Cessna 150 rear child seat

Matthew Rogers

Ejection Handle Pulled
Joined
Dec 1, 2017
Messages
1,325
Display Name

Display name:
Matt R
I figured that I bare my soul and admit that I bought a rear child seat for my 150f. Finally found a Cessna seat on eBay (as opposed to the AvFab versions), called my AP/IA to see if he would install it. He said that there is a 150 in the next hanger over that has one so he can look at that install for tips and that is the only other one he has ever seen. But he gave me the OK to bring it in and had no issues. This coming from a Cessna specialist mechanic that is now 80+ years old and still full time.

Now please everyone tell me how I am going to kill myself flying my 150 under gross weight and within WB with my wife and 3 year old. Let the roast start about how it was such a bad idea to spend any money on a 150 when I should have just shelled out another $35,000 on a 172 plus the inevitable $5000 more at the first annual.

My in-laws live 60 miles away by air and in a one stop light town with an airport right behind Main Street. The beaches on the sound, like Fishers island or Westerly CT where my retired uncle just moved to, are an hour away by air but hours away by car. I own 1/3 of this 150. Cost me $4500 and it is kept rent free at a private airstrip. Burns Mogas at $3.09. 700 SMOH and almost through deferred maintenance items from the past years. I luckily got the cheapest PPL in NY last year because of this plane and an old instructor charging me $30 a lesson (not per hour) and checkride at 43 hours.

For what is it worth, I weigh 165 ( and use 170 for calc, but weigh myself often), wife weighs 140 on a bad day, kid weighs 30 (for now). Official WB for the plane (from 1994) is 1041#. Just removed the carpet (4.5#) and added new lightweight battery (6#) so the seat will be a net zero weight difference. Still have an Inoperable CDI, clock, and the VOR antenna to remove. So I can carry everyone and full fuel and be well under gross without bags. But this is not for long trips, mostly just day trips and getting the family to fly together.

But I fully understand the limitations of the C150 in the summer and if we have to leave with full fuel, I will have the family drive 20 minutes to a nearby airport with a nice new 5000’ runway and meet them there with full tanks. Otherwise, there may be another kid coming in the future and a 150 with there seats would be perfect for taking just the kids to the beach at Fishers island or Martha’s Vineyard for the day.

I have a Gyronimo app on the iPad that does WB calcs and is super fast and easy to use. Using the numbers, I see that I can get out of rear moment limit if I put 40 pounds of bags behind the seat, but only at zero fuel. CG moment seems to be nearly impossible to get loaded to far to the rear as long as we don’t put bags in the baggage area 2. If the luggage goes on the seat next to the kid (baggage area #1), then we can take 40# of bags and still be in gross, CG, and moment envelopes. But what we will do is just leave overnight bags at the in laws so we only need personal items.

This post is mainly for others in the future to see in install and get some info about the seats if they are looking to do the same. I’ll post install pics in a week or two (or later in September at annual time if it gets put off).
 
If the 150 works for you, then keep it and fly it.

But the kid is going to get bigger...
 
Yep, as the kid gets bigger.....guess my wife just has to get out. More fun for us.
 
In general, don't the bench add value to the plane? It's nice to place baggage on like flight bags, etc.
 
Curious what is the max weight you can put on the rear bench and still be within the W&B? That is to say, how much can the kid weigh before cannot sit on the bench, bags aside.
 
If the weight and balance works and the performance charts say you have enough runway + healthy safety margin I don't see an issue.
 
I can takeoff with me (175) and full fuel with 90 pounds on the rear seat.
Or me (175), wife (130), full fuel and 80 pounds in the rear
Or me, wife, 15 gallons fuel and 90 pounds in the rear.
Plane was weighed after the seat so it is actually the correct weight including all the accumulated dirt and crap, not just a guess based on old equipment.
 
It’s not like you’re putting three kids in the baggage compartment of a Luscombe 8A, so I don’t see a problem.
 
If you are within the prescribed W&B for your aircraft there are no issues. I will tell you however that your W&B from 1994 is just about worthless. Reweigh the aircraft to insure a safe operation. Sadly however you are not going to like the result. I would be stunned if it came in under 1100lbs. Airplanes like people gain weight as they age. They accumulate dirt, grease and oil in places never seen. Old weight and balances were often wrong from the start with aircraft weighed without paint, oil, unusable fuel ect.. A repaint without stripping the aircraft bare can add 25lbs to a 150. The published by Cessna empty weight is well above 1041lbs . I have never seen a old aircraft come in under the published weight or even close. Something is very wrong with the 1041 number. I suspect even in 1994 a very friendly set of scales were used or the numbers were flat out fudged.
 
Last edited:
If you are within the prescribed W&B for your aircraft there are no issues. I will tell you however that your W&B from 1994 is just about worthless. Reweigh the aircraft to insure a safe operation. Sadly however you are not going to like the result. I would be stunned if it came in under 1060. Airplanes like people gain weight as they age. They accumulate dirt, grease and oil in places never seen. Old weight and balances were often wrong from the start with aircraft weighed without paint, oil, unusable fuel ect.. A repaint without stripping the aircraft bare can add 25lbs to a 150.
I just redid then W&B for the aircraft after the seat install (2019) and it weighed 1050, we use 1056 to include the fire extinguisher and standard crap in the glove box and seat backs.

We removed the carpet, got an odyssey battery, removed an inoperable clock and CDI to offset the weight of the new seat.
 
Lightweight battery moves cg back assuming it’s in front of firewall, so that might actually work against you.

as for the flaming, the airplane you know is better than any airplane you don’t know IMO. I want more room bad, but I just can’t justify the cost to move to another plane from the one I’ve made work for me already. If it works For you, who cares.
 
True, but overall weight is super important as well. At max rear CG in these scenarios, I can get within 10 pounds of max gross, so the lightweight battery helps is all situations whereI have less than 70 pounds in the rear seat. The seat is quickly removable when necessary (4 screws and 2 bolts attach the back and seat to their brackets, all easily accessible).
 
It’s not like you’re putting three kids in the baggage compartment of a Luscombe 8A, so I don’t see a problem.

Never thought of that. However, at 18, 16, 14 they complain louder than when they were little so I'll probably use the Ekin motto "just don't do it."
 
Never thought of that. However, at 18, 16, 14 they complain louder than when they were little so I'll probably use the Ekin motto "just don't do it."
I don’t know how old my former neighbor's kids were when he quit doing that, and I don’t know the “kids” (now in their 70s) well enough to ask. ;)
 
16C5749C-0FA7-410C-A784-DCE49389613A.jpeg I love it! If you can do weight and balance as well as confirm performance, then yeah. Be sure to account for the performance though. It’s one thing to be legal but entirely something else to be safe. And a 150 is not blessed with excess takeoff performance near gross weight. Recall that the (anemic as they are) charts, were made with new planes, test pilots and a bag of tricks. :)
 
@Matthew Rogers looking forward to pictures...

Can you tell us how much you spent? I have a 3rd seat with brackets, belts, etc that came uninstalled when I bought my 182, but it’s not out of a 182 best I can tell. Mine looks like the pic above.
 
I paid $750 I think, but it took 2 years to find one. The first one I got came with two seats and no back, so it got returned. Turns out the flight instructor right next to my mechanic had one that came out of her 150. My mechanic remembered that he removed it several years back and it was still in a hangar on the field.
I figure I can just remove it and sell it when I am done using it. There are only a few left in the world.
 
It looks like it has been a year since your first post. How has it worked out? How often have you used it?
 
Back
Top