Cessna 172 "Hacienda:" The Longest Flight Ever (Minicraft, 1/48)

[Sabre_days]

A Cessna 172 in a Record Breakers GB? Yes! Aside from being the world's most-produced aircraft at 43,000+ built and counting, the humble 172 has its place in aviation history as a record breaker...

 

On December 4th, 1958, Bob Timm and John Cook took off from McCarran Field in Las Vegas, Nevada in a modified Cessna 172 emblazoned with the name of the Hacienda Hotel where Timm, a World War II veteran bomber pilot, worked as a slot machine mechanic...the owner of the hotel had agreed to sponsor the flight and had the idea of making it a cancer research fundraiser as well to give the record attempt a more altruistic justification than being purely a PR stunt. For the next two months, the two pilots flew around Nevada and southern California, refuelling and taking on supplies from a speeding pickup truck along an abandoned stretch of highway and sleeping in turns on a mattress that had been installed in place of the starboard and rear seats. They landed safely back at McCarran on February 7th, 1959, after 64 days, 22 hours and 19 minutes aloft, a total of 1,558.3 hours of air time. After breaking the existing record, Timm and Cook had decided to continue their flight as long as possible, but eventually had to discontinue it because their engine was wearing out and it was becoming difficult to climb away after taking on fuel. There are plenty of write-ups of the record flight online, two of the most detailed are on the AOPA website and at Disciples of Flight. Hacienda was later sold to at least two subsequent owners in Canada and had a long flying career before eventually being preserved and restored to its record-breaking configuration and is now on display suspended above one of the baggage claim carousels at McCarran International Airport.

 

Modelling Hacienda should be a fairly straightforward conversion (famous last words) of the Minicraft Cessna 172, and a good chance to practice a little scratchbuilding building up the rear fuselage and fashioning the new fin and underfuselage fuel tank before I tackle the fuselage of my TK.4 over in the De Havilland GB. The big challenge will be tackling DIY decals for the first time... Available references are the internet and a reprint of a 1956 C-172 Pilot Operator's Handbook, which has a three-view and an instrument panel diagram. This isn't going to be an effort for extreme detail or accuracy given the amount of information available (trying to find scale drawings for a general aviation aircraft really makes one appreciate how lucky we are for reference material on most military aircraft) and the state of my modelling skills. I may well revisit the subject if and when a more AMS build becomes possible, but I have a definite soft spot for the 172 since it's the type of airplane I learned to fly on (and still accounts for most of my flight time, or at least more of it than any other type), so I couldn't pass this one up, given the theme of the GB.

 

Edited March 23, 2017 by Sabre_days

[TonyTiger66]

What a superb subject! Welcome to the Group Build .

 

This is absolutely one of the sorts of thing I had hoped for, for the GB. Something involving relatively normal materials and quite everyday people with a little quirkiness and ambition.

 

I read the resources at the links, thanks for providing them. I particularly like this extract from the first one:

 

"In addition to flying, the agile Cook regularly ventured out onto the small service platform attached to the right landing gear strut and, reaching across the front of the airplane, cleaned the windshield. He especially enjoyed performing this trick while an airplane carrying news photographers was alongside for pictures."

 

.

 

The record still stands. These chaps basically flew 3/5 of the distance to the moon, in a Cessna. Looking forward to this, great stuff.

 

TonyT

 

 

 

[Greg in OK]

I took some photos of the Hacienda the last time I was in Vegas.....going to be the devil to find them though.  I will look, but regardless it is still hanging in the Vegas airport so there are a lot of pixs like these on Google Image.

 

http://www.flyian.net/aircraft/var/hacienda.htm

 

Greg in OK

[Caerbannog]

Excellent choice - never heard of this before. This will be interesting to watch.

 

René

[stevehnz]

Like Rene, this was new to me & quite fascinating. I'll watch on with interest.

Steve.

[Colin W]

I learned to fly in a 152 many years ago and built the Minicraft 152 soon after. Over the years the wing has reveloped a rather disturbing bow with the wing tips pointing down.

It might be worth adding s0me structure inside the wing if the opportunity arrises.

 

Intereting tale. Ive been to Vegas a few times but still never noticed the plane or heard the story. It deserves to be more well known than it is.

 

Great choice for a GB

 

Colin

[keefr22]

I'd never heard of this adventure before either - wonder what the toilet 'facilities' consisted of...?!

 

Keith

[Mjwomack]

HI Sir Sabre of Sabreness, I was wondering if you'd made any progress on this? I've a bit (only a tiny bit mind) of a soft spot for general aviation and would love to see this one take to the air!

Best wishes

MJ

[TonyTiger66]

Just popping in to see if any progress had been made on this splendid project?

 

I too would love to see this great civil subject being built 

 

All best regards 

TonyT