Beauty is in the eye...

RyanShort1

RyanShort1

Final Approach
Joined
Feb 18, 2010
Messages
6,480
Location
Dallas, Texas
Display Name
RyanShort1
Home Airfield
KRBD
So I was flying a Cessna 150 this evening with a student practicing landings at KRBD and it was just a pretty evening and when I got done I was just thinking that the ol’ 150 is still a pretty cool little bird. That is all!

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Soloed in one.

No idea how we both fit in there and it only got off the ground around here because it was cold out. But always a warm spot in the heart for the venerable old 150.

Flew better than a Skyhawk too. Or even my Skylane.

The one I soloed in is still alive and kicking with a private owner in North Dakota, apparently. Not only shows registered but photos show up from time to time on places like FlightAware showing she’s still being flown and taken caee of.

Some of the other planes I’ve flown are very very very dead. One burnt to the ground after a cowling fire. There’s photos of that too.

Back when I did the searching to see where all the tail numbers in my logbook ended up, I didn’t find a single fatal accident. That made me happy.

My favorite rental ever was utterly destroyed by hail, though. Those photos were hard to look at.
 
I had all kinds of dutch getting back from 6Y9. On the last flight to my home drone, when I finally had VFR conditions and everything configured properly, I remember thinking how utterly beautiful everything was and how I was so privileged to be able to witness it.
 
The 150 was my original trainer and I had a couple of partnerships in them years ago.

1. Dirt cheap to fly.
2. Responsive, because of their light weight. (which can also be a drawback when you want something more stable)

This is the plane I flew back in the day when I'd pick a place at random to go every week. I didn't care how far or which direction. It was just fun.
 
In a Cessna 150 ...

... I had my first flying lesson (150A N7208X)
... I made my first solo flight (150G N744JG)
... Took my private pilot checkride (150H N22639)
... Took my commercial pilot checkride (150E N3594J)
... Took my instrument checkride (150E N3594J -- no glideslope/transponder/DME/ADF/GPS, etc.; just one 90-channel vacuum-tube navcom and a marker beacon receiver)
... Took my CFI checkride (150E N3594J)
... And the toughest test of all, took my wife for a flight on our first date (150E N3594J). :D
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Owned two of them, the 150E and a 150F.

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So yeah, I'm partial to them. :)
 
Need audio of the flight to determine if the student was screaming, crying or laughing before passing judgement......




Post when able, please.
 
I learned in a C150J. It was a fun plane. Still trying to figure out the magic that got it off the ground "fully loaded" with my instructor on hot days. Whoa to the mighty O-200.
 
EdFred said:
High wings are so much better for photography than low wings, especially when you want that strut blocking out the scenery. :D
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You can get them strutless if you go for a 60s and 70s designed one instead of 40s and 50s. LOL.

If you get really fancy you can jump to 80s designs that use composites too.

LOL. The lighter than air folks have the real scenery photo ships. :)
 
I fly her predecessor the C-140... love that bird... doggedly simple. I work with technology all day when I get to the airport I want wings, a carbed engine a a few - literally just a few- instruments for my type of flying. They are great old birds both of em...

If my missions ever call for fancier equipment I hope I’m still able to keep the old low n slow bird around for unplugging from a complicated world...
 
Fiveslide said:
Ah, yes, I remember when I, too, had more money than sense. :D

I'll take the one you no longer want, what you want for it? Besides money?
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Well I have less invested in both than most people spend on a 4 wheeler these days.
 
A 150 is just....fun. Solo'd in one, private checkride in the same one. Many years later someone drove a Pitts into it's tail so she's no longer around. :(

Been wanting a plane pretty badly and starting to think an IFR 150 might be the one for me. Someone talk me out of it.
 
I had never flown a 150 until after I bought mine. I love everything about it. It’s perfect for me.
 

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There's a good reason the 150/152 is such a good trainer. Fun to fly, pretty responsive without being squirrelly.

I fondly spent a lot of time in a 152 during primary training. Someone wrecked it in the Adirondacks (yes that is correct) after getting lost for a few hours on a 30 minute flight from BGM to VGC and running out of fuel before ATC could help.
 
chemgeek said:
There's a good reason the 150/152 is such a good trainer. Fun to fly, pretty responsive without being squirrelly.

I fondly spent a lot of time in a 152 during primary training. Someone wrecked it in the Adirondacks (yes that is correct) after getting lost for a few hours on a 30 minute flight from BGM to VGC and running out of fuel before ATC could help.
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Wow, that’s REALLY lost. I’m talking really, really lost. At 150 cruise speed, how, exactly, does someone get that far beyond their intended target without noticing? It takes all kinds to make the world go ‘round, but only one kind to cause amazement. ;)
 
Lachlan said:
Wow, that’s REALLY lost. I’m talking really, really lost. At 150 cruise speed, how, exactly, does someone get that far beyond their intended target without noticing? It takes all kinds to make the world go ‘round, but only one kind to cause amazement. ;)
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Yep. Some folks don't have the sense God gave a box of Animal Crackers. To get in this pickle, you would have to not see the giant windmill farm near the airport, the NYS Thruway, Oneida Lake, and Lake Ontario. (And not know how to use your VORs.) That's already a big ask. And if you manage not to see those things, you have to not take action until you are a good 45-60 minutes past your ETA. And then not call ATC until you have 10-15 minutes of fuel. Put it in the woods somewhere in the western Adirondacks region 100 miles or so north of their destination. Don't recall exactly where, but it was in the wilderness.
 
Half Fast said:
If you’re dropping a hint you might try posting a pic or two. ;)

I’m wondering what someone with a screen name like “Grum.Man” is doing buying Cessnas....
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Well he decided to upgrade to an airplane with wings in the right spot is what he’s doing...now all he needs is the stc to put that third wheel in the right location ;)
 
Huckster79 said:
Well he decided to upgrade to an airplane with wings in the right spot is what he’s doing...now all he needs is the stc to put that third wheel in the right location ;)
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That’s the plan for one of them. I was going to do the sportsman STOL kit on it too but the second one has perfect original metal wing tips that I can’t bring my self to ditch.
 
Grum.Man said:
That’s the plan for one of them. I was going to do the sportsman STOL kit on it too but the second one has perfect original metal wing tips that I can’t bring my self to ditch.
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Sell her then and buy a 120/140, then that’s already done ;)
 
Grum.Man said:
I can't help my self. Love the way the 150TD looks and the big 40 degree flaps!
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I don’t blame ya! Just giving ya crap... And no doubt those are flaps on those things!! If I recall you can pretty much nose dive those things with 40 in and not get fast at all!

My 140 flaps are nothing close, they do add some notable lift but no slowing action.. none. But with VGs and ready for a slip she does just fine. I’m still having a tough time accepting the insanely slow speed she needs to land now with those things- definetly consider em! With those big flaps and VGs you can probably land on a taxiway following another aircraft taxiing out and not cause an incursion!

Ya keeping the O200 or going big up front?
 
Huckster79 said:
I don’t blame ya! Just giving ya crap... And no doubt those are flaps on those things!! If I recall you can pretty much nose dive those things with 40 in and not get fast at all!

My 140 flaps are nothing close, they do add some notable lift but no slowing action.. none. But with VGs and ready for a slip she does just fine. I’m still having a tough time accepting the insanely slow speed she needs to land now with those things- definetly consider em! With those big flaps and VGs you can probably land on a taxiway following another aircraft taxiing out and not cause an incursion!

Ya keeping the O200 or going big up front?
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Keeping the o200. It’s so much cheaper than any of the bigger options and being at sea level on the east coast I don’t need something that will take off and land in <300 ft at 7k DA.
 
denverpilot said:
Soloed in one.
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Ditto. Still have a soft spot in my heart for that little plane. My first three landings solo in that thing were, to this day, the shortest landings I've ever done, right on the numbers and stopped within 300 feet. Closest experience I've ever had to "wearing" an airplane.

Unfortunately, a few things about that plane weren't quite right mx-wise, and with a 250-lb CFI in the plane with me we were essentially at max gross or perhaps slightly over. I did most of my training in that plane during the winter, and when warmer weather came that fact became painfully obvious. The unaddressed mx squawks started to give me enough of the willies that I refused to do any solo XC work in it, and finished my private in a 172 at a different school. We learned several years later that the flight school that was renting out the poor 150 did not own it, in fact had effectively stolen it from a dead pilot's estate. I haven't checked in years whether its N number is even still registered.
 
Did all my private training in a 150f. No complaints other than wishing I had a smaller instructor lol. We flew it into Wilgrove in Charlotte during the summer and the trees at the end of that runway got a LOT closer than I was expecting lol
 
My first airplane was a 150, N50151. Great little airplane so long as a)you're not into taking lots of passengers and b) you're not not going anywhere. Easy to fly, not a lot to fix.
 
I flew one on a hot day at gross from an airport [KLUK] at 480' MSL. I had to turn down river to miss a 500' hill off the end of the runway. It did spin much better than my Skyhawk.
 
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