longest c152 flight?

[Pilot.Lyons]

Hi All,
New one... Just for fun, whos been where as pic in a c152 (obviously long distance)
:)

[Big Pistons Forever]

Well after about 1 hour my butt tends to get sore in a C 152 so I try hard to keep the flights short. However when I was a young instructor one of my students wanted to build night time hours. He flew a solo triangle round robin route with a total nonstop flight time of 7.4 hours :ouch:

[Pilot.Lyons]

My skills test seemed ok but i did get out an have a coffee twice! :rolleyes:

[madlandrover]

I tend to stick to under 3 hours before my back cries enough... Usually IF with trips that length though, so a lot of time spent in the cruise. Most people can't get a C152 near its real endurance anyway, without understanding of quoted POH performance and leaning technique!

[avonflyer]

have a look at G-AWAW RESTORATION (http://g-awaw.org/).

I helped pack up whats left of AWAW at Wroughton Science Museum to send her off to the USA and met Janette. A wonderful lady and UK to Darwin single handed has got to be the longest trip that we will find (unless you know better)

[Pilot DAR]

C 150:

Central Ontario to:

Bahamas, return,
Mexican border at Texas, return, and,
Edmonton, return

[thing]

I take my hat off to you guys. I have to lean to the right in a 152 as there's not enough room for my shoulders when the door is closed. Two up, well you get to be real friendly with the passenger.........

[S-Works]

I went to places like Morocco, Prague, Poland etc in mine.

[BackPacker]

He flew a solo triangle round robin route with a total nonstop flight time of 7.4 hours

Where I learned to fly we were specifically forbidden (through the flying order book) to plan non-stop/unrefueled flights longer than 2.5 hours. For the PA28 and C172 exceptions were occasionally made (after a careful check of the plog/fuel plan), but not for the C152.

I'm very surprised that the C152 can have an endurance of 7.4 hours (I presume long-range tanks?) but even more so that an instructor would sign a student out to actually do these kinds of flights. At night even.

[chubbychopper]

7 hrs 20 mins on a photographic/survey sortie quite a few years ago. Need a plane with a toilet nowadays!

[jecuk]

Every flight in a 152 seemed to last forever.....

[Pilot DAR]

Every flight in a 152 seemed to last forever.....

Oh yes! One of the many charms of the 150, the fun seems to last longer! I'd fly the Viking, spend a whole bunch of money on gas, and the flight seemed to be over before you could begin to enjoy it!

[Big Pistons Forever]

Where I learned to fly we were specifically forbidden (through the flying order book) to plan non-stop/unrefueled flights longer than 2.5 hours. For the PA28 and C172 exceptions were occasionally made (after a careful check of the plog/fuel plan), but not for the C152.

I'm very surprised that the C152 can have an endurance of 7.4 hours (I presume long-range tanks?) but even more so that an instructor would sign a student out to actually do these kinds of flights. At night even.


The student was building time for his CPL. The C 152 POH shows it has ,with long range tanks, over 8 hours endurance at 45 % power with a 45 min reserve. In this case he landed with a solid hour of fuel at normal cruise still in the tanks. As for signing out the student it was a CAVU night and he did several laps of the triangle (about 150 nm total distance) before landing so he was never far away from his home airport or several other available airports. Personally I though he was crazy, but I guess when you are 20 years old 7.4 hrs in C152 sounds like an adventure. :hmm:

I find your note about restricting all flights to 2.5 hours sad. You are basically saying flight planning doesn't mean anything, Just fill it up use any power setting you want, don't bother leaning out, and our super safe rule means you can never run out of gas. So just when is the pilot supposed to learn about fuel planning? When he is flying his own airplane with passengers ? on his first day as a commercial pilot ?

[Robert Jan]

Not a 2, but a 0 :p

Transatlantic Cessna 150 (http://www.cessna150-152.com/transatlantic.htm)

[Pilot.Lyons]

What more can i say? Thats epic! (and crazy!)

[BackPacker]

I find your note about restricting all flights to 2.5 hours sad. You are basically saying flight planning doesn't mean anything, Just fill it up use any power setting you want, don't bother leaning out, and our super safe rule means you can never run out of gas. So just when is the pilot supposed to learn about fuel planning? When he is flying his own airplane with passengers ? on his first day as a commercial pilot ?

This was a restriction applied to PPLs. Apparently (I have not checked the sums) a 152 with standard tanks, flown at a higher-than-normal cruise settings, unleaned (not uncommon in the PPL training world where you pay for the aircraft based on hobbs, not tacho) can be flown dry in a little over 3 hours. Maxing the flight duration to 2.5 hours gives you some reserve then.

And hey, 2.5 hours is enough for the PPL QXC.

[IO540]

The more general comment is that most people flying these things haven't got much of a clue as to the real range they have.

For starters, almost nobody in the UK is taught correct leaning, but there is a ~30% difference between full-rich, and ~ peak EGT which is a perfectly authorised cruise setting at/below 75% of max rated power.

The slackness with which fuel planning was done during my PPL training (basically, looking at the tech log to see how long the previous person flew) horrified me from the start. Whenever I went solo, I always filled right up. Sometimes I got a bollocking from the "CFI" for putting in only 20 litres, but it was better than doing a G-OMAR (google is your friend, as always) which happened rather less than a million miles away from where I was flying :)

If I owned a C152 I would install a fuel totaliser, immediately.

[SEP Flyer]

Longest flight in a C152 - my skills test, so around 2 hours.

The more general comment is that most people flying these things haven't got much of a clue as to the real range they have.

For starters, almost nobody in the UK is taught correct leaning, but there is a ~30% difference between full-rich, and ~ peak EGT which is a perfectly authorised cruise setting at/below 75% of max rated power.

I completely agree - I was told during my training that the 'red lever' is only needed when you fly above 3000' and as all training was at or below that, the mixture control was only used at engine start and engine stop.

I have never leaned an engine, never had training how to do it, and as I rent 'wet' there is actually no financial incentive for me to fly economically. Am I doing any engine damage by not leaning? All my fuel calculations in a C152 are based on 6 gallons an hour.

Sounds like I could do with some leaning instruction.

[IO540]

there is actually no financial incentive for me to fly economically.

That's true but you are losing ~30% of your range, which may (or may not) make a big difference to where you can fly to with confidence.

Am I doing any engine damage by not leaning?

Not really, except bunging up the spark plugs with lead and other gunge...

Sounds like I could do with some leaning instruction.

This (http://www.peter2000.co.uk/aviation/engine-management/index.html) is really based around an engine fitted with a multicylinder temperature monitor but if you read through it, you will have an idea.

Without instrumentation, the method for correct-ish leaning is to set it all up in cruise, 75% of max rated power or less, and then slowly lean until there is a fairly sudden drop in power (or airspeed if you like). Then advance (enrich) the mixture back just a little, to the point before the sudden power drop.

Your engine might run a bit rough when the power drops off and that is normal; the same principle applies... enrich till the roughness disappears.

[BackPacker]

Sounds like I could do with some leaning instruction.

Absolutely. The best advice is probably contained in the POH so I suggest you start there. After all, if your instructor failed to teach you to lean properly during the PPL, what are the chances that he'll be able to teach you how to do things properly now?

But for a simple aircraft like a C152 (or basically any non-turbo carbureted Lycosaurus without sophisticated instrumentation) everything you need to know will probably come down to this:

- At any power settings above 75%, run full rich. But remember the engine cannot produce more than 75% power above 5000' DA.
- For best power mixture (e.g. full power climb above 5000' DA, or take-off from a high-altitude field), lean for best RPM.
- In the cruise, lean until the engine runs rough and enrich slightly to restore smooth running.
- Set full rich before any power change, lean afterwards. Do not attempt to make power changes with a leaned engine. In the circuit, where you will have a number of power changes, it's easiest to simply run full rich all the time.

Once the engine and instruments gets more sophisticated (constant speed prop, injectors, matched injectors, CGT, EGT, per-cylinder CGT/EGT, fuel flow meter, ...) leaning becomes progressively more sophisticated too.

[SEP Flyer]

Thanks for the advice on this IO and BP - I'm due a checkride next time I fly as I'm over the '28 days between renting' rule at the club, so will try some leaning.

Cheers!

[Agaricus bisporus]

5hr 25mins Stapleford to Bagby on standard fuel with no leaning and at normal cruise power for 3hrs while hours building until finding strong wave conditions in the Vale of York. Best roc at idle 600fpm. Leeming radar were very puzzled.

[BackPacker]

Oh, one tip. If you do lean for best economy using the above method, warn your passengers before you do so. Nothing is more unnerving for a passenger than an engine that suddenly runs rough and a pilot who pretends that that's normal.

[Duchess_Driver]

I would suggest that some limit on student PPL flights is sensible. Not necessarily from a fuel planning point of view but from a student fatigue point of view. It is often noticeable that the performance level drops the longer the flight.

Personally, I've lasted about 3 hours in a 152 before becoming very uncomfortable.

On the leaning side of things, I agree that it's a skill not taught well in the UK. But an important note made earlier is that you should consult your POH for your airframe/engine combination as to how to do it properly. There are instances where incorrect leaning have meant fuel burn is vastly different to what was thought.

[rasti121]

Without instrumentation, the method for correct-ish leaning is to set it all up in cruise, 75% of max rated power or less, and then slowly lean until there is a fairly sudden drop in power (or airspeed if you like). Then advance (enrich) the mixture back just a little, to the point before the sudden power drop.

With this method, I actually get about 20 litres/h on my 172M at 2200 revs (~ 50 %) with leaning at around 5000 feet - official figure is 23 l/h (so about 15 % fuel saving on chart value and about 20+ % on unleaned - I tried). I'm getting a JDI 700 with fuel flow meter soon though.

[IO540]

Aircraft handbooks tend to be vague on this, with settings for things variously called "best economy" (which ones assumes might be peak EGT, but nobody knows) and "best power" (which one assumes might be about 100-150F ROP, but nobody knows).

On top of that, if you have a VP prop, you can squeeze a few % more MPG by using a lower RPM setting.

[arra_halc]

I met the guy a few years back in Florida. Lovely chap! He did the flight a few times (in larger aircraft). Apparently the nerve racking bit was not the Atlantic crossing but the crossing of Africa. It cost more in bribes than in fuel!