Hello all,

I have been on this journey with various planes over the past ten years. I started with a C-182P which was loved by my family as our routine transportation 360NM to the cabin. Then the float plane thing stuck hard. Next came a Super Stinson (0-360) on EDO 2425’s. We kept the C-182 but the tailwheel thing was really cool.

In an effort to go faster we bought a B-55 Baron and that is very fast comfort. Flight plan 185Kts and always seem to be around that at 6-8K. Made the three hour cabin trip in the C-182 now 2 hours very consistently. With a quest to fly floats to the arctic the Super Stinson was exchanged for a C-180H on 2870’s. So at this point we have the B-55 and the C-180. Well the Stinson bug never left. I always felt it was the most under appreciated STOL airplane. The first one had an 0-360 and the latest edition has a 220 Franklin. Very much fun but not a traveling machine.

So now with too many airplanes I feel the fleet needs to be reduced. The C-180 is my favorite plane and with 8.50’s I see 130-135Kts cruise so now I am starting to question if we really need the Baron. From what I can read on-line a Snider Speed kit (8-12Kts improvement) and maybe a PPonk 0-470-50 or a 0-550 conversion may be the best plan. Sounds like a fast C-180 will cruise in the 150-155Kts range. So the ideal mods to the 180 would be Snider Speed Kit, P-Ponk or 0-550, Extended baggage (done), autopilot and a better back seat for traveling.

So to get to the point how fast is everyone’s C-180 stock and with mods?

Perhaps a more appropriate place to post this question might be the 180/185 Skywagon web forum. That seems to be where the Speedwagons seem to hang out. Those will be the folks that actually have done the mods and know the real world results. -My own 2 cents is that if you "speed mod " out a Skywagon and strip it down of its utilitarian hardware, you've kinda defeated it's purpose and converted it to a taildragger 182. I flew my Pponk built IO-550D on my 185 at high power for the engine break-in on wheels. It would pull well into the yellow arc (25"x2500rpm) It was not a comfortable place to be. The aircraft flew tail high with a low angle of attack, even with ballast in the baggage compartment. It felt like it was being forced to do something it wasn't designed to do. Stiff controls and hard to trim. Maybe at altitude with lower indicated and higher true airspeed it might not be as bad? I didn't try as my bird is really a drag queen with all the float plane gear and big bubble windows. She lives at lower altitudes most of the time. A good compromise for a 180 would be the Pponk conversion with 8.50s. Clean up the airframe of any old antennas, draggy junk, old radios and live with whatever speed you end up with as the compromise for the speed vs utility. The Ponk O-520 motor does really wake up the basic 180 and give it the ponys it needs. -bwthhdik

I haven’t done any systematic GPS testing, but my 185 // 550 with a Snider kit and 8.50’s cruises comfortably at 175mph TAS at 23” // 2350rpm // 17.5gph // 5,500ft. We saw those numbers last week on a warm day (ISA +10C) with winds calm aloft.

I often run it LOP for slower cruising which cuts fuel flow by 5-7 gph.

On scales it weighs roughly 1800lbs empty which isn’t too much heavier than some 180H’s.

I have a 58 C180A with a Texas Skyways O-520. I bought it with an O-470. It had the Synder speed kit with wheel pants installed when I bought it. I put a sportsman STOL kit on it along with the engine upgrade. I use 8.5X6s now. For long cross country flights I cruise at 8500-10500 and typically see KTAS between 146-148 knots. Fuel burn is around 12.8-13.2 with my leanest cylinder running at 1425-1430 EGTs. Synder makes a mod to clean up the breaks for the 8.5s - I have this mod. I love the performance both short field and X country capabilities. It is faster with the size 6 tires and pants but not as practical. Just cleaning the windshield becomes a major hassle with the smaller tires/pants.