Does anyone on here have experience with mods on the early straight tail 172? My main curiosity is in the landis fork or other nose fork and larger tires. I'm curious in the performance changes and whether its worth the weight gain. Right now I'm hesitant to land on unknown surfaces because of the gear. I know the weak points of the early 172 is in the firewall but my thinking is that the larger tires would soak up more of the bumps and ease the stress in that area. Does anyone know of a way to beef up this weak point. I understand my limitations with the O-300 and tricycle gear but I'm trying to make the best unimproved airport/camping airplane I can with what I have. Thank you!

The first mod I would put on your plane would be a Stene (not Stein) Aviation STOL kit. This will make a huge difference in your landing & t.o. speeds & ground runs. I've done quite a few landings on unimproved strips with stock tires on my '57, but I do think 8.5s would be worth the weight/drag penalty. (BTW I never land on the nose wheel; nose wheel only comes down when the aircraft slows & the elevators run out of lift; unless winds dictate otherwise, yoke is held full aft until stopped.) I do a fair amount of camping with my plane and the Stene STOL kit is the number one mod to do in my book. Second mod would be to add a baggage door. I did both and can highly recommend them.

Tom

The way to beef up this weak point is to remove the nose gear entirely as part of a tailwheel conversion, eliminating all of the landing stress on the firewall. This will make your 172 into a really neat and affordable light duty bush plane. Your airplane will lose weight, gain useful load, gain prop clearance, and have a much better ability to use larger bush tires.

There is an approved STC tailwheel conversion kit available now from Stoots Aviation in Fairbanks AK. It uses genuine OEM Cessna parts, and I understand it runs around $14,000 for the kit.

If you can be patient for a little while, I will be offering the Fravel tailwheel conversion kit (see dedicated discussion thread on this subject), featuring new light weight aluminum main and tail gear legs, higher strength attachment parts, and a much faster/easier installation procedure... at a more attractive cost.

Max Torque wrote:The first mod I would put on your plane would be a Stein Aviation STOL kit Tom

Never heard of "Stein Aviation STOL Kit", unless perhaps you're referring to the Sportsman STOL Kit, currently sold by one Will Stene??

The Sportsman is a great kit, and will indeed improve that airplanes performance.

As far as worrying about that nose gear.....stop worrying about it and go fly the pants off the thing.....hopefully after a bit of instruction from someone who knows ow to keep te nose wheel off the ground as Long as possible during landings.

I highly recommend the Landis fork kit, with one exception: The STC calls for same size tires on all three corners, and in my opinion (and experience) ou need at least one size smaller tire on the nose as on the mains. That's not permitted by the Landes STC, but a number of folks have got that field approved.....or just done it......like 8.50 x 6.00 on mains, 8:00 x 6:00 on the nose gear. Otherwise, with all three the same size, it's REALLY hard to protect that nose gear.....and the firewall it's attached to.

But, mostly, go fly it, and learn how to keep the nose gear happy.

MTV

There is an early, Strait tail 172 parked at City field in Nome that has ABW mains and a 8.50 on the nose. Always wanted to catch up with the owner to see how he got that set up, i'm guessing a field approval. But agree with the other posters in that keeping the nose-wheel off the ground would be the important issue.

mtv wrote:

Max Torque wrote:The first mod I would put on your plane would be a Stein Aviation STOL kit Tom

Never heard of "Stein Aviation STOL Kit", unless perhaps you're referring to the Sportsman STOL Kit, currently sold by one Will Stene??

MTV

Yep, you are correct. My bad - "misspelt" the name (corrected the spelling in my earlier post), but I did purchase my Sportsman STOL modifications for my 172 from Will (Stene) at one STENE AVIATION, INC. and it came in kit form....

slowhawk,

If you can find out how he did it I would certainly be interested! (and if it's on a 337 maybe get a copy of the 337)

Tom

A little more background on my plane may help: It has a Horton STOL kit already installed, along with B&M flap and aileron seals. These were installed decades ago when my grandpa owned the airplane. Is it possible to remove the Horton kit and install the Sportsman without swiss cheesing the wing, and would it be worth it?? I'm an A&P/IA and fairly well versed in sheet metal work so if its doable, I wouldn't mind the undertaking.

As far as keeping it light on the nose wheel while landing, that's might standard procedure with it anyway. I rebuilt way too many nose struts on a C-150/150 so I baby pretty well.

I really like the tailwheel conversion idea but it's just not practical or financially feasible for me.

Thanks for all your input!

If it were me, I wouldn't pull a Horton cuff off and replace it with a Sportsman. You would gain some performance, but that's a LOT of work, and the kits not cheap. I think I'd spend that money and effort on other mods. Lighten it up as much as you can, for one thing. Attlee or BAS folding seats to get rid of that monster back seat, Landes fork and tires, etc.

MTV

I'll see if i can get a hold of him

Didn't know you had a Horton STOL set up on it. Just keep it - wouldn't be worth changing it. They're pretty good too from what I've heard.

Higly recommend the baggage door mod.Since you're an A&P/IA you can stick it on in a day or two. (Just don't blindly go by the directions received with the STC - I had to start at the top hat rack support and work down vs. working from the bottom up in order to make it turn out right.) My baggage door installation cost about $750 (no labor since I did it all myself) with the STC and used door/door frame purchase and is worth every cent. No more climbing over the back seat.

A buddy of mine did a tail wheel conversion and it took about 100 hours of labor and over $6000 in parts. In hindsight, he advised me to just buy a 180 if I wanted a Cessna taildragger.

My plane is pretty much set up the way I want it now with the upgrades I did. Only thing left on my wish list is bigger tires, but it will stay a nose wheel. For serious bush flying, I use a real bush plane (SC with 31" ABW) or a helo.

A while back there was a thread on how to build a back country C172;

http://www.backcountrypilot.org/forum/b ... ntry%20172

Its full of good stuff but be advised, you'll need to tease the info out and just enjoy the typical banter in the margins.

BTW, all the banter, personalities and interesting side stories are what makes this the cool place it is.