Serial Number

Model

Registration

Date of Manufacturing

ATC

Price (USD)

Engine

Propeller

Current Status

History

Sold new on July 5th, 1938. Crated and shipped to the Government of Guatemala, Guatemala City, Guatemala.

Equipped with machine gun mounting brackets and synchronizers.

The ship was found and purchased by Hower Aircraft Company in about 1959 or 1960, and brought to the U.S.

In 1961 -62 Ed Ortowski bought up several of the Guatemalan ships including this one, and started to rebuild it at ATC 681 specs. Ortowski was killed in an aircraft accident, and Mrs. Ortowski sold the aircraft to Fred Barber, date unknown, he may have parts of the aircraft stored at his home.

No N number was assigned to the aircraft when with Fred Barber. *

Ownership History

• Government of Guatemala, Guatemalan Air Force, Guatemala City, Guatemala, Central America.
• Sold via the Charles Babb Company, Glendale, California.
• Hower Aircraft Company, Sarasota, Florida;
• Ed Ortowski, Cayce, South Carolina;
• Fred Barber, Stone Mountain Georgia;
• Dave Masters, Palo Alto, California.

Current Ownership

Dave Masters (Trustee)

Notes

There is some confusion as to the current status of SN 197.

The paperwork for SN 197 was combined with the aircraft SN 341, and assigned the N Number N17348 (SN 151) as it was in sequence with other Ryan ST series airframes of the time period SN 197 was produced.

Rumour has it the original SN 197 had spun in to the ground in Guatemala, tearing off the right wing.

Based on original NC17348 photos, it appears the aircraft received some NACA modifications at some time in its history. (see SN 151 data sheet)

Below is an note received from Dave Masters 26/08/2013 describing the recent history of the aircraft:

I've owned my PT-20 for a very long time.  It took me 5 years to get it into the air.  First flight was in 1970 and it has been flying ever since.  I didn't know how many hours the military put on it so I started the log books at 500 hrs and I've put about 600 hours on it so the log shows around 1100 hours on the airframe.  I wanted it in standard category so I have STA papers for Ryan Serial #197.  The N number, 17348 was a selection I made to get the number in the range of numbers allocated to Ryans in the late 30's.     The engine I have on the plane is a D4-87.  It came from a shipment of engines that were shipped to Canada during the war.  I took this engine out of it original shipping case.  It had 7 hours on it.  I put it on the airplane years ago and after about 40 hours, the #4 exhaust valve cam follower broke.  Don't know why.  I removed the engine and a few years ago, I took the engine completely apart, replaced the cam follower and cam shaft, broke the glaze on the cylinders, installed new rings, made the recommended modifications to the pistons and reassembled the engine.  It was reinstalled on the plane not long ago and I've probably put around 13 hours on it since then.                                           

When I bought the Ryan, it was in the PT-20A configuration.  That is, it had been modified to have a 125 hp Kinner engine.  The military bought 40 PT-20s and had trouble with the Menasco's and sent 30 back to Ryan to have the Menasco C-4 replaced with the Kinner.  I have the engine mount for a Kinner and the difficult to make part of the cowl that goes around the Kinner.  I scrounged a Menasco mount from a friend in Seattle and got cowling parts from Australia and converted the plane back to a PT-20 configuration.                                                                                           

I put Cleveland wheels on the plane with hydraulic brakes.  When I removed the old 800 x 4 wheels and tires, I made zero changes to the airframe.  I have everything necessary to replace all the original parts and it can all be done with a few hand tools and a jack.  I spent a lot of money and had new discs made for the original Good Year brakes and intended to change back sometime.  I like the look of the big tires better than the 600 x 6 tires.                                                                                                                            

I'm considering selling the Ryan due to the problems that come from being eligible to qualify to join the UFO (United Flying Octogenarians).  That means that I've outlived all my flying friends (here in NO. CAL.) And the hassle of dealing with insurance companies.  The 1.5 hour trip to the airport is also getting old.   

Dave Masters has offered the aircraft for sale at 125,000.00 USD

Based on the above statement it can be concluded that Ryan ST-A SN 197, is an aircraft which uses the airframe from SN 341, the serial Number from SN 197 and the registration number from SN 151

See data sheet SN 197 and SN 151 for additional information on the history of this aircraft

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