Our Aircraft

Mona Flying Club presently operates two aircraft; G-RVRA, a Piper Cherokee and G-BILS, a Cessna 152.  

Cessna 152:

Founder Clyde Cessna built his first airplane in 1911, and taught himself to fly it! He went on to build a number of innovative airplanes, including several race and award winning designs. In 1934, Clyde's nephew, Dwane Wallace, fresh out of college, took over as head of the company. During the depression years Dwane acted as everything from floor sweeper to CEO, even personally flying company planes in air races (several of which he won!) Under Wallace's leadership, the Cessna Aircraft Company eventually became the most successful general aviation company of all time.

Cessna first began production of two seat light planes in 1946 with the model 120 which had an all aluminium fuselage and fabric covered wings. This was followed by a nearly identical model 140, with aluminium clad wings. More than 7,000 model 120-140's were sold. Cessna stopped production of the 140 in 1951 in order to focus on four seat aircraft.

In 1957 the company decided there was a market for a tri geared version of the Model 140. Following their standard tailwheel/tricycle naming convention, Cessna named the new airplane the Cessna 142. Six days later, for reasons now unknown, it was renamed it the Cessna 150. A total of 683 C150's were built between 1957 and 1959, all were sold as 1959 models.

In 1966 Cessna restyled the airplane, adding a jaunty slant to the tail. The new style was enormously popular with pilots. Cessna made and sold 3,000 model 150's that year, the most of any year in the airplane's history. That year Cessna also began assembly of 150's at Reims Aviation in France. A total of 2,452 planes were built by Reims, including 47 assembled in Argentina.

The 150 standard engine is a four cylinder 100 horsepower Continental model 0-200. During it's 18 year production history there were many changes to the 150 airframe and configuration.

In 1970 Cessna introduced the model 150 "Aerobat" which became very popular in the Aerobatic training market, and remains a popular sport airplane.

In 1978 Cessna introduced a revised model, the 152, with a 110 horsepower Lycoming 0-235 engine. The Lycoming was chosen to make the 152 more tolerant of the newer High Lead 100LL octane fuel, as well as provide a long overdue increase in horsepower. The cabin was also widened slightly to make room for the increased girth of late 20th century pilots. Unlike the Model 150, there were few changes in 152's from one year to the next.
By the end of production in 1985, 31,533 Cessna 150-152's had been manufactured worldwide. More pilots have flown Cessna 150-152's than any other single model of airplane. Because of product liability exposure, like most other light plane companies in the US, Cessna stopped building light aircraft all together in the mid 1980's. The last Model 152 rolled off the production line in 1985.

Piper Cherokee

The initial PA-28-150 and PA-28-160 Cherokees were introduced in 1961 as replacements for Piper's PA-22 TriPacer and Colt.

Unlike the PA-22 series the new PA-28 was a low wing design with metal construction. The prototype Cherokee was powered by a 120kW (160hp) engine, and flew for the first time on January 14 1960. Production aircraft were powered by either 110kW (150hp) or 120kW (160hp) engines and were delivered from early 1961. From 1962 a 135kW (180hp) version was added to the lineup. The 127kW (235hp) flat six Lycoming O-540 powered Cherokee 235 was introduced in 1963, while the two seat trainer optimised Colt replacement PA-28-140 entered the marketplace in 1964.

With these models the basic PA-28 lineup was in place (the retractable PA-28R and larger PA-32 are described separately). Subsequent variants include the Cherokee B and Cherokee C, the 180D, 235C, 140 Flite Liner two seat trainer PA-28-140, -180F, -235E, PA-28-180 Cherokee Challenger and PA-28-235 Cherokee Charger, the PA-28-180 Cherokee Archer and PA-28-235 Cherokee Pathfinder, PA-28-151 Cherokee Warrior which introduced the new tapered wing that would become a feature of subsequent PA-28s, PA-28-181 Cherokee Archer II and PA-28-236 Dakota (the Cherokee prefix was later dropped for the Archer II and Warrior), the PA-28-161 Warrior II, PA-28-201T Turbo Dakota and PA-28-161 Cadet. New Piper returned the Archer II and Dakota to low rate production in 1994, followed in 1995 by the PA-28-181 Archer III (detailed above), which features a new, streamlined cowling (1999 models gain new paint, improved interior and a new avionics package), and the PA-28-161 Warrior III, which features a new instrument panel.

Over 30,000 fixed undercarriage PA-28 Cherokee series built, including approximately 10,100 PA-28-140s, 10,200 PA-28-180s & -181s, 5000 PA-28-151 & -161s, and 2800 PA-28-235 & -236s.

Top of the Page