Cessna Cardinal 40th Birthday Convention

[randallg]

I attended the 40th birthday convention of the Cessna Cardinal, in Wichita back in September. Here's a link to a collection of photos of the 100+ Cardinals that attended.

http://www.telemark.net/randallg/photos ... _cardinals

[. ._]

I saw one of those for the first time a couple of years ago. Call me wierd, but I think they look kinda cool!

Looks like they have vent windows like cars used to have. Do they? If so, it would be a cool plane to bomb around in and smoke a fat, greasy cigar, IMHO.

-istp

[iflyforpie]

I saw one of those for the first time a couple of years ago. Call me wierd, but I think they look kinda cool!

Looks like they have vent windows like cars used to have. Do they? If so, it would be a cool plane to bomb around in and smoke a fat, greasy cigar, IMHO.

-istp

Yeah the but the front vent window opens forward, so the ashes will be blown into the plane.

I always thought they looked neat too (especially the RGs). Nice big doors, no struts, great visibility up and down. Too bad they wound up underpowered, heavy, and slower than a 172 with 150HP.

[Treetops]

The cardinal is a sweet little plane. I flew a fixed gear version with 180hp and they are a lot faster than a 172. They are also really light on the controls. You could crank steep turns with just a finger on the controls. Great plane for low level surveillance

[randallg]

Too bad they wound up underpowered, heavy, and slower than a 172 with 150HP.

Today this is a myth. Only the first few hundred in 1968 were 150hp and they were definitely underpowered. They soon switched to 180hp, first with fixed pitch prop, then with CS prop. All fixed gear Cardinals after 1968 were not underpowered and are faster than a 172. RG Cardinals have 200hp and are way faster than a 172 - I cruise in the high 130's. There are STC's available for those early underpowered Cardinals to upgrade to 160hp or 180hp, and most of them have been by now.

[iflyforpie]

I was saying unfortunately because it also killed the chance for the Cardinal to replace the 172. 180hp C/S bumped the price up and 200hp RG bumped it up even more and made them unsuitable for elementary training and entry level buyers. Only ten years of production compared to over 40 and counting for the 172.