and providing the engine power.

When this spark isn't timed correctly the engine doesn't produce the optimum amount of power. In this case the tachometer read a 150 drop in RPM during runup and the magneto was found to be 20 degrees off of the proper timing. This is problematic because we will be needing all the power and ignition redundancy we can get for the trip through the higher elevations going west.

This is about where my technical knowledge of the issue ends. But, while this may seem like a "big deal," magneto issues are not uncommon. In fact, I've returned at least 4 rental aircraft back to the tie down over the course of my training because of a faulty magneto during the engine run-up.

However, plan B is in effect now and we will be shoe horning ourselves into the back of an A320 for the rest of the trip back to California while the plane gets the attention it needs. In the meantime, the folks here have been extremely gracious in letting our bird bed-down in a comfortable hangar for the duration.

Now the question is... how to get it back to California? Will we decide to:

a) Fly back in the next week or two to finish up the adventure?

b) Hire a local pilot to ferry it the rest of the way home? or

c) Say "to heck with the world" stay here, upgrade the panel with a GNS 430 GPS, slap in a few Aspen Avionics PFD/MFDs, Wipline amphibious floats, and have my fly fishing rod meet us in Alaska?

To be continued...

Light Aircraft FAQs

This morning at Einstein's Bagel we came to the realization that the blog could use a post that addresses the pattern of questions that we've been receiving from talking with people outside the aviation community. Hope this is informative for everyone.

Q: Can you fly over water?

A: Technically yes, but, generally speaking it's a bad idea to fly over anything you wouldn't feel comfortable landing on should your one and only engine fail. Sometime's it is unavoidable like flying through mountain passes where the ground beneath you is unwelcoming but under those circumstances you try to minimize the risk by tightening the weather tolerances and giving yourself more buffer with altitude.

Q: Does Caroline fly?

A: Sort of. Caroline has taken a "pinch hitter" course that covers all she needs to know in case I should be incapacitated for some reason. The course covers basic operation of the radios, an understanding of the flight controls, and an overview of navigating to an airport and making a landing that would be survivable. I hope this is the spark that will eventually lead to a private pilot's license, but that is just a hope for now. On the flip side, she will likely be a better pilot than I am and I obviously can't have that.

Q: How do you decide where to land?

A: Given the class of aircraft that we have, relatively small and light, we can land at most airports. So, on long trips the decision is a mixture between being in the right geographic location for the trip; being close to amenities that we need like hotel, food, etc; fuel prices, and weather factors (whether or not they have a suitable runway given the wind, etc.) While it's perfectly legal to land at an airport like Chicago O'hare, most light aircraft are not welcome there because of the speed differential and the already heavy workload on the tower managing the jet traffic. So, the small airports outside of town that have a sleeping dog on the porch and homemade pies are the preferable refuel destinations for us.

Q: How do you get fuel? How do you pay for it?

A: It's pretty much exactly like pulling into a truck stop, getting gas, picking up snacks, and stretching your legs. Most airports these days have self service gas pumps that you pull up to and pay with a credit card. Some airports still have full service where a line person comes out and fuels the airplane for you. Some airports can support a dedicated fuel truck that will come to your airplane's parking spot to refuel. It's all about how much convenience you want to pay for. Aviation grade gasoline (100 Octane Low Lead in this case) runs about $2 more than the local car gas. The last few fillups we made ranged between $4-$5 per gallon.

Q: How far does it fly?

A: It depends. The distance you can travel primarily depends on the prevailing winds at altitude. A strong headwind means you spend more of your time (and fuel) going slower over the ground vs a favorable tailwind that pushes you along. In a no wind situation the book answer would be 500 miles which would equate to about a 5 hour flight. I personally don't plan for a leg longer than 3.5 hours or about 380 statute miles just because by that point you are ready to get out of the plane for a bit to take a health and comfort break. Not to mention that things don't always go exactly as planned so having a fuel reserve is not just the law, but a pretty good idea.

Q: How fast does it go?

A: I calculate my flight planning based on 105 knots (120 MPH) indicated airspeed (the speed read off the airspeed indicator on the airplane).

Q: What is maintenance like?

A: I'm learning as I go, but, the airplane is mechanically like a Volkswagen with wings. The biggest maintenance risk is the engine but even with that it is only a very simple, carbureted, air cooled, flat six cylinder engine. By volume, what is ahead of the firewall is only about 10 percent of the total airplane, it translates to 50+ percent of the value and maintenance expense. The rest is essentially an empty aluminum can.

Every year the airplane must go through a very thorough inspection of all the critical systems to head off any potential unexpected problems. If nothing turns up this runs about $1,000 in labor. If problems are found, that number can go up by up to 5 fold or more. Again, mostly in the engine. Fortunately, preventative maintenance and prompt attention to issues reduces the one time impacts significantly.

The other big expenses come from improvements which any aircraft owner has a weakness for. "Wouldn't it be nice to have such 'n such" syndrome". I'll try to temper that as best I can but I don't expect to be too successful.

Q: What trips do we have planned?

A: This is the fun part! We want the airplane to be a door opener to other activities we enjoy doing. B&Bs along the California coast, diving in Monterey, Fly fishing the Sierra Nevadas, visiting family in the San Francisco Bay area, Denver, and beyond!

Q: Which route are we planning on taking over the Rockies?

A: The northern route through the Black Hills of South Dakota, through Custer national park in Wyoming, on to the Great Salt Lake, and over the Sierras through Donner pass.

Q: What is a taildragger?

A: Literally, the term comes from the fact that the tail sits on the ground and is being "dragged" around on the tailwheel. This was the way all airplanes were built prior to the advent of hard surface runways. In the days of gravel and turf strips it was beneficial to have a long wheel base for stability and to keep the propeller as far from the ground as possible should you hit an unexpected gopher hole. It's also a very simple and lightweight design.

Because the design of a taildragger places the center of gravity behind the main wheels, it is challenging to keep the pointy end forward given the natural affinity to go the opposite direction and the tendency to weathervane into the wind. Think about how tricky it is to steer a shopping cart from the wrong end. Aircraft engineers addressed this issue by mounting the wheel responsible for steering in the front, placing the center of gravity ahead of the main wheels thereby keeping things moving in the proper direction with little input from the pilot. This improved controllability significantly and was made possible from paved runways, taxiways, and ramps. Back in the day this was considered the new design which is why taildraggers were referred to as "conventional" gear. The nose-up-front design was the unique, "newfangled" idea.

I wanted a taildragger partly because the off-airport, grass strip capability is appealing to me but mostly because I enjoy the challenge of it. No landing is ever a given in a taildragger - it makes you earn it each and every time.

the new normal...

Things have been a little quiet here as we've settled in to Minneapolis.  Tim's got a class for work starting today and going through Thursday, and so I'm cooling my jets, re-exploring the city that we just left a few months ago.  It feels a bit strange to be here - it was only two months ago that we drove out of here, on our way to California.  Actually let me amend that, it feels really strange.  We drove past the house, just to check in, and instead of feeling sadly nostalgic, it just felt like we were driving home.  The weather here is in full spring-time mode - trees are starting to blossom, temperatures are edging up, and the Twins even had their season opener in the new stadium yesterday.  This is the seductive time of year in Minnesota.

But it feels really good to be here, having such a great time on this trip, and simultaneously looking forward to being back home.  By all accounts, the California crew is having a great time without us.  One contingent is taking spring break in Yosemite, and the rest of the crew is hanging out in Davis, and eating some fantastic food as always, I'm sure.  Paul and Nikki are taking great care of Hogan - I'm not sure that she'll want to leave all the fun when we get back.  Who knew that we could be having as much fun as we are, and still be missing home, too?

I'm still trying to adjust to what life will be like as aircraft owners.  On Saturday when I dropped Tim off at the airport, I had a sneaking suspicion that it might be awhile before I saw him again.  He told me that he thought he'd be there two hours.  I called him four hours later, and he told me he'd be ready in another hour.  I showed up about an hour and a half later, and we left another hour after that.  But like he said in his post, we were both so happy that'd we'd have been purring if we were cats.  He had grease all over his hands and arms, parts and pieces of the airplane all over the hangar, and a huge grin on his face.  I felt completely content from a day of reading and writing at the library.  This is our new normal.

On Sunday I found myself thinking about that a lot.  What exactly will our new normal look like?  We've had a lot of changes since we were here last, and I don't think that we have a full grasp on what they all mean.

But I'm sure looking forward to figuring it all out!



More photos are here.

Perfect day at the airport

I can't tell you how great it is to be back at my home airport with our plane. Minneapolis - Flying Cloud (KFCM) is where I finished up my single engine commercial and truly started learning how to aviate. Ben, my instructor, is hands down the finest teacher and flight school operator I have ever come in contact with and has improved my skills more than I could have imagined. Without fail he provides free Saturday morning safety seminars which have grown from a rag tag group of 7 to what are now full blown events that top 100 people in just over a year with people flying in from around the local area to attend. It has been amazing to watch.

Flying Cloud is also where I earned my first dollar as a pilot flying the morning traffic reporter for a local radio station. The drill was to wake up at 4:15am to check the weather, make coffee and head to the airport by 4:45am, preflight the Beechcraft Sport 150hp plane (in sometimes 0 degree temperatures), and be wheels up by 5:30 for a 2.5 hour circuit around the twin cities area out to the Wisconsin border. To be fuel efficient, we would cruise at a low power setting which didn't give enough energy for the exhaust-warmed cabin heat system. By the time we got back on the ground my coffee would be a solid ice block in my insulated travel mug! Touching down at 7:55, I would refuel, park the plane, rip off my snowboard gear down to my work slacks and shirt underneath and be at my desk for work by 8:45. On the days we were teaching ground school I'd head back out to the airport at 5:30, grab a sandwich, and help Ben with the lesson until 9pm. Doing this twice each week I would log the 5 hrs/week paid flight time while cramming tons of new learning in my pea-like brain. It was a thing of beauty.

So today started like 90% of my Saturdays when we lived here heading out to the Saturday morning seminar to polish up things. Except this time, instead of looking to see which transient aircraft came in for the day, I knew it was our plane parked out front with curious lookers peering in through the side windows. The seminar was packed to standing room only in the hanger, once again, successfully luring 102 obsessed pilots away from their airplanes on a precious CAVU (calm air, visibility unlimited) Saturday morning for a thorough review of towered airport communications. Typically, this would be followed by 1-2 hours of B.S. and listening to other aircraft owner stories of recent adventures, upgrades, airport politics, etc but today was about showing off 55C to the gang, which... to be honest... felt awesome.

This had to be cut a bit short because Ben, in a Superman-in-the-phone-booth like mental shift, is already bringing out the class of tailwheel groundschool students and is using our plane as the demo. The awesomeness continues. The elation subsides a touch as for the next 15 minutes I am fumbling through detailed questions on tire pressures, tailwheel steering chain specs, etc as the proud but somewhat ignorant new owner of the bird - but in teaching I am learning. By now it's time to meet up with Caroline for a sandwich at Jimmy John's to catch up on each other's morning. Being both eager to get back to our projects, she drops me off back at the airport on her way to a bookshop and library which is, in my terms, her airport equivalent.

Fortunately, one of the instructors is also an A&P (Airframe and Power plant mechanic) and after a few minutes talking over the growing squawk list of minor things to repair, he and Ben suggest that I get things taken apart to prep for the work that needs to be done, saving labor costs and of course learning, learning, learning.

Somewhere between the 2 hour (how long I told Caroline I would be) and the 8 hour mark (the time it was when I actually looked at the clock) the awesomeness reached a fever pitch when we had the cowl off and about 8 pieces of aluminum sandblasted, prepped, primed, and painted. It was like a makeover show for the engine and will help it run cooler and prevent future corrosion. The sun has now set, I'm covered in grease, and it feels great to wash with GoJo again.

In our opinion, the only way to end a day like this is for some sushi and hot green tea. Which is exactly what we did (although it was Minnesota sushi... whatever... close enough).

If you're in the area, check out the seminar or rent a few hours in the Citabria:
http://www.inflightpilottraining.com/

Progress!

After days of what felt like inching along we finally covered some decent ground today and made it the 600+ miles from central Ohio to Minneapolis. So far on this 4th day of the trip back we've travelled 945 miles, made 5 fuel stops, slept in 3 different beds, and drank more coffee than could be logged waiting out the weather... and it's been a blast so far!

We're both exhausted but I wanted to post a few of today's highlights. After waking up to a fresh breakfast at the Kitt's, we discovered a pristine grass strip in Lowell, Indiana, got a front seat view of the Chicago skyline, and finally parked the plane in front of my old flight school where I learned how to fly taildraggers. We'll stay here for a few days for the work related training I have to do (oh yeah... work) which will be a good opportunity to have an aircraft mechanic take a look at a few things. Right now the plan is to head out again on Friday morning for what is sure to be a jaw dropping sightseeing trip across the black hills, the Rockies, Great Salt Lake, and the Sierra Nevadas.

Lowell Field: What else is there to say? The plane hearts grass...

Chicago skyline: Sorry for the shaky camera work. The windy city lived up to it's reputation.

A quick update

Our visit to Columbus, if a bit too short, was everything we could hope it to be. I'll have to catch up on describing it later, because for now, we're anxious to get on our way. Today will be a day of lots flying, which means not much blogging. Today's itinerary includes landing at a grass strip, a flight along the Chicago skyline, another stop in Winona, and then on to Flying Cloud, where Billie will make her home while we stay in Minneapolis.

Tim's finishing his preflight, so I've got to go. More later!

We made it!

After much hemming and hawing, we finally made it to Columbus! I think I might have seen my high school on the way in, but I couldn't be positive - everything looks so different from the air. Especially so many years later!

Any way the plan is to finally enjoy a nice evening with Meredith & Gerrit & Anneka, and see what comes tomorrow. I can't wait to see them - it's been far too long!

Lunch in Carrollton Ohio

Here is where we meet the front we've been tracking for 2 days. We attempted to make it further west to New Philadelphia, OH but a cell of rainshowers and wind beat us to it by 7 minutes. (We had a 10 minute departure delay due to some misplaced keys but that is the material for a whole other entry.) So we turned back and found lunch and great homemade pies here in Carrollton. The skies are soupy at the moment but I'm still holding out for the 1 hour break in the weather we need to make it to Columbus today.

Goodbye State College?

When we woke up this morning, the weather was much improved, so we're going to try this again. After an early breakfast at good ole Perkins, we're heading back to the airport. If all goes well, we'll be in Columbus by nightfall.

But then, if I've learned anything so far, it's to expect the unexpected...

The plan

Here's the general route pending weather and other critical factors like finding a B&B that we find interesting or a cozy pub to round out the day. 10 fuel stops and pretty close to 2,215 nautical miles (2,547 regular miles) and we plan to remain between 2,000 to 6,500 ft above the ground. I estimate we'll probably spend 25-30 hours total in the air including coming into and out of fuel stops and maneuvering through mountain passes. In two weeks we'll log the hours it took me 2 years to accomplish as a student pilot washing planes in high school.

All the while we'll be learning more and more about the plane and getting our "system" down - what to pack, figuring out logistics on the ground, preflight planning, navigating, etc, etc.

In the meanwhile we managed to get the plane safely into a hanger with the help of the friendly folks at University Park airport to wait out the storms marching through the midwest. It was pretty hilarious to see our little bird tucked into a hangar built to house a corporate jet, complete with whitewashed, heated flooring.

Enough room to do touch and goes without even leaving the hangar.

I pre-apologized for the inevitable oil stains on the pristine heated floors...

State College, Pennslyvania (still)

You can't say that we weren't able to get out of the airport this morning because we didn't get there early enough. Tim tried to get an earlier shuttle from the hotel, and wasn't able to. We were there, quite literally at the crack of dawn.



Unfortunately, the weather wasn't doing us any favors. This is the weather map from this morning that I mentioned earlier:

That front is just sitting there. Even if we could get past the headwinds, we'd still have to deal with the gusts on the ground, and the thunderstorms associated with the front. We considered flying into an airport about 100 miles west of here, but they were forecasting thunderstorms, winds and snow. Snow. Tim and I were beginning to wonder if we'd somehow gotten our camping weather confused with our flying weather - we can usually guarantee rain when we go camping.

So we decided to call it quits for the day and settle in to wait out the weather. Yet again, we give our apologies to Meredith and Gerrit. You've got the patience of saints. But then again, Meredith and I learned the values of flexibility at a young age from an excellent teacher.

Last night we stayed at a hotel that was hosting a conference about Pennsylvania Parole. The hotel was exactly the kind of place you'd picture would host that conference, so we decided not to go back. Instead, we found a new, much improved hotel on priceline (which I'm becoming a huge fan of), got settled in to our room, and took off to go see the Penn State campus.

We've even managed to have some fun, even if we'd rather be flying.

Flexibility is the key to airpower

Or at least to travel by Cessna 170B. If you look at a weather map today, you'll see a stationary front lined up nice and pretty right between us and where we want to be. And when they call it stationary, they really mean stationary.

That front is causing crazy winds aloft - right now they're estimating 60 knot winds aloft. That's over 50% of our cruise speed. With those winds we could honestly drive there faster. Much faster.

So now we're evaluating options. I'm guessing that evaluating options may be a valuable skill in this new (to us) mode of traveling.

More to follow...

An early morning

We're in our hotel lobby in State College, PA, waiting for the shuttle that will take us back to the airport. We're trying to get a jumpstart on the winds this morning and on the weather that's due in this afternoon.

I think it's going to take a while for me to really understand what it means to own our own airplane. I have to admit that it felt pretty good to taxi in to the State College airport yesterday. We never expected to see State College, but we knew a lot of Penn State grads from the Air Force, and it's fun to see their alma mater.

There was a charter pilot on the ramp who stopped me as I was walking into the terminal to ask, "Is that a 170?" Why yes, yes it is.

I'll try to do a better job documenting the flight today. I got caught up in the sheer joy of it yesterday. The hills of Pennsylvania were stunning.

Charmed by Jim Thorpe

There's a town a few miles away from where we picked up the plane named Jim Thorpe.  When I was looking for a place to stay that would be convenient to the airfield, I found the Inn at Jim Thorpe.  The hotel was originally built in 1833 and burned down in the 1840s and was rebuilt.  (reminds you of Monty Python a little doesn't it?)  It turned out to be the perfect town to celebrate the purchase of a beautiful airplane.

It was only a little after four when we got to the hotel, but since we never got around to lunch we were simultaneously starved, dehydrated, wound up with excitement, and exhausted.  The restaurants didn't open for dinner until five so we had to kill a little bit of time before we could satisfy our hunger.  Everyone we met in Jim Thorpe was very friendly.  We talked to the owner of a railroad paraphernalia store for about a half hour as he told us all about the history of the area.

Jim Thorpe was originally built on coal and railroad money, and is the county seat of Carbon County, Pennsylvania.  The town was originally named Mauch Chunk which means something like "bear on the mountain side" in the local Native American language.  The town definitely feels like it's straight out of mid-nineteenth century America - you can imagine industrial barons making their home there.  Apparently 13 of the nation's 26 millionaires lived in Mauch Chunk before WWII.  The main street through the center of town was called Millionaire's Row.



When Jim Thorpe died in 1953, his widow decided to bring his remains to Mauch Chunk, where they built a shrine in his honor and renamed the town for him.  For those of you who don't know (which included me, 24 hours ago), Jim Thorpe was a Native American football player.  In the 1912 Stockholm Olympics, he won gold in the decathlon and pentathlon.   Apparently any local old timers are still called "chunkers".

After wandering through a few stores, we made our way to a restaurant called Moya, where they had just started serving dinner.  The restaurant was fabulous - really good food, impeccable service, and an atmosphere that was just the right mix of classy and comfortable.  By the time we finished dinner, we'd taken care of dehydration, hunger, excitement (at least for the moment), and all that was left was exhaustion.  And yet it was only 6:30.  So we decided to walk around town and reinvigorate ourselves before considering whether to go back for some espresso and desert.

The walk was really nice.  I've seen tourist information call Jim Thorpe the Switzerland of Pennsylvania, and I can see why.  The town managed to remind me simultaneously of England and southern Europe, while still feeling distinctly American.  It was a charming combination.   We heard that there's a strong Irish contingent in the area.  As the man told us, "You know when you see a five year old running around with the name Seamus, that people here take their Irish roots seriously."  Indeed.

The next morning I took off in another direction with camera in hand.  This is one of the mansions on a road going up the hill out of town (too ritzy for the Millionaire's Row).



There was a sign out front advertising murder mystery dinners there.  Talk about a perfect setting.

Well, I ended up sharing far more about Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania than I ever expected.  But it was a beautiful place and it had a fascinating history.  The people there were universally welcoming, and the hotel and restaurant were top notch.  It could be that I was wearing rose colored colored glasses after a day of buying an airplane, but it's a place I would love to come back to, and a place I'd recommend to anyone who's in the area.

Incidentally, this is one of the reasons why I'm so excited about the airplane.  While I do love flying with Tim, just for the sake of it, I also love that it'll give us the opportunity to go explore new places.  Tim gets to fly and I get to wander around taking pictures and sketching, and try to figure out what makes a place tick.

You can see more of my pictures of Jim Thorpe here.

First leg complete. 22N - UNV

We made it to our first destination! The plane ran great and we made decent time considering the headwinds. The winds on the surface were reported at about 20 mph with gusts up to 30. Those are sporting conditions for any light plane nevermind a tailwheel so we've decided spend the night here and press on first thing in the morning to OSU.

Looking forward to seeing the Kitt's tomorrow.



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:Science St,State College,United States

more photos

This is the original owner's manual that came with the airplane when it originally delivered from the factory.  It's pretty wonderful.

If you'd like to see more photos of the day yesterday, you can find them on Flickr here.  I realize now that trying to take pictures and videos simultaneously is a surefire way to do neither well.  Oh well - it was fun.

Right now Tim and I are grounded at Arner Memorial Airfield in Pennsylvania as we wait for the wind to die down a bit. The hope is still to make it into Columbus tonight, although it's looking less and less likely that it'll happen. So if that doesn't work, we'll head out around 4 or 5 when the winds are scheduled to die down and make it as far west as we can get. It's a lot less stressful to make a trip like this when we've got a flexible schedule. Thanks to Meredith and Gerritt for their patience!

It's official

The deal is done! The plane's officially ours. Looking forward to getting back into the air. Here are a few shots of the acceptance flight...

Getting to know the instruments and avionics... it's not a long list.

Paint job was a custom design by the previous owner - a Marine, photographer, and well known member of the local flying community here.

Who needs asphalt?

It flies!

Contact... Love that loping sound of the 6 cylinder Continental C-145

Not exactly a greaser but you can't tell from this distance!

There it is...

Well, we've been out to see the airplane and Tim's taken his first flight in her. It's been a while since I've seen a grin that big on Tim's face.

We had a little bit of a delay as we worked through an issue with the radios, but everything's back on track now. We'll have to wait to upload pictures and videos until I have a chance to pull the laptop out.

It's a good day in Pennsylvania...

A little about the plane...

After months of watching the classifieds and years of having my nose up against the window of ownership, we decided we had enough of dealing with restrictions of the rental world and take the plunge to own our own. The thought of exploring our new California home by air, sailing over the gridlock traffic, taking advantage of precious weekends to go diving in Monterrey or Catalina island, golfing in shelter cove, and fly fishing the Sierras was enough to get us motivated.

Taking a good long look at how we'd use the plane and what our operating budget would be we ended up with requirements for 2 adults plus dog and a weekend's worth of camping gear of about 150 lbs. I've always been partial to high wing airplanes because of greater ease loading and unloading people and gear, so that put us squarely in Cessna 172 - Skyhawk territory: 160hp, "4" seats, high wing, weekend escape vehicle. Ubiquitous and reliable... like Starbucks. But, why not go for something unique that you can't go out to any flight school to rent?

So that's how we landed on the 170, the Skyhawk's predecessor from a more genteel aviation era. And after many more months of market watching and research (okay, more like drooling over posts on the internet) we found her. A 1954 Cessna 170B: 145hp, "4" seats, high wing, weekend escape vehicle... with added cache of classic lines and that silly little rubber wheel in the back instead of on the nose, exactly where it was meant to be.

After dozens of phone calls with the very helpful owner, title searches, research on the history and maintenance, discussions with aircraft mechanics, and a heck of a lot of gut checking, we decided we've learned as much as we can about her from 2,200 miles away and that it's time to fly out and meet her in person.

In Dulles

I honestly can't remember the last time I was in Dulles Airport. I think it might have been when we moved here when we were kids. I kind of remember being disappointed that we couldn't see the Capitol building or the White House when we flew in.

We had an early morning this morning. Paul and Nikki were kind enough to let us stay at their place last night, which allowed us to get a little extra sleep. They're also taking care of our dog for us while we're taking our joyride around the country. They're doing so much to help us out - we really appreciate it.

The plan tonight is to take the next leg of our flight to Allentown, PA. Tomorrow morning we'll get a ride out to the airfield where the airplane is, and go from there. Tomorrow I'll be playing the role of photographer and silent, interested partner, while Tim plays the role of savvy buyer. The goal is to save our hoopin' n hoolerin' until after the deal is done, and we're alone with the newest addition to the family. We'll let you know how that goes...

Flight planning for the big trip.

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Location:Nick Way,Elk Grove,United States

the next chapter

We've been here in California for a little under two months, and we've been loving it. So far, we've only spent two weekends at home - otherwise we've been out and about, exploring our new state, and enjoying the chance to spend time with family. So far we've been to Point Reyes, Carmel-by-the-Sea, and Lake Tahoe for some snowboarding.  We've been loving our weekends.


But now we're about to launch our next extended adventure.  We found an airplane that we want to buy, and so we're heading out tomorrow to go look at it.  If all goes well, it will be our airplane by the end of the day Monday.  This is something we've been talking about doing ever since we've known each other, and we've been waiting for the right opportunity and the right airplane. 


The plan is that we'll take our time heading back home from Pennsylvania, where the plane is now.  We'll stop and visit with some old friends and Tim will get to park his new baby back at Flying Cloud airport in Minneapolis where he has a class for work.  Then we'll recreate the trip that we just made a few months ago, only this time, we'll be traveling in style.


Join us on our journey!