Über uns

Cessna 170A

HB-CKA, 1949, SN19135

Peter #03854 & Barbara Zweifel, Switzerland

General

The aircraft Cessna 170A was imported to Belgium on 9 March 1965, with a total of 712 hours. In Belgium the Cessna was flown under registration OO-GAY until 12 June 1986. During this period, the C170A reached a total of 1440 hours - flying time only. On 12 June 1986, Heiner Bernhard and I bought the Cessna in Belgium. Reiner flew the aircraft to Switzerland, where we first had to meet the noise-measurement, a part of the approval for Swiss Registration. (Since the regulation about the noise was changed in late 1986, it is now impossible to registrate a C170A or B in Switzerland! Can you believe that?!?!) Afterward that, we installed a new Nav and radio equipment and painted the necessary marks for Switzerland. The planes registration is HB-CKA and was certified airworthy on 7 November 1986. We flew the aircraft for a short time, then decided to restore HB-CKA to original condition.

Disassembling

Heiner & I (both holders of the Swiss Maintenance License) started to work on our Cessna. On 15 November 1987, the aircraft had been totally disassembled for the restoration and new painting. The decision to overhaul the plane turned out to be very good - it was unbelievable what we found to repair and renew. We used about 20 gallons of paint stripper to remove all the different paint stratifications. It was a hard job: the old paint was not easy to remove (see photo, right). Fortunately, we found at the end traces of the original red stripes which we used as measurement for repainting. The aircraft had surprisingly little corrosion, so we started to remove all corrosion from the surface. This work was done in the painting company of Heiner's brother. Then we took all aircraft parts to my home in Oberhasli. There we made all repairs on the engine and the airframe. Of course the parts were lying almost in every room at our house.

My wife was not very pleased with this situation, but she got used to it and even started to enjoy it as the project grew. The main repair on the airframe was on the left hand front part. After an earlier accident (a broken left gear leg) the plane had been repaired very badly. We removed the floor ·panel, replaced the bottom skin and reassembled it with a new floor. The wings bad to be inspected carefully. We opened a part of the leading edge for repair of some of the wing ribs. Flaps, ailerons and rudder were inspected. The only problems were with the aileron hinges - some of them had to be replaced. Of course we overhauled the Goodyear brakes. We replaced the tailwheel, including the spring, from Scott 2000 to Scott 3200. Later we were sure that this was a very good decision, as the handling, takeoff and landing of the Cessna is now much better.

Wheel Pants

On purchasing the Cl70A in Belgium, the seller had said, "I think you cannot use these badly corroded wheel pants. I throw them to the garbage!" But we interfered, "Put them in the plane - maybe we can do something with them!" His answer, "You must be crazy to want this scrap!" I cannot tell you (and I wouldn't) how many hours we spent repairing the pants, but we made it and we are happy with them.

Engine

At this time, the engine had approximately 1000 hours left to TBO and was in a good shape. But nevertheless, I removed the accessory plate and the oil sump. This, too, was a good decision: we had to replace the oil sump due to heavy corrosion on the bottom. For those of you who are operating older Cl45 or 0-300 engines in humid and colder areas with the possibility of water condensation, you should keep this inspection in mind. Overhaul of our SLN6 Bendix magneto was made. Replacement of the 25A generator with an overhauled 35A unit according to instructions from Tom Hull was made as well.

We replaced all shock mounts and remanufactured all engine baffles ourselves. After all parts were finished, we started to paint the aircraft. In the European climate it is better to have the aluminum painted than to polish it every week. First, we treated all parts with Alodine, afterwards with wash primer, primer and two-component acryl paint. We chose a background of silver with dark red stripes. It looks like the original paint scheme. Next, we started to assemble the whole plane in Oberhasli except the wings, which were put on at the airport. We had all necessary specification for proper assembly and rigging, except the rudder and elevator balancing. I know that this is not a major problem (including the paint, the balance is within the range) but I still could not find any table with exact tolerances. If any member could help me with these specifications, I would be very appreciative. The engine run-up was carried out in front of our house. For safety reasons, we used a rope fastened to a nearby streetlight post, and this held the plane perfectly. After testing engine, radio, navigation equipment, etc., the moment came for transportation to the airport.

With a special transporter, in possession of the permit to transport overhangs (width approximately 11 ½ feet), we took the Cessna 170A on 9 September 1988 to the Airport Zurich-Kloten, a distance of only about ten miles. Because of the decision to assemble everything except the wings at home, it was possible to have the Cessna ready to fly by the next day. Unfortunately, the weather was not on our side, so we could not make the test flight before 28 October 1988. The flight took 45 minutes and we finished it with no problems. "Since then we have flown Cessna HB-CKA many times and we still enjoy it.

Cessna 170A HB-CKA

SN19135

Continental C-145-2 Engine 1951
SN5349-D-0-2

Equipment List:

VOR I - Narco 122, glideslope, marker

VOR II - Narco 121

ADF - King KR 85

Intercom - PS Engineering PM 1000II
Com - Trig TY96 8.33kHz
Transponder - Garmin GTX 328 Mode S
Traffic - Power FLARM with AirConnect