Hypocrisy, thy name is CenterHillAg.
A couple months ago after cancelling a short trip to check out a 180 that was more project than plane, my Dad asked me to fly with him and help him through some landings with his new 170. Headed towards KOCH Nacogdoches cause it sounded quiet on CTAF, turned out it was quiet cause a freaking airshow was going on! After making sure we didn't bust a TFR, we went ahead and landed to see the warbirds. A guy comes over to check out the 170, and mentions in passing that his buddy was thinking about selling his '56 182. Sounds cool, but I'm a little soured by my recent cancelled trip, and was leaning towards smaller planes, but I'll look cause this guy is really excited to show us. We go check it out, and here's this nice, well-maintained, bare boned, old straight tail owned by an 84 y/o man that has lived 10x the life I'll ever lead. After crawling all over it and listening to Mr. Davis tell stories for a couple hours, we agree on a fair price, contingent on a prebuy. After a thorough prebuy by Mark Whitfield in Crockett (I highly recommend if you find yourself in East Tx), I picked the plane up in early May.
Back home in Wharton the day I picked it up. My wife thought it looked a little homely, nothing a little polishing and paint can't fix:
I stripped the spinner and a buddy repainted it, the white didn't match and it had at least 5 layers of paint on it. Bought some hubcaps to paint as well.
20 hours of washing, clay bar, polishing compound, and waxing later, the oxidation is gone and the paint even has a little shine to it. The silver spinner and hubcaps give it a proper airplane look.
Shot of the panel, climbed to 9,500 ft that day. 1,000 ft is pretty well my max altitude in the Cub, so this type of flying is still new to me. It's nice though!
I've only got 300 hrs, and 90% of that is in my Cub, so I was a little nervous on how I'd handle this big of a plane. Needless to say, the love of these early models is there for a reason, they're just great flyers! I'm blown away by how light the controls are, how stable it is at slow speeds, and how short it can take off and land. Plus, after 20 hrs of flying the testosterone sapping land-o-matic tricycle gear, I still feel confident using the men's room! Awesome! I'm comfortable taking off and landing in less than 1,000 feet at the airport, but haven't gotten to try it off-airport yet on account of our rainy summer.
All in all, I'm very happy with my purchase. It's a great plane my growing family will be in for years to come. I probably won't be doing much to it, just fly the crap out of it for the next few years learning it's traits. I'll consider the Airglas fork w/ bigger tires at some point, and a Sportsman as well. Right now it just needs to be flown!
