Question for those who've had some experience with the service ceiling on your Skywagon. I see the book publishes the ceiling at around 17,500ish, but with all the mods out there, how much has that gone up? I've never been interested in going above 18,000' as I'm not IFR and usually hate talking to ATC. That being said, I'm moving towards getting my IFR rating and a recent commercial flight got me wondering how high my Wagon will go?

Cessna 185, Wing X, Sportsman Cuff, IO-550, 86" 3 Blade Mac, Bubble Windows, Snider Speed Kit, 8.5 by 10's

Any experience or guesses out there?

24,000 per the air planes IO-550 STC on a 182. Yours will get there or higher, but you might freeze first because your heater won’t keep up.

I have never had my 180 above 12,500 feet but I am sure it would go a lot higher than the published service ceiling. This is mostly because I didn't have Oxygen until a couple of years ago. Old age catching up with me. I love using my O2 now - even at 7-10K. Didn't realize how much altitude effected me but I feel so much better after a long flight using it. Anyway - it would be an interesting experiment to see how high an IO550 185 can get or how high a really light 1958 C180A can get with a O520. Above 18K you need to have a face mask Oxygen delivery system in addition to being on an IFR flight plan. Maybe in summer it wouldn't be that cold. Might make sense to fly this high if there is a strong favorable wind with a long leg.


Josh

My late friend and mentor looking down at Kilimanjaro from his stock 180 in 1954, together with his wife and a cabin-full of traveling cargo:

-DP

Does the wagon have speeds for high altitude, IAS/TAS and flutter and all

I’d imagine north of 14k the redline would start to come down


* my 185 normally lives 1k AGL (2k or less MSL) VFR, maxing out to 7k MSL for IFR, for my mission profile

1959 C180B with O-520; I’ve filed FL 180 on a cool day up in Montana, but not much margin for down drafts, maybe 50 fpm.

denalipilot wrote: My late friend and mentor looking down at Kilimanjaro from his stock 180 in 1954, together with his wife and a cabin-full of traveling cargo.....

From "Our Flight To Adventure"?
Great book, and what an adventure indeed!

hotrod180 wrote:

denalipilot wrote: My late friend and mentor looking down at Kilimanjaro from his stock 180 in 1954, together with his wife and a cabin-full of traveling cargo.....

From "Our Flight To Adventure"?
Great book, and what an adventure indeed!

Indeed

[edit] This thread inspired me to begin re-reading that book. Notable about the Kilimanjaro photo above: no use of supplemental oxygen. And on page 38, they casually mention air trials to 24,000' (with oxygen) in the States prior to embarking on their trip.

-DP

My 185 with a 550 and Mac 401 prop was still climbing at 400 fpm as I leveled off at 16,500 on an about standard day.

Ross4289 wrote:My 185 with a 550 and Mac 401 prop was still climbing at 400 fpm as I leveled off at 16,500 on an about standard day.

Just curious, does the G5 redline drop at that altitude?

I don’t think a variable VNE is possible on a G5.

On a turbo Cirrus with a G5/GFC500 and a variable VNE, they just pick the lower one for the G5. It’s highly annoying since you can bust 160 KIAS in level flight at lower altitudes, and the autopilot pitches up.

I've been to FL250 in a wagon with my dad. He was doing the test flying on the turbo normalizing STC. We climbed from Pagosa Springs, Colorado to FL250 averaging 1000 FPM. I was a "required" crew member in the back seat recording temps or something.

I've been to 17000 plenty of times in half loaded wagons. Still was climbing plenty good. I don't think breaking FL200 would have been out of the question.

Ross4289 wrote:I don’t think a variable VNE is possible on a G5.

On a turbo Cirrus with a G5/GFC500 and a variable VNE, they just pick the lower one for the G5. It’s highly annoying since you can bust 160 KIAS in level flight at lower altitudes, and the autopilot pitches up.

Note, there is a Service Bulletin (22113) out that updates the maximum AP engagement speed for the Cirrus.