Thanks Hotrod!

That makes sense now. The years determine tubular vs spring. You guys are a wealth of information.

The wife has signed off on the idea of a 150TD or a C140. I think it comes down to when one is available that is in good shape at a reasonable price. She's done with school in a couple months which will make things easier too. This is getting exciting.

I fly a 1948 C-170 (an overgrown 140) which has the metalized wings. Before this I owned a 1946 C-120. I think the 170 has better flight characteristics than the 120. I kept asking my IA to check the 120's rigging to which he assured me it was "great."

If you can find a C-140/120 with metalized wings I would take it up, stall it, and make sure it stalls nicely (rigged correctly.) If this is the case you can't go wrong. As for the C-150 I feel it is underpowered for the weight or the airfoil of the wing. I learned to fly in a C-150 and my 120 would kick its pants every day of the world on cruise, climb, and take off distance. (Take into account I live at 5,000 msl)

I don't feel the flaps are that big of a deal (difference between C-140 & c-120), just learn to slip. I typically don't use flaps on my 170 now. Gets off shorter without them and only use them occasionaly after I start climb out. On landing I only use them if I can see I am a bit high and don't want to slip.

of course........IMHO, and just my 2 lincolns worth.

I would not want a rag or ragwing airplane which had been metalized, that generally makes them pretty heavy. The ragwing 170 has really puny ailerons- same size as the C120/140, on a longer wing. I owned one for 11 years ut never realized how puny the ailerons were until I flew it again after flying my C150TD for a couple months. The ragwing 170 might really benefit from VG's if they did a good job of livening up the ailerons.
From what I've read, all the strut-braced piston-engine Cessna's share the same airfoil, the NACA 2412, so that sholdn't make any difference between the 120/140 & the 150. A 1,000# early C150 with 100hp is under-powered compared to a 900 pound 140 with the same engine-- that's just plain old mathematics. When armchair-evaluating airplanes, I like to compare the power loading (weight/horsepower) and wing loading (wing area/weight) which together should give a pretty good idea of what to expect in terms of performance, esp if the airfoils are the same. The question is whether the advantages of factory-designed metal skin & the bigger flaps make up for it. Plus there is the "wow, that's different" aspect to factor in. There's lots of C120/140's out there, C150TD's not so much.