I'm going to attempt a Cessna cake for my brother's birthday on Saturday. I have ideas on the shape and all, but I'm worried about how I will get it to balance on the 3 wheels. I was thinking to use gumpaste for the wheels, and cookie sticks for the legs and somehow glue the legs to the cake board. Can anyone offer any suggestions? I know Duff did a Cessna on one of his shows, but of course I missed that episode! 
I just finished up a cessna plane this last weekend. I originally was going to carve a cake into a plane but decided on doing one in fondant instead. Here is a link to my plane:
http://www.cakecentral.com/cake-photo_1091223.html
check out the cake by granpam. It is great! PM her and she will give you some great directions as well!
I will add my finished cake this morning as well. Good luck!
If I remember right they built a special wooden tripod platform to hold up the cake, but I don't remember how they made the wheels.
I did a pseudo mini airplane cake (see my photos) where I made the plane out of fondant and flew it above a plain ol' round cake. Because I'm a newbie I'm a little afraid of shaping cakes myself so far so I can't be of any help there.
HTH
Jen
http://www.cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=gallery&file=displayimage&pid=68340
This cake just avoided the whole wheels issue by putting it in the clouds.
Here is the link to the finished cake that I made. I used a board under the belly of the plane and then bent a sucker stick for the wheels to stick to this could also stick into the cloud below the cake.
http://www.cakecentral.com/cake-photo_1103813.html
I just did a Cessna cake for OSSAS last weekend- it got 3rd place in the category- Wahoo!!!! Here's the link:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kavingate/1471650301/
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