The several accidents attribuited to the rudder stop, should be attributed to pilots aggressively flying unairworthy aircraft, having failed to observe a very obvious unsafe condition during the preflight inspection. The AD which was written in Canada to address this was particularly silly in it's wording. I used my 150 as the example as to how an airworthy rudder could not possibly jam under such circumstances, and the Transport Canada engineer at the time agreed, after a detailed inspection, but by then the AD was out, and not to be withdrawn. It's hard to argue against making a plane safer, even if it's already plenty safe!
There are certainly cases where a fatal accident is investigated up to the point where a possible cause is found, and then no further. The fact that the possible cause was a poor maintenance/preflight inspection situation, rather than a design shortcoming fails to be mentioned. So to protect against liabilty, Cessna provides service kit with overkill parts in it. Who can blame Cessna?
As applicable to all flying, if you fly an aircraft with a defect, undected or otherwise, you chances of a problem increase. The rudder control horn and stops are very easily inspected during a preflight.
The rudder control runs of both the eariler and later 150's and 152 are effectively identical, other than the use of 3 pulleys instead of 3 fairleads, which should be expected to reduce friction in the system. The rudder itself is quite different, and may require a little more force, but is also somewhat more effective too, and so will not require so much deflection to achieve the same control. There should be no net difference.
A regular 150 does not require a lot of additional rudder during normal flying. However, the addition of a STOL kit has the affect of a slight reduction in dihedral effect, and an improvement in aileron authority, so there is a need for the application of rudder to offset the aileron input, or else the ball will wander all over. I usually lead my turns with a bit of rudder, so the ball stays in the middle from the onset of the turn.
Beginning with the "M" model of the 150, and all 152's, the height of the rudder was increased 6" so as to increase the area of the rudder for improved spin recovery. The "M" is more desireable for airwork and STOL kits for this reason. With the lower touchdown speeds possible with the STOL kit, the better rudder authority is helpful in crosswinds.
Agreed, full flap go-arounds are no problem in a 150, as I presented with a video earlier in this thread. I am pleased that some pilots will give the credit due to such a good and economical aircraft design. I think that the Skycatcher will have some stiff competition in it's predecessor!
Pilot DAR