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.