The International Cessna 170 Association

C170 Friends, I am planning some longer trips in my 1952 C-170 this summer. The plane is great, but the old seats kill my derrier and back after about an hour. Since the plane is certificated, swapping seats means a big investment. Therefore I am looking for seat cushions with good lumbar and should...

I give up! Does no-one offer cowl plugs for C170s? Can anyone suggest how to make a pair that will work with the original grills in the cowl inlets? Nor have I found anyone who can supply me with a replacement ceiling light bezel, another piece of yellowing, cheap blown plastic. Thanks for any and a...

Many thanks for the replies and links to past threads on this ever-popular debate. regards, Kent

Of course, removal of my two venturis won't have much of an impact, but they will have some. The added weight, complexity, mechanical friction and cooling drag of a vacuum pump offsets this, of course. I won't get my extra 10mph through the venturies alone, but maybe 10-20 small things adding up wil...

Thanks, guys, for the quick response. I am stripping my C170 of external stuff that slows it down in an experiment to see if I can get another 10mph cruise out of it. I don't intend to fly in any icing conditions, in fact the plane will remain day VFR only. I am pretty sure I have seen a vacuum conv...

The cheap plastic bezel for my ceiling light unit has fallen apart. Can someone recommend a replacement source? Mine is a 1952 B model.

I am also interested in converted from venturies to a vacuum pump. Does anyone have info on pump units for C-145 engines?

Many thanks.

Hmmmmm.... 140mph in a draggy C-170B with a C-145 ..... Sounds fishy to me. GPS showed 135MPH - or was that 135 Kts ? Perhaps they were flying downhill? If it's true, let's see the proof and I'll order one of those rocket-props. Kent

Doug, received the two copies of the calendar and wished I had ordered more. Very nice work, even though my stunning C-170B was not in this year's. I look forward to sending you pictures for the annual calendar image contest that is sure to evolve from this. Thanks to all your contributors, too. Tha...

George, when you model complex 3D geometries such as fairings, you need to include a fairly large part of the surrounding aircraft in order to get the actual flow conditions correctly. For this same reason, when car companies model the underhood flow around an engine for cooling studies, they includ...

George - I will explain - my profession is CFD - computational fluid dynamics. See my company's web site, http://www.ensight.com, for examples. I am used to having geometry for aircraft existing in CAD, "meshing" this and then using CFD software to compute aero loads at high accuracy. Of c...

Sorry - yes kudos were meant for George. However your comments, Miles, are evidence of your vast knowledge on the subject, also. Our clan is fortunate to have the both of you. Superb flying day here in central NC - which is what I am leaving to do now. Kent

Miles, how do you know all these details on our favorite airplane? I am very impressed! I remain frustrated in my search for accurate coordinates of the struts themselves. Surely someone knows these? Greta C-170 flying weather down here in NC this weekend. Clear and cool and lots of color in the tre...

Bela, You are surely correct on this as my observations have only been that and we don't see too many of these A/C in our parts. How do you know this about the struts of larger Cessnas? Do you perhaps know who makes these for Cessna, something Cessna won't tell me. Kent

Miles, I have used a profile gauge and taken measurements from these with an accurate caliper. However this is not sufficient, even using some fancy spline fitting I still get undesirable waviness that is simply not there in the actual extruded profile. A laser scanner would do the trick, and I know...

Miles, I contacted Cessna on this, but they wouldn't give me the coordinates and in the end claimed they didn't know them either. I guess they don't make much use of CAD yet at Cessna.... They would also not reveal the name of their tubing supplier, which indicates to me that Cessna is run by lawyer...