A flying buddy had the Horizon Hobbies Carbon Z Cessna 150 and it flew really well and had a great presence in the sky. When it went on sale I had to go for it.
The Carbon Cessna 150 is one the Carbon Series put out by Horizon Hobbies. The series includes the Carbon Cub and the Carbon T-28.
The Carbon Cessna 150 has a 84 inch wingspan, a 62 inch length and is powered by a 50 size brushless electric motor controlled by a 60 AMP ESC. That makes it about a 22 or 23 percent scale model of the full scale Cessna 150 with a 33 foot wingspan and 24 foot length.
The model comes in two versions – the bind and fly which only requires a transmitter and battery; and the Plug and Fly which also requires a receiver of your choice. I chose the Bind and Fly version.
The included receiver is a Spektrum receiver which includes the popular AS3X stabilization system and an optional programmable SAFE system. The SAFE system includes control input limiting and automatic wing leveling when the sticks are released.
First, the Carbon Z Cessna 150 is a big model. It’s got a bright red and white paint job and some black and white checker board patterns to jazz things up a bit.
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The assembly went pretty smoothly. Most of the parts are attached using socket head screws of various sizes. The screws came in little baggies so were easy to identify.
Probably the biggest pain was inserting and adjusting the nose gear assembly. You attach a control rod that snakes through the fuselage to the rudder servo located under a hatch door over the cockpit where the wings crosses. Getting the nose gear straight by adjusting the clevis was not difficult but attaching the control rod to the servo horn was a challenge in the small space with big hands. Some hemostats made this a bit easier. Depending on how good your guesses are will determine how many times you’ll need to disassemble and readjust. Again, it’s not hard, just tedious.
Speaking of the nose gear, a lot of folks complain about it being loose. I double checked mine and found all the screws set tight. Some of suggested taking them out and resetting with thread locker. My nose gear seems reasonably tight after 20 or so flights but I’m keeping an eye on it.
A friend has a full scale version of this plane and said he’s spend thousands on trying to get the nose gear less wobbly so I guess it’s true to scale in that way too! With his full scale he says he always taxis with the yolk back to minimize pressure on the nose gear. I’ve started doing that with the model and that seems to help.
I really like flying this big model. It has plenty of power to do scale aerobatics and to power itself out of trouble.
Landing is a breeze. I land with half flaps and no flaps and with a since descent set up on final, I routinely settle gently onto our clubs asphalt runway. It makes me look better than I am!
Here is the video assembly log to help you get a sense of what the build is all about. I’ve also included my earlier flying video of my friend's Cessna 150.
