Cessna 150M project in parallel with four other light aircraft models.
cherry wood
I like those high-wing aircraft.
Lou
Much better visibility to watch the ground go slowly by.
Sanding slot to width. Single edge razor blade with 80 grit paper bonded to one side fits tight slot and is easy to hold.
Nice fit. Never thought of using a blade for stiffness. Thanks for the tip.
Lou
Marked out the stiffeners on the wing flaps and ailerons. Nice thing about the ribbing is they are always parallel to the airflow even though the ailerons are swept on the wing. Makes it easy to set up for marking.
Also, has anyone ever heard of the "Diamond Club " almost exclusive to the small Cessnas? 😃
The 150's have huge Fowler flaps that can extend aft and down to 40 degrees of deflection. They really can add a lot of drag, hence the name "barn doors"
Looking good Fraser. I see you are putting your jig to good use.
Lou
The jig is working great now. I made the new holding fixture to hold (hence the name) the wing flat and in alignment. The spring stick across the wing allows the whole wing and fixture to slide side to side to get the wing aligned to the reference markings on the face of the jig. It then secures the whole assembly from shifting while marking the ribs.
I spent time to modify the jig as I am using it to work so many more models and I wanted easy adjustments.
Should also answer what the Diamond Club is.
When I worked at a flying club, the occasional student, who would be in a rush in a full hangar of 150's, would join the club. This was achieved by not paying attention to the trailing edges of the ailerons and walking into one with your forehead. The diamond shaped stiffeners would then imprint a nice diamond on our forehead😧
In a similar fashion, the F-104 was called the head skinner due to its very sharp leading edges.
Lou
Primed. The swept tail on the later 150's was purely aesthetic and did not result in a faster airplane. I do like the look, though
It looks fast.
Lou
I think that Cessna used the same basic profile starting in the 60's to give their fleet a trade mark look. I know that when I took my license, the Cessna pilot training manual had each chapter headlined with a side view of their aircraft as they increased in size and sophistication. They wanted the pilots to feel a continuity as they moved along and bought that new 414 when they made it big🧐. Truth is, I still like the look of Cessna's twins from the 310 up.
Vertical fin, stabilizer and fuselage filled and all parts primed. Major parts mocked up together.
Next is to mount empennage and cut the wings to fit.
Great build.
Lou
the wings and tail are pinned for the C150. The early 150 had a fast back fuselage like the C140. Later it had the omnivision windows and swept back fin. The tail just looks nice, but it's not any faster. It also had this big flaps that overlapped the aft windows. Aerodynamical good, but when fueling the aircraft, any fuel spillage ran off the flaps and onto the windows and when it evaporated over many spills , the windows took on a red hue from the fuel. And it was a pain to clean...ask the rampy (my first job at 13).
Hmmm, the spinner may be too long. More work ahead.
All of these are works of art in their own right.
Well Done Fraser
Gordon
Excellent build.
Lou
Wings and tail glued. See Construction techniques and Luscombe for details.
Filling has begun. The 150 flaps at the inboard end are a bit of a challenge as they overlap the wrap around windows wt the back. Need more work on getting the gap right. Will be fun to paint...
It always pays to review your work. Seems I oriented the inboard ends of the flaps the wrong way. Dont know where my brain went there?? So i'll have to do a bit of rework in the wings. perhaps a bit of surgery and wood replacement... However, they are definitely not coming off.
Amazing :o
So I am reworking the inboard ends of the flaps. I think I got the image of the end shapes wrong by looking at the drawing upside down....
A bit of sanding and filling will work in the end.
Now another thing Ive had to look at. All of the models I've made, except the Banshee, are tail wheel, float or displayed gear up. In other words, I now have three light aircraft that will be nose draggers. Therefore they will need ballast forward of the main gear to prevent them sitting on their butt.
I made a simple balance rig for the models and set it on the scale and zeroed it out. It took 3 grams of lead shot to balance the nose gear equipped aircraft. It will be less if I can get the mass farther forward, but it is still a larger volume than I thought it woud be. Hmmm. I 'll have to come up with a creative solution TBD.
Here is the 150 gear.
The mains are spring rods enclosed in a fairing. Therefore they look the same as the Cessna 140 for all purposes. The difference is they are shorter and more squat. This is because of the location further aft on the fuselage in the tricycle design.
The nose gear is an air-oil oleo strut. So it was built the same as the Piper 140 nose gear with scissor links with addition of a fitting above the nose fork.
There was a modification for the 150 that allowed for the nose strut to be removed and the main gear legs located forward plus a tail wheel bracket added to the tail cone. This was called a Texas taildragger conversion. It was cool looking and if it was an early straight tail 150, it looked like a baby 185. Only problem was the short gear allowed the prop tips to get close to the ground when the tail was lifted on takeoff. Aftre flying Fleet Canuks for tail wheel experience, I had a chance to fly the Clubs 150 taildragger. The instructor neglected to tell me about this little issue until I gave a good push on the controls to get the tail up. And no, I did not strike the prop, but the instructor certainly made this clear on further take offs not to treat the take off like a Fleet. Of course a wheelie landing was also discouraged to do this and three point landings were preferred.
You have a way with metal.
Lou
Believe it on not, I have been fascinated by aircraft landing gear systems since I saw operating models of different gear types in the Ottawa National museum of technology in the late 60's.