First time flying a 150

BrianR

BrianR

Pre-takeoff checklist
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BrianR
As a private pilot of three weeks' duration, I was all set to give rides to some family/friends in the trusty 172N in which I completed my training and checkride. Unfortunately, another renter pranged it on a grass strip before I could do so. After being told to expect another month before the engine teardown is completed, I've been begging my CFI to check me out in the older 150 he also owns. Today, our schedules finally coincided.

Never having been in a 150 before, it took a couple of trials before I could master the acrobatics needed to get inside. The thing is...tight!

Taking off with myself, the CFI (neither of us huge) and full fuel and no density altitude considerations, I wondered aloud when the thing would start climbing. "Well, ya know we are at gross weight," he said.

So after a .7 hour checkout, and another 1.7 by myself and with my daughter, I have to say it was fun to fly. However, my a$$ felt like it had been sitting on a rock for 2.4 hours. It's very light on the controls compared to the 172; in fact, it took me a bit to quit over-controlling with the ailerons. Though certified for IFR, it's got only one comm and one nav radio, and no flip-flop. I guess if it's what you're used to...

The push-and-hold flap switch took some getting used to. And what's the flap indicator doing way up there by the top left corner of the windscreen?

While it was fun just flying around looking at stuff, I can't really imagine using it to go very far. I mean, there were tractors on the ground below going faster.

I have a few "weight challenged" friends wanting to go for rides. No way am I putting them in this thing! Now I just have to figure out how to explain that to them.

Still, my daughter had a blast and it was cool to fly a different airplane. And $85 per hour wet vs $120 didn't hurt my feelings either. But...WAAAAHHH...I want my 172 back. :sad:
 
BrianR said:
As a private pilot of three weeks' duration, I was all set to give rides to some family/friends in the trusty 172N in which I completed my training and checkride. Unfortunately, another renter pranged it on a grass strip before I could do so. After being told to expect another month before the engine teardown is completed, I've been begging my CFI to check me out in the older 150 he also owns. Today, our schedules finally coincided.

Never having been in a 150 before, it took a couple of trials before I could master the acrobatics needed to get inside. The thing is...tight!

Taking off with myself, the CFI (neither of us huge) and full fuel and no density altitude considerations, I wondered aloud when the thing would start climbing. "Well, ya know we are at gross weight," he said.

So after a .7 hour checkout, and another 1.7 by myself and with my daughter, I have to say it was fun to fly. However, my a$$ felt like it had been sitting on a rock for 2.4 hours. It's very light on the controls compared to the 172; in fact, it took me a bit to quit over-controlling with the ailerons. Though certified for IFR, it's got only one comm and one nav radio, and no flip-flop. I guess if it's what you're used to...

The push-and-hold flap switch took some getting used to. And what's the flap indicator doing way up there by the top left corner of the windscreen?

While it was fun just flying around looking at stuff, I can't really imagine using it to go very far. I mean, there were tractors on the ground below going faster.

I have a few "weight challenged" friends wanting to go for rides. No way am I putting them in this thing! Now I just have to figure out how to explain that to them.

Still, my daughter had a blast and it was cool to fly a different airplane. And $85 per hour wet vs $120 didn't hurt my feelings either. But...WAAAAHHH...I want my 172 back. :sad:
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Simply tell them the little aircraft was designed around two people that were 170# and 5'8" , and it will not carry us.
 
BrianR said:
While it was fun just flying around looking at stuff, I can't really imagine using it to go very far. I mean, there were tractors on the ground below going faster.
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The C150 is a neat, inexpensive trainer. I flew one solo across PA a couple of times during my PP training and thought it was the coolest thing ever.

It's a great way to plump up the logbook -- a 3.5 car drive is shortened to 3.0!

But my Chief is slower. I've had ground speeds as low as 30 MPH into not-so-crazy headwinds.
 
I never flew in a 150/152 until I was invited to fly right seat in a King Air. Got to wear the uniform, tie, act like I knew what I was doing, for a day. It was really cool...

...until the end of the day. My friend, a 6' 4", 270 pound guy, tells me that we were dropping the King Air off at another airport, and would be flying another airplane home.

It turned out to be a 150. I looked inside and laughed. There was NO WAY we were both fitting in that plane.

His response: "It's a long walk from here."

We fit in. I spent the entire 30 minute flight sitting sideways, plastered up against the door. It was winter in Iowa, so the fact that we were 150 pounds over gross didn't matter much -- but, wow, what an uncomfortable plane.

I didn't fly in one again until my son, as a newly-minted pilot, took me up in "his" 150 as his first passenger. Luckily, he's a LOT trimmer than my buddy, and we fit just fine!

It's a great plane, made for people born in another era.
 
I plan to use the 152 for the Bay Tour again. For now. The 172 is $18 more per hour. I heart the 152.

Good to know you will fit inside one!

Kimberly
 
Jay Honeck said:
It's a great plane, made for people born in another era.
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It is the greatest plane. Yellow panel and all.

6134142937_6ee1a91bbd_z.jpg
 
I and a lot of other pilots learned to fly in the trusty C150. My trainer was the brand new 1974 C150 Commuter II. I think they are great!! They are a lot better out here in the high DA of the southwest with the 150HP conversion.
 
Or LOL do you mean the placarded "spins are not allowed" old sticker since the AD told them it was either that or new rudder stops . . . ?

I will one day see a spin . . . one day (in training). I wish we could have learned them.
 
There will always be a soft spot in my heart for the humble C-150 ... first flying lesson (1963), first solo (1967), checkrides for PPL (1968), commercial (1969), instrument (1969) and CFI (1970); first date with my then-future wife (1972), first airplane ownership sans partners (1998), etc. etc.

The best description of a 150 comes from a 1965 Flying magazine pilot report: "an aluminum serge suit."
 
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Pilawt said:
The best description of a 150 comes from a 1965 Flying magazine pilot report: "an aluminum serge suit."
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I've seen fat folks try putting them on like a panty girdle.
 
4.1 hours in a 150 when I was a student. I can't get the seat back far enough, my legs are into the bottom of the panel when I go for the brakes. Fun little plane, but I'll stick with slightly larger planes like the 172 and 182. I can get into and out of them without help. :D
 
I had a 150 and really miss it! Fun! Cheap to operate. Pretty capable if you don't have a big load or are in a hurry. I have flown (almost) from border to border, from wTx to Fla a few times and into the mountains a bit with mine. I learned more about real flying, using a 100hp 150 in the mountains and at hi DA than anywhere else! Angel Fire, NM 8400'msl!
 
I love the trusty old 150. I spent a chunk of my summer in one graciously loaned to me by a friend so I could teach my son to fly before he left for college to become an air traffic controller! Five weeks of flying and 49.4 hrs later he became a pilot. We made a 700 nm trip to a family event (10+ hrs of flying with stops and training along the way) which was a ball, but there were legs where we were just barely passing interstate traffic!

Wonderful airplane. Memorable summer!
 
I fly a local 150 now and again. What's unexpected is how I cannot fit into a numer of airplanes (and I do mean a hard stop: just plain cannot fit), including Comanche, SportCruiser, Cub (in front), but 150 is almost comfortable despite its dimunitive size. I made a few 2-hour cross-country hops in it.

Pros:
- I can fit in, and it's almost comfortable
- Cheap
- Inexpensive
- Will not break a bank
- Makes flying more affordable
- Does not cost a lot of money either acquire or operate
- Simple systems that are difficult to mishandle
- Effective flaps, and yet glides well
- Has two doors (Bonanza, Mooney, Arrow do not - what the heck is up with that?!)

Cons:
- Rudder pedal and brakes do not work well with my feet, Piper-style overhead brackets are way safer
- Visibility to the side is nil, it's the only airplane in which it's easier for me to make right patterns than left
- A bit slow (fractionally slower than most LSAs)
- Design and construction are questionable, the rudder cables positively horrify me
- Heavy for its size, useful load is pathetic (compared to an LSA)
- Related - very small gas tank
- Slow speed handling is not the easiest (I even got into a habit of landing with 10 deg of flap, because I'm too lazy to fight it with 30)
- Bunch of silly ADs (well, sure, any affordable airplane has them, but come on, all the tail stiffeners... and the seat rails and flap tracks are just ridiculous)
 
The 150 is a great single seater. It can get crowded pretty easily.
 
i love my little 150 its a lot of fun to just play in my wife named it (the dirty bird) because the first time she came to the hanger I was cleaning bugs off the wings.....
 
I'm using a 152 for teaching and when someone calls about lessons one of thenfirst questions I ask them is: how big are you

I've taken lots of long cross countries in my little plane. One of the best things about it is that it has an aux tank, so I can carry 39 gallons of usable fuel. I typically fly 5.5 hr legs
 
I learned in a 150 (at sea level) and taught in a 152 (in Colorado). I think they are good airplanes to learn in but a challenge at higher DAs.
 
Let'sgoflying! said:
It has at least 2 nicknames:

'Nifty 150'
'Thrifty 150'
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We called it the "One Filthy." Operating from a 3000'ASL strip on summer afternoons is not recommended when both occupants are big and heavy. The students we'd been getting over the years have grown taller and many of them had their knees up their nostrils once inside the airplane. That, the poor takeoff and climb performance, and the O-200's need for valve work halfway to TBO or before made us replace them with 172s.

40° flap landings are fun. The airplane comes down really steep and doesn't roll too far. Landing distance is much, much shorter than the takoff, so don't land on some tiny field just because you can. You'll be trucking the airplane out.

And it spins really well.

To the OP: The push-and-hold flap switch was standard Cessna stuff right up to 1976 or so, even in their other singles. The 150's flap indicator on the left doorpost is the best; that thing is a small slider on a little rail, pulled by a tiny cable that runs through a tube to the flap crossover cables in the ceiling. A spring pulls the slider back when the flaps come up. It works every time, forever. When Cessna went to the electric flap, they introduced a bunch of failure points: the indicator on the panel gets sticky and must be replaced ($700) and the rheostat at the flap bellcrank wears out and must be replaced (another $700). Give me the dorky little slider any time. It's one of those things that keeps the rental low.

Dan
 
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I like 150's. It's always fun to fly something bigger and faster than my usual ride. Having to deal with flaps and nosewheels does make it a bit more complicated.
 
150's are for midgets. The very first instructional flight I ever took was in a 152. At the time I was pushing 200 lbs and my CFI was too. It didn't work out real well, took too long to climb to any respectable altitude. 172's it was from then on.

I don't recall a push and hold flap switch though. The Debonairs I occasionally fly have those - flap indicator is outside the pilots window, painted on the flaps. Most god awful flap system in the world.
 
The vast majority of my flying time has been in a 152. I have had fun in it and it's basic limitations have annoyed me at times, but I keep coming back to it because it's cheap and I don't have a ton of money to spend on a nicer plane. :)

I've noticed the left seat is a little more comfortable than the right seat. Atleast in the plane I fly, the left seat has more fore/aft adjustment to it than the right seat which helps alot. I've never found headroom to be a problem although shoulder room can be a bit tight depending on who I'm flying with. Both my CFI & I are pretty skinny so I never noticed it during my training.

I have a fair amount of time in a Decathlon though, and going from that plane back to the 152 makes the 152 feel like flying a pickup truck as far as roll rate goes. I still prefer the 152 for it's ease of flying though.
 

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kimberlyanne546 said:
You mean the red thing? The ELT?
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Ok, the original ELT was mounted in the baggage ara with no control on the panel. I'm sure tha part on the panel is just a control/test switch and not the complete ELT.

Thanks
 
BrianR said:
As a private pilot of three weeks' duration, I was all set to give rides to some family/friends in the trusty 172N in which I completed my training and checkride. Unfortunately, another renter pranged it on a grass strip before I could do so. <snip>
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When I started to read this post I started laughing at the end of the second sentence because I read it as the author was complaining because someone pranged the airplane before he could prang it. :lol:
 
BillTIZ said:
I and a lot of other pilots learned to fly in the trusty C150. My trainer was the brand new 1974 C150 Commuter II. I think they are great!! They are a lot better out here in the high DA of the southwest with the 150HP conversion.
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I'm part owner of one of those. Great takeoff and climb performance, but in terms of cruise performance, it's still a 150. TAS at 10.5 around 100 knots on 8 GPH isn't terribly impressive for going somewhere (especially when you need a fuel stop after only 2 hours of flying), but it's a great and economical timebuilder and took me from having a wet ppl to over 300 TT with COMM ASEL IA at a very low cost compared to what it would have cost if I would have rented to build up my time.
 
BillTIZ said:
Ok, the original ELT was mounted in the baggage ara with no control on the panel. I'm sure tha part on the panel is just a control/test switch and not the complete ELT.

Thanks
Click to expand...

The one I fly has a very sensitive ELT that I once set off after a "firm" landing...at night. Crawing back there at 3:00 am to turn it off was lots of fun...:mad2:
 
On Tuesday, Sept. 6, I put 4.9 hours (tach) on a 1968 Cessna 150. It was a good trip to Grand Rapids, Michigan, and the folks at Northern Air were great. Nice new crew car. I made a stop at Allegan (35D) to get some fuel. It was $5.39 per gallon of 100LL. The folks at Dodgen (the FBO) were super. Nice quick turn around.
Unfortunately, my friend is selling N51411. I am trying to pile on the hours while I can.
 
Dan Thomas said:
To the OP: The push-and-hold flap switch was standard Cessna stuff right up to 1976 or so, even in their other singles. The 150's flap indicator on the left doorpost is the best; that thing is a small slider on a little rail, pulled by a tiny cable that runs through a tube to the flap crossover cables in the ceiling. A spring pulls the slider back when the flaps come up. It works every time, forever. When Cessna went to the electric flap, they introduced a bunch of failure points: the indicator on the panel gets sticky and must be replaced ($700) and the rheostat at the flap bellcrank wears out and must be replaced (another $700). Give me the dorky little slider any time. It's one of those things that keeps the rental low.

Dan
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Before they went to the slider for the flap indicator they had a big ol' lever like you'd find on a Cherokee. That was the best of all. The only ones I've seen that on are the old straight tail 150s.
 
Bobcat1 said:
Before they went to the slider for the flap indicator they had a big ol' lever like you'd find on a Cherokee. That was the best of all. The only ones I've seen that on are the old straight tail 150s.
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There were several major changes to the 150 for the 1966 model year (150F), including swept tail, electric flaps, larger doors and side windows, new wingtips, extended baggage area, larger prop spinner, 6.00x6 main gear tires standard, etc. There was also a 10% reduction in the basic price (to $6,995), and 3,000 units were sold that year.
 
A world where 3000 Cessnas of only one type of many, were sold in a single year, just boggles my mind.

So sad that we're so far away from that today.
 
if you are not in a hurry t the buck fifty is hard to beat for fun flying. docile & light on the controls. flying solo I love it. Maybe with my granddaughter. If I need to fly two of more adults I use a 172 or bigger. Dave
 
I trained in C-152's, as the flight school had three of them. I thought it was a great trainer, and put up with a lot of abuse, from students, including myself. After my PPL, I rented the same 152's, but also some 150's nearby, and even and old 1966 model that I called "the death trap". So I have a decent amout of hours in those little planes, but haven't flown one in years since owning other types. The flight school at my FBO has one that looks exactly the same as the one I took my checkride in many moons ago. I sometimes toy with the ideas of flying it, then just get in my Tiger and go somewhere. Maybe someday. :)
 
Gmaper said:
When I started to read this post I started laughing at the end of the second sentence because I read it as the author was complaining because someone pranged the airplane before he could prang it. :lol:
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Yeah, that did occur to me after I wrote it... :lol:
 
I have almost 50 hours in 150's and about 25 hours now in my 140. I like the 150 fine, but if you want to spice up your life, try a 140. It's very much the same plane in the air, but moving the center wheel to the rear makes all the difference.
 
MBDiagMan said:
I have almost 50 hours in 150's and about 25 hours now in my 140. I like the 150 fine, but if you want to spice up your life, try a 140. It's very much the same plane in the air, but moving the center wheel to the rear makes all the difference.
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I have a soft spot in my heart for the C-140, since it was the first GA airplane in which I flew, as a kid growing up in the midwest! We lived not far from a small FBO/cropduster operation, and they had a 140 in which I begged, pleaded and cajoled to get rides a few times. Then a coworker of my father bought one and I flew with him a couple times. I haven't seen one around here in NY for years.
 
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