So years ago I bought a C-150 to learn to fly in. I bought it because it was a good airplane and cheap. I looked at a lot of Taylercrafts and Champs, but they were all really ratty, and I wanted something I could trust. I flew that airplane for a few years, then sold it to start on a bearhawk.

I bought the quickbuild and started slowly working on it, but then life happened. (Now ex) Wife left, kids went through a lot, bought/sold a house, tried to move once, it was pretty crazy, and the airplane was furthest from my mind.

Fast forward 5 years and I found a beautiful woman that I married, bought a house, and now it's time to get back out in the shop and get it flying, except that I want to fly now, while building, so I found a nice 170A that's been well cared for, and picked it up for a really reasonable price.

It has a 78x43 on it, so it's not fast, but not a serious dog either. It's got 26" bushwheels, STOL kit, 180 gear, decent paint, etc...

I think it will work fine to get a 100 hours of tailwheel time, take an occasional family member flight seeing, 2 person camping, some unimproved strips when light, and a quick way to get around South Central Alaska.

I think this is going to be a super fun summer!

akschu wrote:So years ago I bought a C-150 to learn to fly in. I bought it because it was a good airplane and cheap. I looked at a lot of Taylercrafts and Champs, but they were all really ratty, and I wanted something I could trust. I flew that airplane for a few years, then sold it to start on a bearhawk.

I bought the quickbuild and started slowly working on it, but then life happened. (Now ex) Wife left, kids went through a lot, bought/sold a house, tried to move once, it was pretty crazy, and the airplane was furthest from my mind.

Fast forward 5 years and I found a beautiful woman that I married, bought a house, and now it's time to get back out in the shop and get it flying, except that I want to fly now, while building, so I found a nice 170A that's been well cared for, and picked it up for a really reasonable price.

It has a 78x43 on it, so it's not fast, but not a serious dog either. It's got 26" bushwheels, STOL kit, 180 gear, decent paint, etc...

I think it will work fine to get a 100 hours of tailwheel time, take an occasional family member flight seeing, 2 person camping, some unimproved strips when light, and a quick way to get around South Central Alaska.

I think this is going to be a super fun summer!

Heck of a story, Schu. Glad to hear you're headed down a happy road again! Hope you can get back to work on your Bearhawk. Looking forward to seeing your smiling face at OSH again! On a similar line, I purchase an interim Maule to fly in during my building project.

~Chris

Nice! Great story too. Always an interesting ride when life re-prioritizes things for you. Been there myself. Pics of the 170 or it didn't happen!!

59SC

Congrats! You know we all want to see a picture of it.

That's cool! I've seen a few homebuilt planes get crunched up not long after getting them flying.... my guess on some of these was that the builder had not been flying much while building, and possibly got rusty? Your mention of building a bearhawk made me think of this - a bearhawk got destroyed at my local airport not long ago, I talked to the gentleman right after it happened, it had 38 hours Really nice plane too.. sad to see. He was crushed (not physically, he was fine that way).

I might be assuming, but I got the impression he hadn't been flying much for the last few years building. If you can do both - own one to fly, and build, it seems that is really the way to go. Keeps a person sharp, and also probably helps keep the builder's level of patience in the right place to take one's time and build it right. At least I think I would benefit in both those ways...

Great choice. Like you, my path has had some bumps but it feels great to be back at it.

Concur with need for photographic proof