Cessna 195

[Rangier Rover]

A beautiful aircraft from the Late 40's to mid50's.

Were talking about Cessna's only post war mass produced radial powered aircraft.
Some find them very daunting due to the big nose. (Visibility is ordinary wile the tail is on the ground!)

My best mate wants me to go in with him on a fine example with the Jacobs 300Hp carby radial. :twisted:

These things have so much charm, nice lines, a very wide fuselage to accommodate the 42" radial engine.

They do like oil though! Up to 12 gallons an hour depending:eek:. Modern rings, seals etc will reduce this some what.
There are so many parts for these things in the states.

Many purest say kits don't exist but they are still being produced in small numbers due to the plentiful availability of parts.

I may end up a bachelor if I do this:eek: My wife hates flying:(

You will all have seen these things in movies etc. Only around six in Australia I'm aware of.

Some links of other 195's
YouTube - Cessna 195 Engine Start

YouTube - Cessna 195

YouTube - Cessna 195 startup at Cracker Fly-In 7/21/09

Tony

[rick130]

Nothing like the sound of a radial :D

Seeing as I once lived under one of the the training areas for Camden aerodrome, I'd bolt out of the barn when I heard something exciting like an old twin Beech fly over, very distinctive.

Never flown or flown in a tail dragger (hell, I've only flown 152's and 172's ) so I can only imagine what they're like to taxi, get the tail up and land.

[richard4u2]

what i find amusing with those old girls is that when they are idling on startup they sound like they are sorting through a fireing order looking for the best one for the day :D

[JDNSW]

I've been aware of these probably since I first owned a Cessna taildragger (180). Oil consumption is probably worse than the Auster I owned before that.

I have never even been in one, but I would think that a major problem in handling would be the forward visibility on the ground.

Nice to own, and reasonably practical though, unlike most "interesting" planes.

John

[Shamo]

My old man actually saw one of these either yesterday or the day before in Moree. He was down there getting some work done on his AT-502b and the 192 landed. He had a chat to him, he was youngish (30) kiwi bloke who's a mining engineer. My old mans also a kiwi so they had a bit of a chat. Apparently the bloke had just bought it from Wangaratta and was flying it back up.

Shamo

[Bigbjorn]

Good things, radials. In the early 60's I did a bit of aircraft engine building and machine shop work on aero engines. Radials much easier to service than liquid cooled in-lines. Merlins were a PIA. Allisons much better, about half the number of parts and didn't leak much oil.