turning a 150 cessna into a single seater

[Salty]

Check out some of the "hobbies" on YouTube. Banger racing. Hill climbs. Monster truck stuff. Mud bogs. Some really expensive and/or dangerous sport, there. Fun to watch, but I see no point in them. Flying offers a unique challenge that isn't quite so destructive. And you can actually go places with it.

And they probably say the same about your hobby. You made my point for me.

 

[Dan Thomas]

The aileron/elevator control behind the panel looks like this:


In this veiw, you're standing outside the left side of the airplane and looking toward the seats. Many pilots have no idea what's behind the panel. That Y-shaped thing is often called the "yoke." The control wheel shafts attach to the U-joints. The yoke is shaped like it is to clear the radio stack. Not shown are the aileron cables that attach to the bellcrank (#5) and run down along the vertical tube to pulleys that change their direction to run aft. Like this:



The elevator cables are operated by a bellcrank in the belly that has a push-pull rod between the bottom of the vertical tube and the bellcrank.

Now, to make a 150 into a center-seat single-place airplane, you need to take out the radios and make a new panel to mount them somewhere else. You need to take that Y-shaped yoke out and make an I-shaped one that still has some chains or gearing that maintains the ratio as seen between the control wheel sprockets and the bellcrank's sprocket so that the control wheel travels and forces don't change.

Then you'd need to modify the rudder control system:



You'd need two new rudder bars, discarding the inboard pedals and their uprights and with the outboard pedals closer to the centerline and the right brake master cylinder mounted on the right side, since the pedal links and concentric link tubes would be gone. You'd need to relocate the right brake line, easily the easiest and cheapest job of the entire project. The pedals would have to be in the locations of the original inboard pedals, to satisfy the rudder bar bearing block locations on the existing structures under the floor.

It would definitely take a major STC to legalize it. People that apply for STCs count on others wanting to buy that STC for their own airplanes so that the certification costs can be recovered and some profit achieved. This project would be prohibitively expensive without a market to offset the cost, and I can't see a large market for single-place 150s.

Still, someone with lots of money and interest could get it done. They might not have much money left afterward, though.

 

[Capt. Geoffrey Thorpe]

All the paperwork nonsense is why you modify something like an Avid Flyer - No STC, no 337, just a letter to the FAA and then cut and weld all by yerself. Then after a brief stint in phase one, you are good to go.

 

[Crashnburn]

The aileron/elevator control behind the panel looks like this:
View attachment 71234

In this veiw, you're standing outside the left side of the airplane and looking toward the seats. Many pilots have no idea what's behind the panel. That Y-shaped thing is often called the "yoke." The control wheel shafts attach to the U-joints. The yoke is shaped like it is to clear the radio stack. Not shown are the aileron cables that attach to the bellcrank (#5) and run down along the vertical tube to pulleys that change their direction to run aft. Like this:

View attachment 71235

The elevator cables are operated by a bellcrank in the belly that has a push-pull rod between the bottom of the vertical tube and the bellcrank.

Now, to make a 150 into a center-seat single-place airplane, you need to take out the radios and make a new panel to mount them somewhere else. You need to take that Y-shaped yoke out and make an I-shaped one that still has some chains or gearing that maintains the ratio as seen between the control wheel sprockets and the bellcrank's sprocket so that the control wheel travels and forces don't change.

Then you'd need to modify the rudder control system:

View attachment 71236

You'd need two new rudder bars, discarding the inboard pedals and their uprights and with the outboard pedals closer to the centerline and the right brake master cylinder mounted on the right side, since the pedal links and concentric link tubes would be gone. You'd need to relocate the right brake line, easily the easiest and cheapest job of the entire project. The pedals would have to be in the locations of the original inboard pedals, to satisfy the rudder bar bearing block locations on the existing structures under the floor.

It would definitely take a major STC to legalize it. People that apply for STCs count on others wanting to buy that STC for their own airplanes so that the certification costs can be recovered and some profit achieved. This project would be prohibitively expensive without a market to offset the cost, and I can't see a large market for single-place 150s.

Still, someone with lots of money and interest could get it done. They might not have much money left afterward, though.[/QUOTE

The best way to make a little money in aviation is to start with a lot.

 

[Lachlan]

Some of us don't find the cockpit cramped - and if I did, I'd be hitting a diet seriously.

No doubt. My wife and I, with full fuel tanks, still come in well under gross, with over 50 lbs of useful load still available. A 150 wasn’t designed with giants in mind.

 

[Lowflynjack]

I knew a very large guy that owned a 150, and he called it his single seat airplane. Not sure how he flew it, but based on his size it had to be mostly in the middle. Maybe pushing on the leftmost and rightmost rudder pedals, and using whatever yoke was most comfortable?

I met a very large guy who flew a Cessna 140. We were talking about flying and I asked what he flew. When he said Cessna 140, my eyes must have bulged because he started laughing. He said he sat in the middle and used the outer two rudder pedals. Years later, I bought a Cessna 140 that had the original seatbelt design... one seatbelt that went across both people. On a long trip one day, I slid over to the middle of the seat and tried it out... it was awesome!