One sweet Cessna 140A

Thanks in part to social networking sites, one sweet Cessna 140A is flying again.

Elliot Block, 24, of Rancho Santa Fe, California, stumbled across an interesting ad while he was idly perusing Craigslist one day last fall. He hardly expected to see an airplane for sale, and really wasn’t in the market for one, but on the screen in front of him was an ad for a 1949 Cessna 140 (N9471A). It was a rather pristine-looking 140A, and the hook, as they say, was set. 

“The old owner, Robbie Scattini, had passed away and his grandson was selling it,” says Elliot, “and I’m looking at the pictures and thinking, ‘wow, you’d be stupid to not look at this airplane, at the very least.”

So Elliot shared the pictures with a pilot-mechanic friend of his — Kelly Mahon, whom he’d met years earlier through Instagram — and asked him for a little bit of advice as to whether it would be a good buy.

“Kelly told me, ‘if you don’t buy it, I will,’” recalls Elliot. “At that point, I thought I’d better do this!” 

Growing Wings

Though young, Elliot already has years of experience in aviation. When he was just a kid, he enjoyed sitting in the right seat of his father’s Cessna 421 and soaking up a bit of flying knowledge.

Then he embarked upon an atypical entry to earning his own wings: He earned his private in helicopters when he was 17. It seemed like a cool idea, flying rotorcraft … but four months later, he charted a new course and earned his single engine land, then a few years later his instrument, commercial, and multi-engine.

Along the way, Elliot enjoyed flying his father’s 1944 Howard DGA-15P (N67423) to build time. Today, Elliot is a professional pilot flying Learjets for Aeromedevac Air Ambulance out of San Diego.

But his love for iconic old airplanes prevails, explaining his interest in the Cessna 140A. 

Provenance of the 140A

Elliot lost no time contacting the seller, and he and his father, Gerry, promptly decided to go look at the Cessna. They flew the family Howard up to Hollister, California, in October 2019. When the hangar doors were opened, Elliot was pretty much in awe seeing the 140A in person.

“It was just so cool when I saw the airplane for the first time,” smiles Elliot. “The belly was clean and the metal skins were all straight, and it had the metal wheel pants and the Cleveland brakes.”

The airplane had been virtually frozen in time. It had been sitting in that hangar for 17 years and had not flown for all those years.

“It was out of annual, but the old owner had been a very good caretaker of the airplane and he kept it in good, not-airworthy shape. There was nothing really wrong with it. He kept air in the tires and just kind of preserved it,” says Elliot. 

As the 140A’s history unfolded, Elliot learned that the old owner had been a California Highway Patrol officer whose brother also had a 140A.

“They were always in friendly competition with each other for who had the cooler airplane or cooler motorcycle, so he had a vested interest in keeping a really clean airplane, and this Cessna was the result of that. Everything is stock, and everything that I can tell about the airplane says it doesn’t have any damage history,” says Elliot. “All the skins I’ve seen have the original ALCOA markings on them.”

N9471A has a Continental C-90-14F. Not knowing whether the long-dormant engine would even start, Elliot and his father brought a battery with them, and they pre-oiled the engine as best they could. Then, holding their breath, they got it started for the first time in who-knows-how-long — and the oil pressure came right up. 

“It was like it was raring to go! At that point it was hard to walk away from this airplane, so I didn’t. It took four months of keeping in touch with the seller after we left to finally get the deal done, because there was estate stuff involved. It’s my first airplane, and I’m real lucky to have found it!”

Original Logs

Remarkably, N9471A’s old logs, which were missing for a period of time, were reunited with the airplane in a rather circuitous manner through social media.

“That was another Craigslist deal,” Elliot explains. “The grandson was trying to sell one of Robbie’s cars, and connected with a guy in Nevada that was interested, so they decided on a shop near Hollister to do a pre-buy on the car. It turns out that Robbie had asked the owner of that shop years ago to do an annual on the Cessna, and it was never done. He still had the logbooks. So a random Craigslist event led the airplane back to its old original logs.”

The logbook shows the airframe has around 4,200 hours total time, “and the engine is not original to the airframe. This engine was new in 1965,” Elliot reports.

Updates and Detailing

Elliot arranged for the Cessna’s annual to be performed at Hollister, and then on Valentines Day 2020, he flew his sweetheart of a Cessna home to Gillespie Field (KSEE). Then he set about taking care of a few details, such as installing ADS-B with a Stratus transponder, adding an intercom, and updating some of the electrical wiring.  

The airplane had been painted in 1998 by T&P Aero Refinishers in California, but since it had only been flown around 25 hours since then, it was still in like-new condition. Elliot simply put some elbow-grease into detailing it, enhancing the 140A’s well-preserved beauty.  

Performance and Handling

So far, Elliot’s flown his 140A about 55 hours, and says “it will cruise about 108 mph indicated at 2450 rpms, and 102 mph at 2350 rpms. It’s a very good flier and daily driver.” 

Contrasting the five-place, 450-hp Howard and the two-place, 90-hp Cessna, Elliot says he likes the 140A for its efficiency and the Howard because it’s the ultimate traveling airplane.

“The airplanes are equally rewarding in different ways,” he says, elaborating, “the Howard is so much heavier and has such higher wingloading that generally speaking, it’ll go where you point it in the landing phase. But the Cessna is so subject to wind gusts that it’s a little more difficult in a different way. It certainly doesn’t ride turbulence as well as the Howard does, because it’s got low wingloading. That’s not great, but it’s an airplane and it gets me where I need to go!”  

Aviation Networking

Speaking of going places, Elliot had his first grand cross-country adventure in his 140A in early September 2020. He was planning to fly commercially to visit the Dallas, Texas, area as well as his friends at the Mid-America Flight Museum at Mount Pleasant, Texas. Once again, it was Kelly who catalyzed him into action. 

“I called Kelly, who works at the museum with a mutual pilot friend, Andrew Kiest — whom I had also met through Instagram — and mentioned I’d be in the area. Kelly said, ‘that’s great and you’re always welcome, but the real question you need to ask yourself is: Why aren’t you flying your 140 here?’ So I sat on that for two days, thinking back and forth, ‘I want to do that … no, that’s way too far to fly.’ Then I called him and told him I’d let him know what airline flight I was getting,” laughs Elliot, adding, “and about five minutes later I was packing my bag and in two hours I was in the air in my 140A!”

Elliot took off from Gillespie Field that afternoon, realizing he’d likely have to dodge some storms, especially through Arizona. But surprisingly, the weather turned out to be nice. He flew about six hours that day, and overnighted at El Paso. After another six hours the following day, he landed at Mount Pleasant. All told, he’d flown more than 1,100 nautical miles from home.

Elliot spent a couple of days with Kelly and Andrew at the museum, and then Kelly prodded him again — this time, to fly a 486 nautical mile cross-country in “loose formation” with him up to the Antique Airplane Association/Airpower Museum Annual Invitational Fly-in at Blakesburg, Iowa. It was, of course, a tantalizing opportunity, and it would be Elliot’s first visit to Antique Airfield (IA27).  

Neo-Classic Grand Champion

Seizing opportunities made possible through aviation acquaintances and acquisitions via Instagram and Craigslist, Elliot nurtured his social media contacts into full-blown friendships through everyday experiences and cross-country flying. 

“It’s a very modern aviation story,” he smiles. “I love old airplanes. There’s something about them that I just can’t resist, they’re pretty iconic. Being here at Blakesburg, surrounded by old airplanes, is to me, uber relaxation! It’s just very relaxing here. You’re doing everything at your own pace, whatever you want to do, whenever you want to do it. It’s just great to slow down for a little while and absorb everything, so I’m into that.”

After Elliot’s arrival home in California, he received a surprising phone call from AAA headquarters, letting him know his 1949 Cessna 140A had won the Neo-Classic (1946-1953) Grand Champion award during the fly-in.

He was delighted to hear the news — but perhaps most rewarding, though, are the memories he made, thanks to being encouraged to carpe diem!