Member Profile: Lionel St. Hilaire and His Cessna 177 RG
Is that a Cessna?
I was cleaning the bugs off my plane one day and a stately gentleman was walking by my hangar and stepped in for a quick look. "What kind of plane is that?" he asked. I told him it was a Cessna. "A Cessna? You've got to be kidding!" he said, simply dumbfounded.
Of course, I proceeded to tell him of my love affair with the Cardinal. Years ago when I was learning how to fly, Tom had a pristine ‘76 red on white 177RG parked next to my '67 150, and every time I walked by Tom's plane, I would drool, never thinking that one day I might be able to afford one, let alone one as nice.
His Cardinal was simply striking; a long swept windshield, setback wing, retractable gear, turbo'd, and it even had a custom metal panel with updated avionics. He flew it regularly, mostly to the States. He explained to me that the Cardinal, although built by Cessna, wasn't really a Cessna. It was introduced as the plane of the 70's, to replace the venerable 172; something a little faster, a little more spacious, easier to get in and out of, and it had to be eye-catching to compete with the Mooney, Piper, Beech and other planes of the era.
You have to keep in mind that the competition had some pretty impressive hardware to offer - most were obviously sleeker, faster, and some even cheaper than the 172. So if Cessna wanted to compete, it would have to retain the positive characteristics of the 172 (a very popular trainer) while borrowing some of the more refined qualities of its bigger sister, the expensive 210 Centurion.
Tom told me that the Cessna research team decided to start at the top, with the Centurion design. The Cardinal adopted the strutless wing with a heavy-duty carry-through spar, flush riveting halfway through the wing chord for improved speed and thirty degrees of semi-Fowler flaps. The wing was also setback further then the 172's, giving it it's distinctive long swept look and conversely a reputation as being a bit nose heavy.
The Cardinal was built low to the ground with two large four foot wide doors, so getting in and out was just as easy as getting into your family Chevy. The cabin was massive - keep in mind that I'm 6'3"/250 lbs., the Cardinal is one of the few planes that I find comfortable.
The Cardinal also borrowed the 210's stabilator (a Piper designed flying wing), and eventually introduced the missing link in 1971, the Cardinal RG with 200 fuel injected ponies up front. Cessna had all the bases covered but didn't have a 200 hp retractable to compete with the crowd. That was the Cardinal's mission - to outperform the rest, and at the time, only a few models were faster than the Cardinal RG, notably the Mooney Executive and the Mooney Chapparal.
As I was obviously captivated by Tom's plane, I told him that some day, maybe with a bit of help from 6/49, I would also own a Cardinal. I would make Cessna proud; I would hold my head up high and tell the world that I'm a Cardinal owner.
"Ah, but be careful my young friend," he cautioned, "the Cardinal has a reputation!" The way he put it, I thought that I would find the Cardinal working the downtown streets. "What do you mean, a reputation?" I inquired sheepishly. "Ah my young friend, you have much to learn, " Tom jilted, "the girl has a reputation and she was doomed from day one."
The Cardinal was introduced in 1968, with a 150 hp powerplant. It was underpowered, nose heavy and had a useless stabilator. It couldn't hold the flare in a landing configuration - and thus the nomenclature, the "Cardinal Hop". The stabilator was ineffective and would stall out before the plane landed, causing a nosewheel touchdown and hence the expensive outcome, a stressed/broken nosewheel/firewall, and a probable prop strike. But that was an easy fix for Cessna. Just add thirty more ponies up front, add slots to the stabilator, and a constant velocity prop for good measure. The Cardinal was back in business.
But as Tom said, the Cardinal was doomed from the onset. It initially got a bad rap due to Cessna's pre-mature introduction of an unproven airframe and powerplant combination. Although a big gaffe by Cessna, it was just the tip of the iceberg.
Our lady was just doomed; she loved money and lots of it. The Cardinal airframe commanded 70% more production labour than the Skyhawk. The darn thing was just too expensive to build. Cessna introduced the RG in 1971 at a base price of about $25,000. They held the horses back until 1974, selling it for $26,000. Cessna was then bent on recovering their costs, the 1975 model commanded over $30,000 and the Cardinal increased in price by $5,000 per year until Cessna decided that enough was enough. In 1978, the base price was over $45,000, that’s $10,000 higher than the competition. That was it. Cessna ceased production of both the fixed gear and retractable gear Cardinals. Cessna had produced 1366 177RG's in Kansas and 176 177RG’s in Reins, France.
As I was telling my friendly visitor, the Cardinal had always caught my eye. As years went by, business got better and finances fell in to order. I had traded up to a Skyhawk, but it didn't quite have the “oomph” that I was looking for. I wanted a bit more speed and better range; I was basically looking for a touring machine. I was disappointed that my ramp friend Tom had sold his Cardinal. Keep in mind that I was just as proud of his plane as he was, and he would have been the guy to ask for advice.
I spent 2 years looking for the perfect plane. I joined CFO, “Cardinal Flyers Online”, an excellent Cardinal support club (as an aside, the club president, Paul Milner had bought Tom’s plane and moved it to California). I looked at quite a few planes and I was disappointed at what I saw and even surprised that some of these darn things even flew; those that would have been worth a look at, were bought and registered even before finding out about them.
Then one day, I got a tip from a CFO member that knew of a Cardinal for sale in Smith Falls, Ontario. The owner, a dentist, had built a HATZ Classic, C-FHTZ, and found that he just didn't have the time to fly his Cardinal (by the way, Bob’s HATZ won the Bronze Lindy Award at Oshkosh, in the Custom Built Plans Category, 2002). While checking things out, I learned that my cousin knew of the plane and he recommended that I buy it.
For what its worth, my cousin Emil is a check pilot/instructor for Bombardier, and somehow I just had to take his advice and "fly with it". Gudrun, my wife, just happened to be in Gananoque, Ontario at my in-laws. I asked her to pop over and look at it. Just imagine how I felt when she told me it was nicer than Tom's. It was a done deal. We arranged for an annual and the regular "due diligence". The plane turned out to be everything I expected. No regrets!