Long Lost Airplanes

My great-grandpa, George H. Wolf "Jr.," owned two aircraft during the late 1940's until sometime just after 1960.  He passed away in the early 1980's, but I think I inherited some of my love of aviation from him, and I always wondered what became of his aircraft.  My great-grandma lived well into her 90's, and a few years before she passed away in the 2000's she gave me several old photographs, including some of her husband's later aircraft, a 1948 Cessna 170.  That further fueled my interest in the status of his aircraft and his international aerial adventures (to include Mexico and Cuba) of 50-60 years ago.

My grandpa, his son, remembered the registration number of his dad's plane, N4238V, and using this information I was able to track down the current owner in the late 2000's using the FAA Registration database.  After some research, I was able to track the aircraft to Dave and Ann H. of Los Lunas, NM, and I sent a blind letter to them along with copies of the 55+ year-old photos from my great-grandma that they now own.  A few weeks later I received a response from Dave, and he mailed me a current photo of the aircraft in top-notch condition.

Fast forward several years; during our trek through NM, Dave and I linked up and decided to meet. Dave retired from the Air Force after 24 years of service, then flew another 13 years for Southwest Airlines.  They now live in central NM in an airpark community, and have my great-grandpa's Cessna 170 at their favorite vacation spot in Idaho.  Dave invited us out to their home at the airpark, and showed us his Cessna 195 Businessliner he has in his hangar there.  We talked for several hours on a range of topics, then looked through the C170 records and located several documents with my grandpa's name on them from the 1950's.  It was amazing to see these documents over 60 years later, still in excellent condition, and accompanying all of the aircraft logbooks and records since new in 1948.

Though the aircraft is in Idaho currently, I was able to learn a lot about its history from Dave and Ann, and I'm hoping to be able to see the aircraft in person one day.  Dave switches out the aircraft from time to time, flying the Cessna 195 to Idaho and bringing back the C170.  I'm hoping our venture will one day cross paths with the location of N4238V, either in ID or NM.

Dave and Ann H. below, after welcoming us into their home in central NM.

"Best Cessna" award Dave won with the aircraft at an Arizona Fly-In in 2012.

Some photos of the aircraft, which had a full restoration in 1990.  Dave and Ann have owned the aircraft since 1992, and their son who has since graduated on to 747's, freighters, and an airline job learned to fly in it.

The C170 on the cover of a Cessna 170 Newsletter.  Dave is a Director of the NM Pilots Association and loves to fly both of his aircraft into relatively-undeveloped backcountry airstrips in both Idaho and New Mexico, pitching his tent and camping nearby.

FAA Form 337 with my great-grandpa's name as the owner of record.

Dated October 1952

The last document I located under his ownership, from August 1960.  An August 1961 record shows the names of new owners.

The original airframe log shows the brand new plane entered service in Oct 1948 in Commerce, GA.

Many thanks to Dave and Ann for inviting us to their home and for spending several hours talking with us about N4238V and many other  interesting topics.  We hope to see you again soon, and keep up the great stewardship of the old bird!