The International Cessna 170 Association

Under what conditions? How long did it take to get there?

11,000’. Took it up on 55 mile flight to get ADS-B Rebate.

13800, been to 12 and 13 many times over the last 50 years. It takes a while to get there. Did this mostly to top mountains and/ or Wx.

Went to 11,500 last month after getting a top overhaul, just to see how it would behave. Solid 500 fpm all the way up and still pulling 2400rpm in cruise at the top, though suspect it would have started falling off pretty quickly thereafter. Didn't have oxygen with me or would have gone higher. My oximeter showed O2 saturation levels had dropped to 89% and you could tell the air was definitely thinner. With respect to time, I took off from my airport (800' MSL), climbed to 11,500, flew around for a few minutes, descended back down and landed all within an hour.

I've been up to 11,500, it got there quicker than I thought. I was also up doing maneuvers for the FAA ADS-B rebate.

14,300’ ... in a DIVE.... Indicating 140 mph... and was indicating 500 fpm in a climb until it leveled out at that altitude!

This was while returning from Kelowna convention near Santa Fe, NM in clear air in an updraft, of course. (Jamie was thrilled! I was worried about entering the TRW-overhang just above us and told her if we couldn’t stop this climb we’d soon be a 18K’ and entering icing conditions! There was only one thunderhead about 30 miles East and it’s trailing anvil was above us and becoming worrisome if we should enter it. We were diving with the power near idle and still going UP!)

For a deliberate climb, I’ve taken it to 13K briefly to get over the Wasatch getting into SLC.

13,500 topping some weather coming back from Knoxville a few years ago.

In hindsight, it wasn’t the best course of action, but interesting nonetheless. I routinely fly 7-8000 feet on cross countries.

12750 returning from HSF last year. I was stuck inside the Coast range with a strong westerly. Saw ground speeds of 58 mph. Super smooth, but scary.

14500, took about 45 minutes from near sea level out of Slidell, Louisiana. Solo, about half tanks.

FL200, January 2018, near Greeley, Colorado. Two aboard, half tanks at takeoff.

Climb through 18000 went pretty fast. I didn't record the data, but I wasn't climbing Vy the whole time, either. Climb slowed through FL190, and was very slow the last 500 to FL200. Interestingly, the climb topped out at exactly FL200. 65mph indicated. Any slower or faster and we descended. From the timestamps on my pictures, it looks like we flew level at FL200 for about 10 minutes.

We didn't file an IFR flight plan, we just called Denver Approach at about 17500 and requested a clearance to FL200 for a test flight. "Say type" ... "Cessna one-seven-zero!"

Lycoming O-360, MT propeller.

9,500 ft Smokey Mountains , TN

1979 - Pregnant wife r Seat

Survived.

Yes I was inexperienced and getting into Trouble

Well Dave, you win, congratulations! But technically, you cheated! A 180hp Lyc should be able to climb much higher than a 145hp. Congratulations in any case.

I’m going to claim a distant 2nd place for now, behind you with a flight I made back in June, 1981. I flew from Odessa, TX to Amarillo to go to the CAP corporate warehouse. It was a beautiful CAVU day with light wind so I decided I would see how high the old O300-D would climb. At that time, it had 1382hr SMOH.

I climbed from Odessa to Lubbock and finally made 16,500’msl but it wouldn’t go any higher. If I remember correctly, the indicated airspeed was about 65mph at 16,500’. I stayed there for about 15 minutes. I could practically see Amarillo from Lubbock so I started a descent which took all the way to Amarillo to get down for landing. I noticed a little light-headedness but my finger nails never turned blue so I don’t know how good that test is. The engine ran smooth the entire time and I had it leaned out almost all the way to cut-off.

I don’t have any picture of the instrument panel for proof, just the logbook entry I made after the flight. Since then, I have taken it up to 12,500’msl several times to cross mountains but never had another urge to see how high it would go.

I don't have a 170, but I have its younger brother/sister (?) a '56 172 TD. July 8, 1995 Becky and I were on our way to the 170 convention in Kalispell, MT. We had stopped for the night in Buffalo, WY. We realized we were running ahead of schedule so decided to fly over to Yellowstone Nat'l Park. Took off and headed to Cody, WY so we could go to West Yellowstone apt. Being a flat lander I was a bit intimidated by those mountains so while crossing them I went up to 13,400. I could have stayed lower, but those rocks looked mean! Not sure how long we were up there, but I'd guess maybe 10 minutes. I took a picture of my altimeter and its here in a box somewhere. I don't recall getting light headed and that may have been due to the short duration of the high altitude. All I remember was that it sure was lonely up there and it felt like we were barely moving.

Oops, caught doping!

That’s ok, Richard. Just put an asterisk next to my “record”. Someone with a Continental IO-360 or 220 Franklin will easily break it.

Some nice stories. Mine not so much. I was curious how high I could go. It just kept climbing so I stuck with it until 17,021 ft. I could maintain that altitude, but could only get about 100 ft/min if i really worked for it, so I cut bait and enjoyed the ride down. It was just me and 25 gallons of fuel. Almost exactly an hour to the top. -5*F at 17k. I do wonder how much higher I could have gone...probably not too much..