Dan Wood of Newnan, Georgia, is proud of his nearly
original 1948 Cessna 170, and with good reason. He has
poured much of his own time, energy, and talents into its
restoration. He acquired many of the mechanical skills he
needed early on, through a combination of osmosis and
hands-on experiences. His father was a pilot, so he grew
up around aviation and also worked on cars as a teenager.
He later earned his degree in aircraft engineering and
obtained his airframe and powerplant (A&P) certificate—
both of which are handy to have when flying and maintaining a “neo-classic” airplane.
Dan, EAA 307871, and his wife, Deborah, bought
N4252V in Woodstock, Georgia, in 1993. It was a flyable
airplane, though not in pristine condition. “It was pretty
rough and lacking maintenance,” recalls Dan. It hadn’t
been polished in a few years. The tail wheel wasn’t rigged
right, and one of the doors wouldn’t open because the
latch was broken. Dan got it flying again and says his son,
Nick, “kind of grew up in it.”
RESTORATION REQUIRED
Sometimes we just don’t know when an airplane’s flight
may be its last one for a while. In Dan’s case, that hap-
pened in 1997, when a friend of his was flying N4252V.
The fuel had water in it, and his friend brought it down
near the end of the runway. “Part of the problem was that
when they put the 140 tanks in these, they didn’t have
any fuel drains in the outboard tanks, so you couldn’t
check for water,” Dan explains. “Originally, the 170 had
three 12-gallon fuel tanks (one in the left wing and two in
the right). My 170 has been modified to have four tanks,
so it has 48 gallons of fuel. When we tore it down, we put
fuel drains in the outboard tanks, and also Monarch caps
on the top to keep the water out.”
There was considerable damage to the airplane, and Dan
asked his inspection-authorized A&P mechanic friend, Jay
Cavender of Michigan, to work on the wings. The skin
was wrinkled, the rivets were torn, the landing gear and
prop were bent, the crankshaft flange was cracked, and the
whole front of the cowl was flattened. Dan, who lived in
Michigan prior to moving to Tennessee and later, Georgia,
traveled north on several occasions to help with the wings
and also with the engine repairs. The remainder of the time
he spent at home in Tennessee, working on the fuselage.
“Trying to
bring it back
to original
is kind of
a work in
progress.
If you stop and try to do
it all at once, then the
airplane is never flying,
and I want to fly it.”
—Dan Wood
Michael Steineke
Phil High
Phil High
LOWER LEFT: Note the powder-coated yokes and handsomely-detailed interior.
LOWER RIGHT: Wood made the
engine baffling for the 145 hp
Continental.
