The International Cessna 170 Association

Check out our 170b raffle! Our non-profit in the philly area provides stem education and promotes GA. We are currently building a van's rv12 with high school kids and have a few smaller projects going. We had to make a tough decision and part ways with this cessna 170b that was donated to us a few years ago. We will most likely pick up a light sport or basic tricycle gear for flight instruction.

2525C is flying once a week when the weather is nice and had a thorough annual completed a few months back.

If you're feeling lucky and want to donate check out the raffle page below.

-Mike


www.stratusaf.org/raffle

Mike, I have some familiarity with Wings Field. I grew up in the Philadelphia area, and we would regularly drive by the field when going to visit relatives in Berks County. Part of what got me interested in aviation as a kid. Also, I flew into it a few times from the old 3M airport in Bristol during my private pilot training the summer after I graduated from high school. Glad to see Wings is a vibrant community. Your organization looks like a real good one. We need more like it in small airports across the country. Best of luck with the raffle. The first prize is not too shabby!

gfeher wrote:Mike, I have some familiarity with Wings Field. I grew up in the Philadelphia area, and we would regularly drive by the field when going to visit relatives in Berks County. Part of what got me interested in aviation as a kid. Also, I flew into it a few times from the old 3M airport in Bristol during my private pilot training the summer after I graduated from high school. Glad to see Wings is a vibrant community. Your organization looks like a real good one. We need more like it in small airports across the country. Best of luck with the raffle. The first prize is not too shabby!

Thanks! Wings is staying busy and we are hoping to help it continue an airport that is used by both business and fun GA! Stop by if you are ever in the area.

If anyone has a 170b glove box they want to sell or trade for a few raffle tickets let me know.

Mike,

Why not use the 170 for flight instruction?

DEM

Students have enough time handling a Cherokee or a 172 starting out...no need to complicate things.

Disclaimer — I've given 125 hours of dual in a month and a half as a CFI. Certainly it can be done, but not all students are cut from the same cloth. Not all instructors are either, and it's hard enough teaching someone that knows how to fly to pedal a taildragger...much less someone that knows nothing. I learned to fly in my 170 because I had a vested interest. Nosewheel airplanes were invented for a reason.

Maybe one day I'll get good enough to do initial training in a tailwheel, but it won't be for some time.

DEM, they won't consider it because insurance is high and quite frankly there are no CFIs who are qualified. It just doesn't meet their profile.

Sad but true.

(Rereading my post, I think the foundation folks probably did consider it so the word "won't" is not correct. But the hurdles to overcome and the risk reward just don't make sense for their purpose)

1. Taildraggers to hard to instruct in? Really? We've taught millions of pilots over 100 years in taildraggers.

2. No instructors? No problem. You only need one to check out the other ones and get the tailwheel endorsements...which every instructor serious about his/her craft should have regardless. If they don't want to get a tailwheel rating that tells you everything you need to know about that instructor. You want a teacher, not a timebuilder. When I went to get my instrument rating in the 170 a local flight school recommended a couple new hotshot CFII's. Turns out neither had a tailwheel endorsement, and neither was interested in getting it. They did, however, have "a really nice N model 172 you can rent." I went to another school.

3. No insurance? Yeah, I'll buy that one. Truth be told, tailwheel airplanes must be a nightmare for insurance companies. Groundloops happen, and not just to low time pilots. If you fly taildraggers its not a matter of if, but when. Mine came after 900+ hours of tailwheel time.

DEM

My son learned to fly in my 170 and is a far better pilot for it. I "instructed" until he was 18 and beyond my ability to teach him more, then he went to a local FBO and got his private in 172s, logging 41 hours in six weeks.

flyboy122 wrote:1. Taildraggers to hard to instruct in? Really? We've taught millions of pilots over 100 years in taildraggers.

Yep and we wrecked a lot of plentyful tail draggers. Tail draggers aren't so easy to fix today and they aren't so plenty full.

flyboy122 wrote:
2. No instructors? No problem. You only need one to check out the other ones and get the tailwheel endorsements...

Really? So what wisdom and experience do you think a 5 hour total tail wheel time CFI brings to the table to pass on to the others he "trains" so that they can pass it on to others and before we know it we have a whole lot of wrecked tail wheel aircraft.

flyboy122 wrote:
3. No insurance? Yeah, I'll buy that one. Truth be told, tailwheel airplanes must be a nightmare for insurance companies. Ground loops happen, and not just to low time pilots. If you fly taildraggers its not a matter of if, but when. Mine came after 900+ hours of tailwheel time.

DEM

You said it all here in #3. Ground loops happen even to experienced pilots. The mission of this not-for-profit is not introducing kids to tail wheel aircraft. It is to introduce them to aviation. They can do that at less expense but more importantly less risk to the entire program. The board of this small organization understands that and I respect it. Sure I'd love to see them with a fleet of tail wheel aircraft but it is just not realistic.

Let's buy a raffle ticket and help this organization introduce kids to aviation and in doing so, perhaps win a 170B which you can then use to introduce people to the world of tail draggers if you see fit.

Bruce Fenstermacher wrote:Really? So what wisdom and experience do you think a 5 hour total tail wheel time CFI brings to the table to pass on to the others he "trains" so that they can pass it on to others and before we know it we have a whole lot of wrecked tail wheel aircraft.

Exactly!
I got checked out by one of those guys, in a Cessna 140. That airplane was groundlooped and then put over on it's back (not by me) within a month after the flying club bought it.
Fortunately I later got some proper instruction in a Luscombe, Citabria, J3, Champ, Stearman, and Pitts S2 prior to buying my C170.

Of course it could still happen to me, but that original "checkout" in the C140 was pathetic, and just set people up for problems.