150's are great for keeping up skills in both flying and "mechanicking"

I've been an A&P and commercial (rating only, not career) pilot for 15 years. I got tired of not having a plane of my own, so I scoured Barnstormers and found a flyable project 150 close to me. I bought "Daisy" about 3 years ago and immediately started restoration and updates. She'd had an incident as a young'un: a student solo flared too high, bounced and flipped. "Daisy" had less than 200 hours total time when it happened. She was apparently bought as salvage/repairable (very spotty recordkeeping early on) but sat in a barn for 15 years before someone took to repairing her. The repairs done were airworthy and legal, just ugly. So I had a wing and horizontal reskinned and reinstalled them. The engine that was installed during the repairs was high-time, so I did a field overhaul to new specs, including a new crank and cam. Last year I did a panel upgrade from a single KX170 and KT76 to a full-IFR panel (no GPS) with ADS-B. I have yet to get into the clouds, but can't wait!

Currently, we're attempting to complete the FlyMN Passport (and get the leather jacket!) by flying into every public use hard-surface airport in MN. We're about halfway done as of October 2018. The longest "mission" was completing northwest MN in 2 days, with over 15 hours of flying visiting 25 airports.

Next is a new interior and then maybe down to a paint shop.

~980 TT, ~60 SMOH

Suited up to find some Rebels!

Old panel

New panel (trim pieces have since been installed)

Comments

  • Scott ShererScott Sherer COO Forum Moderator

    Beautiful airplane! Thanks for sharing these pics with us :)

    Scott Sherer
    Wright Brothers Master Pilot, FAA Commercial Pilot
    Aviation Director, Cessna Owners Organization Forum Moderator and Cessna Owners Author.

    Need help? Let me know!

  • Looking very nice. Good just job on the rebuild


    Gary Van Dyke

  • Where did you get the new panel overlay?
  • Scott ShererScott Sherer COO Forum Moderator

    Let me know if you don't get an answer in a few days and I'll research it for you. It sure looks good

    Scott Sherer
    Wright Brothers Master Pilot, FAA Commercial Pilot
    Aviation Director, Cessna Owners Organization Forum Moderator and Cessna Owners Author.

    Need help? Let me know!

  • Love it!!! I made a Darth Vader costume last Christmas and MADE my extended family carol the local theater for the opening of the movie...I made lyrics sung to Do You Hear What I hear? "It's a Death Star..shining in the night with a blaster as big as the sky...a blaster as big as the sky!" Ha!

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