As 1998 began we were without wings and without much money for the care and feeding of an airplane.  At the same time a 1966 Cessna 150F sat in a hangar in Grants Pass, Oregon, in an advanced state of disassembly, for an annual inspection and a major engine overhaul.  Its owner had just purchased an old Cessna 172, so the 150 was for sale, and at a very attractive price.  Lo and behold, we were airplane owners.      It seemed as if my flying career had come full circle after thirty years.  N3104X was nearly identical to the 1966 Cessna 150 in which I had much of my basic flight training in 1967, and it brought back a flood of pleasant memories.  It also reminded me of the first airplane in which I had ever flown, a 1962 Cessna 182 whose registration also ended in "04X."

I'm not exactly sure how the airplane came to be known in our family by the name of "Rex."  Perhaps it was a contraction of its radio call sign ("zero four X").  In any event, somehow it sounded right, and it stuck.

"Rex" poses at his tiedown spot at Pearson Field.  The airplane was outdoors for a couple of months until a T-hangar became available.

"Rex" came to us with a newly-overhauled, 100-hp Continental O-200-A engine.  Its panel held VFR instrumentation and radios adequate for an airplane of this type, including a single, modern Narco Mark 12-D navcom with VOR-localizer indicator, and a very early model Apollo 602 loran.  The 602 had no built-in database, and required that the loran chains to be used and latitiude-longitude coordinates of each waypoint be manually entered.  We soon swapped the 602 for a more sophisticated Apollo 618 loran with a database, which worked exceptionally well for this airplane.  And atop the panel was a quaint feature of Cessnas of that era – a rear-view mirror!      The airplane was sound mechanically and structurally, and its interior was in good shape, but it was anything but a beauty queen on the outside.  It still wore its original factory paint scheme, but we soon became suspicious as to whether some of it had been repainted.  Areas of the oxidized, fading red trim paint had flaked off, leaving traces of orange paint underneath, and the trim stripes on the upper cowl did not quite line up with the stripes aft of the firewall.      One day I was sorting through some old vacation photos and happened upon a photo taken at Grants Pass in 1990.  In the background was N3104X, resplendent in a bright orange paint scheme.  Sure enough, at some time between 1990 and 1997, someone had just painted over the orange with red paint.  It was a "twenty-foot paint job" – beyond that distance the paint looked okay, but any inspection closer than that revealed that it was not a very good job.  The white base paint appeared to be original, and in at least serviceable condition.

In good weather conditions, a 150 is a delight to fly.  It is light and responsive, and feels like an extension of the pilot's very thoughts.  It can be landed with a light touch to a full stall at about 40 miles per hour, and roll out in just a couple of hundred feet, nosewheel high in the air until the airplane has slowed to walking speed.  But in turbulence it can be a handful, and a moderate headwind can treat a 150's pilot to the view of large trucks down below, passing the airplane.  Going uphill.  We recall one trip from Pearson to Grants Pass (189 NM) taking the better part of three hours – an average groundspeed of 74 knots.      We owned the 150 for about a year and a half.  It served well and dependably, and expenses for maintenance, fuel and insurance were about as low as could be.  It was a good ownership experience, but we came to realize we needed a larger, faster airplane, capable of longer trips.  We bought a Grumman Cheetah, and put the 150 on the market.  We were delighted that "Rex" found a good home with an enthusiastic owner in Eugene, Oregon.

"Rex" (the airplane) and "Bailey" (the dog) participate in our Christmas card photo for 1998

The 150 meets its successor, Grumman Cheetah N116MC, at Independence, Oregon

1966 Cessna 150 sales brochure