The International Cessna 170 Association

n2582d wrote:It's 50ºF outside with a light rain falling -- way too cold to walk to the shop and work on the 170. ...

[off topic] it’s amazing what a few degrees and a little sunshine make. I just came in from the hangar, wrapping Christmas presents... with the door open... without a coat. 54 degrees, nearly cloudless sky, and what little wind there is is coming from behind the hangar.

Ah... to be young again ! When I knew too little (what's changed?). 1982 I think, I was sent up to Whitehorse (CP AIr) in the middle of the winter and changed an FCU and fuel pump on a JT8 (B737). I lay on my back on a sheet of ice, with fuel dripping on me whilst I changed the parts at the gate. I did have an assistant, same age as me who held the flashlight. Then with me in the cockpit my partner checking for leaks I ran the engine for part power and mil screw adjustments. Again all on a sheet of ice, temps likely -25 or so. For some reason I had to crank the mil screw way beyond the norm which was unsettling for my partner.
In the morning we loaded her up full with passengers and jammed the cockpit with the two of us overlooking the pilots from the jump seats. I looked over to my fellow mechanic and I'll never forget how wide open his eyes were during the take-off roll. In cruise the thrust levers were almost perfectly aligned and the the Capt Capt Rose, thanked us for our work.
All this pales to the feats of those who persevered in their attempts to teach me anything. I have been extremely lucky to work with the old timers of CP AIR and PWA.
As for the Arctic, I'll try to post some pictures of my late Father-in law who flew up there both in a Lancaster and the DC-3 on skis. According to my late Dad, Eskimos valued a man by the things a man possessed. Hence he was treated well when they landed in villages where few white men had ventured.

Jim, thanks for the memories as I had forgotten about the thrills of working on a JT8 . We had them on 727,dc-9 ,s and 737-200 series. Instead of the cold we had the heat . I was based in Mt Isa in the outback of Australia and the temperatures used to get to 115 deg in the shade . So what the temperatures were on a black tarmac I couldn’t guess. However the tar was soft and gooey as the aircraft used to leave wheel marks . Our biggest issues was water in the Ps lines to the FCU from the tropical areas they used to fly in . My uniform was a white shirt and black trousers. I was surprised to wear a black tie also but flatly refused to do so . Not the best for rolling around on the tarmac in the heat .
But all good memories .

Thanks Gary for the tip, I’ll search out the book.

c170b53 wrote:Thanks Gary for the tip, I’ll search out the book.

If you can’t find it in your local library click on the link I provided and get it straight from the publisher.

Thanks for sharing those memories Jim. I’d love to see your father-in-law’s photos. My hat’s off to you guys working in these unimaginably cold conditions. In his book Rex mentioned that he was involved in the development of the oil dilution system. After reading about the amount of work to drain the oil after a full days flying then heating the engine—sometimes for hours—and adding the warm oil before flying in the morning one can see why he would be working on an alternative way to get an engine started in extreme cold conditions. Does anybody still use oil dilution? In the chapter about the SAR for the lost plane Rex talked about the reasons for getting lost. Among them were poor or non-existent maps, no radio aids and unreliable compasses. One reason the compasses were unreliable was the amount of steel close to the compass. Here’s a picture I found of the Fairchild 71 cockpit.I’m not sure where they mounted the compass but Rex said you had to read it though a mirror. He said at times they would have to land and get out of the plane to get an accurate compass reading.

For those of you with lots of spare time at home here's a prescient book for these times. It's The Dog Stars by Peter Heller. I ran across this book while hiking on the John Muir Trail with my daughter two summers ago. She had access to a ranger cabin where I found this book on a shelf. The main character is in a post-apocalyptic world after a flu epidemic nearly wiped out everybody. The guy is a pilot who has a 1956 C-182 which is central to the plot. The author is a pilot so the aviation details are accurate. The book would be a good movie -- oh wait -- no theaters open.

n2582d wrote:For those of you with lots of spare time at home here's a prescient book for these times. It's The Dog Stars by Peter Heller. I ran across this book while hiking on the John Muir Trail with my daughter two summers ago. She had access to a ranger cabin where I found this book on a shelf. The main character is in a post-apocalyptic world after a flu epidemic nearly wiped out everybody. The guy is a pilot who has a 1956 C-182 which is central to the plot. The author is a pilot so the aviation details are accurate. The book would be a good movie -- oh wait -- no theaters open.

Thanks for the recommendation... it’ll be here Monday from Amazon. (Thriftbooks dot com also has it used on their website as well as on Amazon.)