Pilawt
Final Approach
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- Sep 19, 2005
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Pilawt
For years I’ve been wondering about the fate of my dad’s first airplane, a 1965 Cessna 150E that he owned from 1968 to 1973. That airplane was an important part of our lives.
My dad bought N3594J just a couple of months after he and I both got our private pilot licenses in the late summer of 1968. Price was $3,600. My dad got his instrument rating in the airplane, and I used it to get my commercial, instrument and CFI -- and the toughest test of all, the first date with the girl who has now been my wife for 48 years.
The little 150 was well-equipped for its time, with a 90-channel Narco Mark 12 with VOR/localizer indicator, and what was known in the parlance of the day as a “full gyro panel.” To make it a "fully-equipped" instrument trainer (by 1969 standards), we added a Genave 3-light marker beacon receiver, and a panel-mounted stopwatch.
The airplane was built with what Cessna called the "Trainer" option package, which included such luxuries as dual controls, sensitive altimeter, sun visors, cigarette lighter and a clock. It also had the optional heavy-duty landing gear (thus the unusual forward-pointing nose gear torque link scissors). There were no wheel fairings, and it had the basic factory paint scheme -- dark brown and white trim stripes on the fuselage and tail, with the wings and most of the rest of the airframe bare aluminum. Before we bought it, the airplane was based at Torrance, California. To protect the airframe from the salt sea air, the prior owner painted over the bare metal and the white trim with a light yellow paint, leaving the original dark brown metallic trim.
It was not a good paint job. Some corrosion was already apparent on the three-year-old skins, so we needed to strip and repaint the airplane shortly after we bought it. We liked the yellow-and-brown combination, however, so the new paint job was a copy of the previous scheme -- all-over light yellow, with dark brown trim in the 1965 factory scheme.
My dad sold the airplane in 1973. The purchaser was a lawyer in Santa Barbara who already owned a Beech Baron. He wanted the 150 for his wife to learn to fly.
A few years ago I looked it up on the FAA registration site and saw that it had been exported to Canada in 1979. Finally about a month ago I looked it up by serial number on the Canadian registry and found the name and address of the current owner, who lives near Calgary, Alberta. I wrote him a letter, explained the reason for my inquiry, and asked if he might indulge an old pilot’s fit of nostalgia by sending me a current photo or two.
I received the email from him yesterday morning, and it was more than I could have ever imagined. The airplane is not only still flying, it is in magnificent condition. It was completely renovated in 2016, with a Lycoming 150 hp engine, new Sensenich propeller, and a stylish new paint job. The airplane is an integral part of his young family, just as it was in our own, a half century ago.
He said, "It is an incredibly fun aircraft, especially at the high elevations here in Alberta, I can't see us selling it for many years! The climb performance is phenomenal, comfortably getting 1000fpm all the way up to 10,000ft. It doesn't stop there but I don't usually need to go much higher! Cruise speed is slightly faster, around 105 kts at around 8 gph. It is ideal for exploring the mountains and remote grass strips that we have close by us here."
This made my day!
It was especially satisfying, since I had also recently tracked down another 150 I used to own, and the outcome was not so happy.
My dad bought N3594J just a couple of months after he and I both got our private pilot licenses in the late summer of 1968. Price was $3,600. My dad got his instrument rating in the airplane, and I used it to get my commercial, instrument and CFI -- and the toughest test of all, the first date with the girl who has now been my wife for 48 years.
The little 150 was well-equipped for its time, with a 90-channel Narco Mark 12 with VOR/localizer indicator, and what was known in the parlance of the day as a “full gyro panel.” To make it a "fully-equipped" instrument trainer (by 1969 standards), we added a Genave 3-light marker beacon receiver, and a panel-mounted stopwatch.
The airplane was built with what Cessna called the "Trainer" option package, which included such luxuries as dual controls, sensitive altimeter, sun visors, cigarette lighter and a clock. It also had the optional heavy-duty landing gear (thus the unusual forward-pointing nose gear torque link scissors). There were no wheel fairings, and it had the basic factory paint scheme -- dark brown and white trim stripes on the fuselage and tail, with the wings and most of the rest of the airframe bare aluminum. Before we bought it, the airplane was based at Torrance, California. To protect the airframe from the salt sea air, the prior owner painted over the bare metal and the white trim with a light yellow paint, leaving the original dark brown metallic trim.
It was not a good paint job. Some corrosion was already apparent on the three-year-old skins, so we needed to strip and repaint the airplane shortly after we bought it. We liked the yellow-and-brown combination, however, so the new paint job was a copy of the previous scheme -- all-over light yellow, with dark brown trim in the 1965 factory scheme.
My dad sold the airplane in 1973. The purchaser was a lawyer in Santa Barbara who already owned a Beech Baron. He wanted the 150 for his wife to learn to fly.
A few years ago I looked it up on the FAA registration site and saw that it had been exported to Canada in 1979. Finally about a month ago I looked it up by serial number on the Canadian registry and found the name and address of the current owner, who lives near Calgary, Alberta. I wrote him a letter, explained the reason for my inquiry, and asked if he might indulge an old pilot’s fit of nostalgia by sending me a current photo or two.
I received the email from him yesterday morning, and it was more than I could have ever imagined. The airplane is not only still flying, it is in magnificent condition. It was completely renovated in 2016, with a Lycoming 150 hp engine, new Sensenich propeller, and a stylish new paint job. The airplane is an integral part of his young family, just as it was in our own, a half century ago.
He said, "It is an incredibly fun aircraft, especially at the high elevations here in Alberta, I can't see us selling it for many years! The climb performance is phenomenal, comfortably getting 1000fpm all the way up to 10,000ft. It doesn't stop there but I don't usually need to go much higher! Cruise speed is slightly faster, around 105 kts at around 8 gph. It is ideal for exploring the mountains and remote grass strips that we have close by us here."
This made my day!
It was especially satisfying, since I had also recently tracked down another 150 I used to own, and the outcome was not so happy.
