Cessna 172 N9504H Completed (New Pics)

I'm ready to make another attempt on the 172.  Just ordered another kit along with one of the 150.  I will mount it to a base this time so I won't have to worry about adding so much weight to the nose area :-)  I assume the 150 would be even worse, so that will go on a base too.

Well for what its worth I think its a cute little  er uh, very fine  example of civil (as opposed to my snide comments) aviation.

The look of the plane is great.  

The diorama in the first picture is very well done and looks almost too real  .

OK Seriously : a real great job all round and the paint stripes are peerless.  

This would be the Minicraft kit. Just a heads up, if you happen to be interested in the Cessna 150, there is a new tool as well as a 70's tooling - the new tool is actually very recent. It'll be the one in the blue box with a white/light & dark blue stripes paint scheme. Their 172, the one I built, is super nice considering the relative quality of most civilian kits.

Did I miss somewhere in your post the manufacturer of this kit?  I've not done any civil aircraft yet.

I know of a buddy of mine who does the same thing - weighs everything to the pound and does a VERY long preflight - anywhere near max gross he starts sweating lol. He's not so bad anymore but man he used to annoy me because all I could think was "flying is supposed to be enjoyable!". Like I've said, planes WILL fly overweight if careful, but obviously it is not recommended and I won't do it on certain days with certain airplanes in certain places. (C172 with an old 150-horse motor on a hot day at a short field - no thanks... Cherokee 180 with a long runway on a cold morning, sure lets go!)

Most of them are. :) I took mine in a C152 and we were about 5 or 6 lbs. over. I (we) decided to leave my briefcase in his office. Problem solved.

I'd considered the examiner's sensitivity to his weight. He was certainly a designated examiner, an FAA guy would never do that, I'd presume.

I think you played it right, Don. Lousy situation to have been in.

This guy, Ivan, was a real grouch, and I believed he was a bit sensitive to his weight.  So I went along with it.  Fortunately he didn't ask me to do anything that would put much stress on the plane, and the runways were very long for a 150. I was sure worried, though.  That 150 was really almost a 1 1/2 seater rather than a two-place :-)

I can't believe an examiner would allow that. Sets a poor example. I know a couple of examiners who would not have allowed it and would have busted the student. An examiner my late dad used to use would walk out and hop in the airplane expecting the student to follow suit, failing to do a pre-flight. Busted!

Very nice, like your custom paint job. Great job on the stripes!

Don, that is a strange and dangerous example for an examiner to set. I've have been worried about a trap the whole checkride too. Ever wonder what he'd have done if you had refused to go over gross? :)

Speaking of over-gross, a good friend of mine was hauling freight in Cessna 402s back in the early-mid '70s. He picked up a load of what was supposed to be aluminum pierced planking, like PSP but made of aluminum. About 2500 lbs., IIRC.. anyway, when it was loaded, he noticed the tires looked low, so they aired the tires. He then noticed it took more power than usual to taxi. on takeoff, it ate a lot of runway, he figured those engine were really sick and needed looking at. Upon climbout, anything less than full power, the stall warning came on. when finally at altitude and cruise, anything less than climb power the stall warning came on and it just wasn't flying right. When he got to his destination, and the planks were offloaded, the problem was discovered, it was PSP, yes, steel, NOT aluminum and weighed in at well over 4000 lbs.! we always said it was the 'bumblebee syndrome'. No one knew how overweight it was, so it flew anyway.

I would've wondered if that was a trap too! 

Planes can often fly surprisingly overloaded if loaded correctly, CG-wise, and in favorable conditions. I know of a Cherokee that flew, legally and FAA-sanctioned, with a huge fuel tank for an overseas ferry flight - records show it was nearly 1,000 pounds over limits! I have flown Cherokees with about 150-pounds extra and they can do it without a problem but it really does need to be loaded correctly, needs to be cold, and need to have a good, long runway at both ends of the flight.

Oh and for all your info, I updated the post with new pictures - same white backdrop but this time using a proper digital camera with correct settings. Still tweaking some settings but the pictures are MUCH better and the plane doesn't look so grimy anymore - more like what it really does look like in person. Really brings out details too, like the shine that I am really proud of 

That gear is bad though haha... I really did overdo it with tucking them in too narrow after breaking them a couple times... EACH. You can quite clearly see the main wheels having a pretty decent angle to them. Surprised I let it slip by me with it being that pitiful but like I said, when I get the new strut from Minicraft I will probably have a go at fixing the gear.

Long ago on my check ride for my private ticket in a 150, the examiner was huge.  The tanks were full, and it was well over gross with passengers. I asked the examiner if he wanted me to have the line boy offload some fuel.  He said no, we could just go. I was afraid it was a trap, and worried the whole flight, fearing he'd ping me for taking off in an overgross aircraft.  However, he didn't even mention it in the debrief and signed off on my license.

Todd

Fine lookin 172!! I can smell the 100LL!  Love flying them as well as 150/152s.  Look foreward to seeing  your next build.

Freem

Not unlike some real world flights, then! ;) I have flown a couple of overloaded aircraft and they can really bring that tail down, especially on Cherokees!

On the main gear thing, I had the opposite problem with mine.  I put so much weight on the nose to get it to not sit on the tail that the whole aircraft is quite heavy (engine compartment nearly full of lead weight.  So when I set it down, the gear splays out like it is seriously overloaded (which it is!).

'if I may' I would snip it back from the bottom where the tires hide any seams. I've seen extended gear on 180's and Centurions before... FYI

I'm not sure yet if I will but I did notice it after I started taking pictures... Would like to get it to sit correctly if I can.

Do it if it actually bothers you not because someone prompts you. The model actually looks fine ....

Need to throw her onto my coffee heater pad and flatten out those tires a little bit too - probably do that after I fix the gear.

Thanks for the comments, guys!

The gear is definitely mounted wrong. I broke both of them and I set them too narrow when I reinstalled them. I may look into cutting them off and reinstalling correctly since it really does sit far too high - can't believe I didn't check that earlier in the build. I have to install the missing wing strut when Minicraft sends it out to me, so I may fix the gear at that time. Real 172's actually sit quite low sometimes, especially with a fully charged nosewheel strut (raises the nose and puts the tail down closer to the ground). In this case, my 04H sits all around too high - 04H always had a mid-charge on the nose strut so the whole aircraft sat pretty level and lower than some of the other birds I've flown.

heepey - the weathering actually came off too heavy-handed for me on the white portions. Next time I will use a light gray instead of a brown wash. The brown was not only too dark but gave the aircraft a truly dirty appearance, which is not what I really wanted - I just wanted to accent the panel lines and rivets. Shouldve used the brown for fluid leaks/streaking and nothing else. 

Oh well... I'm learning as I go along. Every plane I build these days I am trying out new things. For example, this is only my second aircraft with this kind of a wash done. The first was my Stang Evil P-51. I've only got 5 aircraft under my airbrush too... so a lot of stuff I am doing is new to me. 

What's with the main landing gear? Is that stock from the kit or did it get messed up? It definitely is sitting too high and too narrow.

Yup one don't see well done models outside of the factory built display models and again one doesn't find them as true to form as yours. Very nice!!! :-)

Very nice build. I admire your masking skills :) The weathering looks like many Alaska bush planes. I have several of these kits waiting in line that may end up in a seaplane base diorama.

I noticed that one in Hobby Lobby as well as in the New Products section of FSM... is this a new tool? If so, I will probably make a run over to HL and get it because I have a couple of hours in 150's/152's so they would be a part of my "flying history" lineup. 

I should give them a call and see if they have plans for doing a new tool of the Cherokee... here's to hoping that they do!! I don't have as many individual Cherokees to build (Only four, off the top of my head, versus probably 20 Cessnas) but those are what I did all of my flight training in. I have made a couple of attempts a few years ago but they both ended up being scrapped. 

I hear ya on the nose weight - I barely got mine right. It sits on the nose fine but very easily tips back. These things are very dependent on a massive chunk of engine up front and were VERY light aft of the wings so it's no surprise how easy it is to under-weight the nose on the kits.

Like I said I am thinking about doing a large-size diorama of an airport parking ramp able to display several of these planes, so if I do that I will probably mount them. Thinking about doing tiny brass rod in the base to insert into the bottoms of the wheels - probably curve the nosewheel one so you "hook" the nosewheel down onto the rod which holds the nose down.

Looks nice!

I intend to order the new 150 kit to accompany my 172.  I am hoping the new 150 is the same quality as the 172. I intend to also do another 172.  This time, for both planes I intend mounting them on bases so I can detail the engine compartments and not add any lead weights in those areas.