It’s been almost a year since I purchased my current plane; a 1947 Cessna 120. It has been a very interesting year with some great flying and some challenging maintenance issues. When I first saw the 120, I was flying a 1991 Merlin GT ultralight and having a ball attending fly-ins and fly-outs with other members of our club. The Merlin cruised at 75 mph behind a Rotax 582 and weighed in empty at 605 lbs.

The 120 was parked in the hanger at Glen Bishell’s strip at Carstairs. We were on our way back to Chestermere when we stopped in for a visit. I kept looking over at this 120 and thinking to myself, boy that’s a nice-looking little plane, it sure would be nice to own it one day. We went on our way, and I never gave it much thought after that (ok, maybe a little). However, I received a call one day from the owner wondering if I might be interested in purchasing it as he was planning on leaving the country and wouldn’t be taking it with him. I had only had my Merlin for about a year, so I declined and left it at that as I was happy with what I had. The bad thing was I started thinking about it again and with Ken Beanlands’ planned adventure to Oshkosh the next year I really started thinking. I called him back a while later after doing some research on 120’s and we agreed that I would purchase the plane but not until I sold my Merlin. He was OK with that, and we started the ball rolling. It took about six months to sell the Merlin and the next day I called and said “OK, I want your plane”. The deal was done, now the fun begins.

I had about three months to get myself comfortable flying the plane before the trip to Oshkosh, which I promptly committed to shortly before buying the 120. I enlisted the help of the previous owner to get myself acquainted the plane. I had 122 hours on the Merlin, so I was reasonably comfortable with the taildragger portion of it, it was mostly getting used to the heavier weight (ed. It’s unusual to hear a Cessna 120 being referred to as “heavier” than anything) and slightly different flying characteristics. I was surprised at the relative ease it was going from the Merlin to the 120. It only took about three hours before I was comfortable enough to go solo. I have quite a few hours in Cessna 152’s ,172’s & 182’s and the 120 fly’s almost the same as the 152 making it quite comfortable to me.

The Cessna 120 weighs 921 lbs empty and has a gross weight of 1450 lbs. 25 gal of fuel leaves 379 lbs of payload. There is a small baggage compartment that has a maximum weight of 80 lbs. The plane is powered by Continental C-90 engine and cruises at 115 mph at 2400 rpm burning 4.5 gph of fuel. There is only my wife and myself so the need for more than two seats was not a concern. The take-off distance was a bit of concern as I had heard the 120 used quite a bit of runway to get airborne. In my experience so far, the take-off distance is 1000′- 1200′ depending on the length of the grass. The landing roll is also reasonably short although it does have a tendency to float if your speed is up at all.

Maintenance on a 120 is usually quite simple as there is not a lot to the planes. The original 120’s came with no electrics but now it’s unusual to find one that way. Mine has full electrics with a pull type starter, generator and mechanical voltage regulator. The generator only puts out 25 amps but it’s plenty for what I have.

On the way back from Oshkosh I developed some charging problems as there was no power coming from the voltage regulator and I didn’t have enough power to turn the starter. Fortunately, the fellow members hand propped the plane for the trip back. I lost all electrical power just after leaving Lethbridge but by having my handheld radio ready, we were able to continue back to Carstairs uneventful. After much troubleshooting, it was indeed determined that the voltage regulator needed adjustment, and I haven’t had any problems with it since.

Also, on that trip a minor oil leak developed somewhere on the engine. After a close inspection with the watchful eyes of the guys on the trip we determined that the leak was not catastrophic and should be no problem to continue home. Once home, the leak continued to be there but did not get any worse, so I elected to leave it and have it looked after during the annual inspection. It’s certainly not unusual to have an oil leak on an airplane engine.

Now it was time for the annual inspection. I was not expecting anything unusual although I did expect a little as I had requested that the oil leak be addressed. The AME pulled one of the cylinders to start checking for the leak and found some parts that looked worn. He continued to check parts until he had the whole engine apart on his work bench. I was then informed that the engine was basically totally worn out, with most parts worn beyond tolerances and the crankshaft was cracked in two places. In case you didn’t know, this was definitely not good news. I now had two choices, they could do a major repair, or zero time the engine. With only a couple of thousand dollars difference I was better off going with the zero-time option as it would make a big difference on resale.

The plane was down for 2 ½ months and is still down pending a limited STC on the engine mounts. The reason I was so surprised at this is when I bought the plane the logbooks showed 1400 hrs on the engine with 90 hrs on the top. The cylinders were supposedly overhauled, and a bunch of other stuff was also supposedly done. When the engine was inspected, only one cylinder was even good enough to maybe use again. All the major parts needed replacing as well as numerous smaller parts as well. The engine came in at just under $20,000.00 ready to fly. If it reaches the 1800 hr TBO, it will end up costing $11.00/hr for the engine. The actual annual inspection was only $400.00. By the way the oil leak is gone.

Other than the engine expense the 120 is a relatively economical plane to own and fly, cruising at 115 mph on 4.5 gph I’m quite happy with the plane and I’m looking forward to many hours of trouble-free flying. Thanks to all of the club members who have helped me along the way, we really do have a vast amount of knowledge in our club, and I encourage anyone who is having problems or wants information to ask for help, I haven’t run across anyone yet who wasn’t willing to lend a hand!