OK... i want to first state that this is a honest question from a new guy in the c150 world. i am new to a lot of things here in the aviation community too. i think the 150 is a great little plane for a first timer and someone who doesn't stop thinking about flying for very long during any day it seems.
why do you folks love and are so passionate about the little 150/152?

Inexpensive, reliable, tough, and a heck of a lot more capable than most people give it credit for. It is also a heck of a lot of fun to fly, as it is almost sprightly compared to bigger Cessnas.

because of the wonderful people in the Cessna 150-152 Club.

If it weren't for these folks, I go buy a Bonanza tomorrow.



Seriously though, the only thing wrong with out little airplanes is sometimes I would like to take more than 1 other person along. Other than that, it's just about the perfect airplane for what we use it for. Recreational flying. We're not in a hurry, We fly for fun, and it's relatively inexpensive. This little Cessna fills the bill perfectly.


and the people in this club are great.

Ease of maintenance. Reliability. Inexpensive to buy and cheap to operate. Forgiving, and a lot of fun...........

All that, plus ya get to tell your friends 'n' neighbors you fly the same type 'o' bird as POOBS .

I can't wait to tell all my frinds.

bruce

Growing up, my dad had a 61 Falcon. It got passed down to one sister, then the other, then my brother, then back to my younger sister and then her husband. By the time it was sold for $50, it had had alot of punishment. No floorboards left, started with a screwdriver, shifter was a piece of oak, but it was still running. The speedo cable long died, so the miles on it were estimated at around 200,000. I never got the chance to drive that old wonderful death trap, with the orange shag carpet in the back window, no seat belts and metal dash!

That's kind of how I feel about the 150. It's an old design, but thay are reliable and easy to fix. They may not have the greatest flair, but they get you where you want to go - eventually!

After all, whether taking a trip in an old 61 white Falcon or a blue 1965 150, it's the adventure of it all!

PS No orange shag in my 150 back window!

Cost effective! That's my reason. It's tough, pretty decent performer (granted I've been a bit spoiled with sparrowhawk) and not really very quirky. Treated me well so far!

As for Falcons.... I can't wait for the day I own a nice garage to drive my '65 Futura across the country!

The O-200 engine!
Simple, reliable, every A/P on the planet can work on it, easy to overhaul (eg, cheapest to overhaul), sips fuel

Besides, a C-150 is easier to wax than a C-414 and cheaper to insure.

Overall, the 150/152 is a very economical plane to fly. And I mean 'economical' in the broadest sense of the term - as airplanes go, it doesn't require a lot of money, time, skills or effort to own and fly one.

They are simple to maintain and repair, but are not 'bare-bones' transportation.

There is a large and well-stocked inventory of new and used parts available.

It's the cheapest 'real' airplane one can buy. Any cheaper and most likely you're talking 'ultralight'. Yet spending more only gets you two more seats. It's at quite a nice price/performance 'sweet-spot'.

And lastly, in all seriousness, this Club. In my very informal polling, I'm finding this type-club is one of the most active around (I'm sure the Bonanza club does more, but the price of admission is steep). The depth and breadth of active, participating and friendly club members makes me enjoy this plane far beyond its physical capabilities.

Low stress.

I like the 150 because I can find parts. It is easy to work on, safe and has a lot of performance and capability when compared to other planes with the same engine mounted on it.

It is nearly guilt free in the sense that it is almost cheaper than a small boat or snowmobile to own. They hold their value and often increase over time.

There is often a lot of demand for the 150. However most of all they are fun.

Jim

What Kirk said!

I love our 150s so very much. It is so easy to fly you can treat it anyway you want and it keeps coming for more.

Low and slow at 21-22 hundred rpm leanded anywhere the eng runs smoothly -then enjoy the country side.

Windy days, just be a little more careful, you can fly anyway if you must.

I look at a lot of other planes but i realize that 80% of the time, its just me and the C150 puttering around.

I have a good friend with a C182 that has no medical but loves to fly and i get to do most of his flying and he tells me to use it, but with a C150 why?

bruce

So easy to fly....

It's my homebuilt.

Seriously, I asked myself what do I want in a homebuilt?
1. High wing, so I can see the landscape (You can get bored looking down on a wing all day...)
2. Tri-gear. I'm not superman. Even though I've got good feet, mass in front of the mains is just good physics.
3. Flaps. Training spoiled me here, perhaps, but after the first 200 landings, I said to myself: "I want a plane with flaps."
4. Four-stroke engine. Two-strokes have intake and exhaust valves open simultaneously. Wasteful. And when they quit, it's right now.
5. Small engine. Latin teachers can't be pouring 100 LL through gobs of horsepower. (Buying the gas for a XC in a Stinson, with 165 hp Franklin engine, was a good lesson.)
6. NOT ultra-light. I need to fly, not emulate a wind-blown leaf.

You get the point: when I put it all together, I realized I already OWN my ideal homebuilt. (Think of the time I saved!) Now if I could only do my own annual...

Complete maintenance manuals and parts catalogues readily available. All components -- including factory-built new engines - still readily available from numerous sources. IFR capable. Runs on autogas, if you can get it without ethanol. As previously mentioned, sips fuel, which is a huge consideration nowadays. Nice plane for low altitude, fair weather flying.

Why oh why the 150?


D. All of the Above!

There I was with a pilot's license and wanting my own airplane so that I could fly without the restrictions of a rental plane (able to go to grass, and/or privately owned airstrips...and for days at a time).

When I looked at what I could afford that fit my mission...the 150/152 was the prime candidate.

Turns out it owning my own airplane was easier to afford on paper than it is in real life. Still...things could have been much worse and my little 150 has done her job well.

Best engine in its size, gravity fed fuel, very affordable.

Jim
N66062

Naw....it's the club. I still hang out with this bunch of hoodlums, but moved to a Cardinal, now to a Cherokee 180.

(they still let me show up at gatherings as long as I where a 150 club t-shirt and park the Cherokee behind the hangars).

"Page Traffic, flight of 8 Cessna 150's and another airplane, departing to the NE" (Quote from 2007 Page trip).

All I can say is, If you have to ask you wouldn't understand.
John KLWM

I can own it without partners, it costs way less to insure than my car. You can fill the fuel tanks and fly her around without a second morgage. Most every A&P has worked on them, so it's not a struggle to get repaired. Great folks here make it that much better.

We can afford it! That is #1. They can be inexpensive to purchase. Reliable and fairly inexpensive to maintain. Comparatively inexpensive to operate. They are an honest airplane. no handling surprises. An excellent airplane for two people. In addition, the later 150's have ample baggage room for light camping needs. They are a not too bad of a cross country airplane, if not in a hurry. Perform reasonably well at, or sometimes over, maximum gross weight.

Bill
Grants Pass, Oregon

And, when it's five degrees outside, them climb like scared cats!

Sprightly....?

It is fun to get the pilots of four seaters ranting about the price of gas! I had fun with this with the owner of a Skymaster recently.

There is a lot of snob appeal to owning and flying a 150/152. Come on guys before you split your sides laughing about 150/152 snob appeal think about it.

There are:
over 300,000,000 people in the U S A, Only 2% of them are pilots.
612,000 licensed airplane pilots.
• 244,000 have private pilot’s licenses.
• 121,000 are licensed to fly commercial aircraft.
• 145,000 are licensed to fly air transport planes.
• 34,000 are women. There
• 87,000 are student pilots.
There are:
224,000 active general aviation aircraft; one for every 1344 people
250,851,833 privet automobiles in the U S A; one for every 1.2 people

That’s pretty exclusive club isn’t it?

I don’t know the number of active 150/152 but it is a relatively small part of the total general aviation fleet. Also, another pretty exclusive group.

A 150/152 is a real airplane that does best what a pilot needs; it lets him fly. It is not real bit, it isn’t real fast, it doesn’t climb all that fast or high, it doesn’t carry all that much load but boy o boy does it fly. And, it is easy to fly. It will take you long distances; it will let you see things up close and personal. It will cleanse your soul. I won’t eat you out of house and home and it is as dependable an airplane as there is in the sky.

You can watch those guys with there 200-300 HP and many-motor airplanes go storming around with money falling out of every crack and cranny and feel sorry for them. They may be flying but in a 150/152 you are REALLY flying, as it was meant to be.

Best of all as a member of the Cessna 150-152 Club you have a big, happy, loving family. And like any other family they will share your joy and sorrow and if you are in a jam or just need some advice they will be there for you.

Hi Wayne, you really summed it up there. A few weeks ago my CFI (172 for training, Piper Archer personal airplane.) made a comment about my maybe being "stuck" flying a 150 for the rest of my life. My response, IT FLIES! And I sure wouldn't use the term stuck. It is one Sweet airplane, to me better than the 172 in nearly every way.
It really pi**es me off when people speak of "real" airplanes, meaning jets, big transport airplanes etc and "toys", meaning most general aviation aircraft. To me, and to you too obviously, flight in this type of airplane is "pure" flight, raw and real.
Joanne

And when you glue an O-320 in the nose of the 150 or 152, you have an airplane that has the capabilities of doing everything better then the 172. We can get off the ground faster. Climb faster. Cruise faster. Carry an equivalent load. And still retain the nimble feeling of the 150 or 152. And one can have all of this is at a cost far far FAR less then purchasing an O-320 equipped 172.

The only thing the 172 has over the 150/150 is that with the 172, one can carry adult passengers in the rear seat.

Bill
Grants Pass, Oregon

To me, the 172 is a bit of a semi truck... that can't haul much. But wait! You can fly a 172SP which is still a bit of a truck with a 180hp engine! Yee-haw. Not quite. Now, what's cool is that there are 180hp 150s running around. THAT is an airplane.

Wayne:

That really hits the nail on the head.

Reg

What Wayne said.