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The Arduous Task of Getting an Airplane Home

Good friends, a good plan, and a little bit of danger gets the author’s new pride and joy home just in time for Oshkosh.

Good friends come through to ferry the author’s newly-purchased 170 from Seattle to Wisconsin. [Photo: Marty Coaker]
Gemini Sparkle

Key Takeaways:

  • The author, lacking recent flight experience, arranged for two highly experienced pilot friends to ferry his newly purchased 1953 Cessna 170B from Seattle to Wisconsin.
  • During the multi-day cross-country flight, the pilots encountered significant challenges including dense forest fire smoke over the Rocky Mountains and a complete, system-wide GPS outage.
  • Leveraging their professional training and expertise in traditional navigation, the friends skillfully overcame these obstacles and successfully delivered the aircraft to the author's home airport.
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When arranging for good friends to ferry your newly purchased, 68-year-old airplane clear across the continent for you, it’s common courtesy to make their task as easy as possible. Pay for their meals. Spring for nice hotels. And try to avoid placing them over the Rocky Mountains in air filled with forest fire smoke during a large-scale GPS outage. 

In my efforts to be a good friend, I managed to achieve the first two items, but fell woefully short on the last one.

Jason McDowell

Jason McDowell is a private pilot and Cessna 170 owner based in Madison, Wisconsin. He enjoys researching obscure aviation history and serves as a judge for the National Intercollegiate Flying Association. He can be found on Instagram as @cessnateur.

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