Walking around AirVenture 2014 at Oshkosh—almost 30 years from the day that I took my first training flight in a Cessna 150—my 15-year-old daughter Ashley spotted AOPA’s Yellowbird 152 on display. “Dad, I need one of these,” she matter-of-factly remarked in a voice that commanded the same attention as her mother’s. I was 15 when I first enthusiastically strapped into the little trainer and now Ashley is focused on dual instruction of her own in a 152. A bright yellow one, she says. While it’s tough to find anyone that’s not fond of the 150/152 (“The J3 of our generation,” says AOPA president Mark Baker), let’s put emotion aside.
If you haven’t heard about the Reimagined 152 and 150 (and many folks that I talked with at the show haven’t) these are completely refurbished airplanes that AOPA purchased from Aviat Aircraft, the folks that manufacture the Husky, Eagle and the Pitts.