Section
SANDY, OREGON
THURSDAY. AUGUST 20, 1981
The Sirfndy Post
Area News
People
Home & Garden
Features
Organization’s most original 170 locally owned
Of the 66 Cessna 170s at the International Cessna 170
Association's annual meeting, Sandy resident Dennis
Torgerson's was judged the most original.
Torgerson, an insurance adjuster specializing in
motorcycles who lives across the street from Rich's
A irport on Oral Hull Road, was also appointed
Oregon's representative at the association's meeting
He's been in the organization about five years, and
joined a year before he even bought a Cessna 170 He
learned to fly in a Cessna 140 tail-dragger, and so his
progression to the 170 tail-dragger, a four-seat fam ily
plane, was natural
A tail dragger, naturally enough, is a plane with a
landing wheel on the ta il end of the plane, which is c a ll
ed a th ird wheel Although Cessna is s till making tail-
draggers, a 180 and a 185. most of the planes they make
have what is called a tricycle landing gear
Although Torgerson admits that landing a ta il
dragger can be tric k y in a gusty cross w md. he said the
plane has other features that make up for that deficien
cy
It's got a very wide landing gear, he said, and
ailerons with "a lot of force.”
“ I t ’s a very safe airp la n e ,” Torgerson said
“ They’ve never had one come apart in the a ir struc
tu ra lly There are very few Al)s, that would be airw or
thyness directives, against these airplanes after
manufacture The AI)s that have come out against the
170s are only minor in nature
"The a ircra ft is one of the very few ever built that
just required no further changes after m anufacture.”
Torgerson said that the members of the international
association really likeci Rich's A irport
“ The general consensus was that they'd never seen
an airport just like this one before
" I f you look around, it ’s all grass, and you’ve got
these metal buildings It's circa 1035 You just don't see
airports like this anym ore." he said
Following the landing contest and lunch at Rich's,
the association had a flowerboinb dropping contest,
which Torgerson won A fter a flight to Mount St
Helens they had a banquet at The Thunderbird, which
was “ a big success
“ These people, they really love this organization It's
amazing to me that they'll travel as fa r as they do just
to go to an annual convention,” Torgerson added
It might amaze some people the trouble Torgerson
has gone through to keep his plane "o rig in a l "
"There isn't a paint-line on that plane o ff more than a
thirty-second of an inch from the original paint
scheme, he said "When I got the aircra ft it was in the
original paint scheme and I made sure it went back ex
actly to what it w as."
Torgerson has good reason to take care of the plane
It s "probably in the last KM) serial numbers ever built
" It's now an antique. The FA A goes back to the date
of type certification and this p a rticu la r a ircra ft was
type-ceritificated Sept. 15, 1950 So, even though i t ’s a
'56 model, it 's considered to be over 30 years old, so it ’s
an antique.”
Torgerson said that 170s are a good buy His plane,
he said, sold for $8,500 new, and is now worth about
$21.(MM) The cost of a new Cessna 172, he said, would be
in the $35,000 40,000 range
"Keep in mind that 172s are all going down in value
and 170s are all going up in value," he added.
Like John Benham, president of the organization,
Torgerson considers the 170 a classic.
And, he says i t ’s economical "T h is a ircra ft w ill haul
four people and baggage at about 18 miles per gallon at
best, at about 16 miles per gallon at worst
"W ith today's fuel costs, and the cost of new a ircra ft,
this airplane is very a ttra ctive .”
Torgerson raced motorcycles for Husqvarna bet
ween 1968 and 1971, and raced for about five years
before joining Husqvarna. Although his wife used to go
to cross country "desert” races w ith him, he said that
he'd flown for about three years before she’d fly with
him.
lie 's now logged over 1 .(MX) hours without incident.
A resident in the comm unity for about six years, he
said that he plans to be adjusting airplane wrecks as
well as motorcycle mishaps
His wife, Deme, works at W illiam s T hriftw ay, as
does his son, Chris. 17. His other son, Dennis, 19. has
just taken a job in California
Others in the area that belong to the 170 Association
include Len Kauffman of Oswego and Ted Dusner of
Troutdale.
Stories and photos
Dennis Torgerson
by Scott Newton
International Cessna club makes stop in Sandy
John Benham calls the Cessna 170 the working m an’s
airplane.
A self-described "common laborer at Kelly F ield” in
San Antonio, Benham is president of the International
Cessna 170 Association He also founded the club, but
wouldn't accept an office in the organization until two
years ago.
He's always felt "th e 170 was a classic airplane, a
fam ily airplane.” Knowing that there must be others
who felt the same way, he and his wife wrote some a r
ticles, requesting other Cessna 170 enthusiasts w rite
them
The Cessna 170 is
“a classic airplane,
a fam ily airplane. ”
He heard from 1.35 people, which prompted him to
make up "a little booklet," which he sent out to the peo
pie he'd heard from He requested $1, and received $133
ail together, which more than covered the cost of the
booklet
He then contacted Cessna, of Wichita. Kansas, and
received permission to use their facilities for a
meeting That was in 1969, and at that meeting the
association was formed
More than 2,(MM) membership cards have been issued,
although the club has about 1,100 active members
Benham was at Rich's A irport in Sandy Friday,
where the club had a landing contest and lunch
The international association was holding its annual
meeting in Portland last week There were 160 persons
and 66 a ircra ft registered At Sandy, 45 a irc ra ft and
about 135 people participated in the activities
Besides the activities at Rich's A irport, the group
also dropp«*d flowerbombs at McKinnon's A irport at
Roslyn I^ake and viewed Mount St Helens from the air.
Persons from all over the United States, and Canada.
Australia. New Zealand and Mexico, belong to the In
ternational Cessna 170 Association They’ve held their
yearly meetings in places like Seattle. Davenport, New
York, Milwaukee, Dallas, Colorado Springs and Ed
monton, Alberta
Cessna produced the 170 from 1948 through 1956 I t ’s
a four seat plane that weighs in at 1,300 pounds ie m |)
ty ), and can ca rry payload of about 1,000 pounds, or
four 17Opound passengers. 100 pounds of luggage and
240 pounds of fuel
Talking about the many nicely painted airplanes
prompted Benham to say, "Y ou couldn't imagine what
the airplanes looked like in 1969 compared to the
airplanes here today.”
When asked if the air traffic controllers strike had
been a topic of discussion, he said, "No It would sur
prise you, no more interest than we have in the air con
trollers strike ’’
He said that small aircraft pilots usually don't talk to
air traffic controllers unless they climb above 10,000
feet There is, however, an air traffic controller in the
association
Lunch at Rich's Airport
" I don't think we should get into that because he's
kind of bitter," Benham said
«