Awesome, what a beauty!!!

From one polished original paint scheme 57 182A owner to another, great looking plane!!! Don't be surprised when you are taxing out to have the tower ask you about your plane, or when you are doing touch and goes to have a few people come over the radio and say "nice looking plane"! Remember those moments when your are on hour 5 of a polish job

Thanks everyone. Nose Ranger.... Hmmmm..... I think the jury is still out.

It feels great to be back in the air and not have a bunch of air filling the bank account. There is actually a nice emergency fund in there! That is worth a lot to me right now. =Sanity

Not to get to deep into my finances, but I will say historically I have always lived on the edge. This process was quite an exercise in personal growth for me. I have had the tendency to spend every dime in my pocket. I have been slowly working on changing that. I also had to swallow a little pride, admittedly with the whole tailwheel thing. I think the saving grace is the possibility that it could be converted if I ever wanted to.

The only actual drawback for me is no skis. Both fields I am based at have no snowplowing ops (unless I am the plow driver) Kind of hard to do from 400 miles away. The other side of the coin is there are airports all over the place that do. And from what I have seen and heard a 180 on skis isn't the most pleasant. As far as airframe abuse and getting stuck/unstuck. Plus my paycheck doesn't come from an airplane. I just goes into it. So skis are just one less thing I have to buy now.

As far as upgrades go? I am not sure what will be first. I am really enjoying this whole airspeed thing. I fly on pretty well maintained grass strips 90% of the time. Plus the airplane came with some killer mods from the start. I am probably going to go with firewall battery and extended baggage first. The extra room created by the extended baggage is awesome. I really want to get past the first annual in July before I get too wild.

I would love to have big tires all the way around. Just not sure if thats what I need yet. But they are definitely high on the list!!!!

I love this vintage airplane. So clean and classic, with a great story to boot.

cliff wrote:I have owned 3 straight tail 182's and loved them all. It is the best 4 place airplane for the money. You might miss the tailwheel fun, but once your 182 is 1 inch off the ground it flys exactly the same as a 180. I love my ugly old 180 but wish I would have just stuck with the last 182 I had. I could use that extra cash right now for other more needed stuff here at my airport.

Congrats and please come visit some time, I think we are only 100 miles apart when you are in PA.

I will be down for sure. We need to plan a fly/camp in this fall. Somewhere over here where we can get some of the local BCPers out and about.

CenterHillAg wrote:Congratulations! I have literally went through the exact same process as you for the past year, and stumbled on an unlisted '56 182 that I bought last week. No regrets at all, I'll have to make a similar thread soon.

Congrats! Cant wait to see it!

We can have a get together at my place, you do the internet crap and I'll work out the Food and all the other stuff. My wife is the best hostess on the planet. We have had some epic parties here. Camping, bonfires, skydiving, ultralights, rc stuff, and even u-control model airplanes. Your 182 will feel right at home here, I based my first 182 here from 1992 til 1998 when Mr. Wolfe owned the airport.
I think you made a wise choice, A straight tail 182 is hands down the best bang for the buck.

Congrats man. That plane is bitchin'!

Sweet machine!!!! It looks very much loved. Something about that paint job just looks so 50's cool unlike any other plane painted in original colors.

She's a beauty!

She's a beauty. Congratulations man.
I just bought my 180 a couple months ago and I was equally interested in the 182, it seemed like there were a lot more clean 182s though. Sitting on floats they're pretty much the same plane.

You picked a great bird Evan, solid choice for your mission and budget. I enjoyed my time flying 68D, such a straight and clean plane.

I can't wait till you get back out west so we can do some fun flying/camping together.

So stoked for you Evan! Even though I may bust your balls for the nose wheel now and again.
And congrats on growing in other areas during this search. I feel that we are very similar in any ways, and my recent house search also required swallowing some pride and not buying exactly what I thought I needed. But it will be a roof over my families head while I go to school and allows me to keep the 180. Win win.

I think she's a beauty too!!!

mountainmatt wrote:You picked a great bird Evan, solid choice for your mission and budget. I enjoyed my time flying 68D, such a straight and clean plane.

I can't wait till you get back out west so we can do some fun flying/camping together.

Thanks for all the help Matt. I can't wait to get back out there, especially now that access is so fun and easy!

A1Skinner wrote:So stoked for you Evan! Even though I may bust your balls for the nose wheel now and again.
And congrats on growing in other areas during this search. I feel that we are very similar in any ways, and my recent house search also required swallowing some pride and not buying exactly what I thought I needed. But it will be a roof over my families head while I go to school and allows me to keep the 180. Win win.

Thanks David. I am glad to hear that you got to keep your airplane and go to school also.

My outlook on the whole aviation thing has evolved over the past few months. It is something that brings so much joy into my life, just flying anything is great. It is so easy to get caught up in the "cool factor" airplanes and other material things. Big tires, big engines, mods, having the best performance, etc. Don't get me wrong, I love all that stuff!!! But to be able to go to sleep at night knowing that I did the responsible thing and found an airplane that totally accomplishes my mission and is also a straight good looking airframe, that is priceless.

I am also selling my dream truck, a 2015 Laramie Ram Powerwagon. I just bought a dented up, scratched up ex border patrol Chevy Tahoe, that lowered my car payment to a 1/3 of what I am paying for the Ram and will be paid off one year sooner. I happen to love it. It also is a compromise.

Just because you can afford something doesn't mean you need it. I don't think I could be happier. I know for a fact that a $50K ish 180 wouldn't put the smile on my face that this 182 does.

Crzyivan13 wrote:My outlook on the whole aviation thing has evolved over the past few months. It is something that brings so much joy into my life, just flying anything is great. It is so easy to get caught up in the "cool factor" airplanes and other material things. Big tires, big engines, mods, having the best performance, etc. Don't get me wrong, I love all that stuff!!! But to be able to go to sleep at night knowing that I did the responsible thing and found an airplane that totally accomplishes my mission and is also a straight good looking airframe, that is priceless.

Wisdom. Priceless. Great job Evan.

You got yourself a really nice classic airplane there. I have a 57 182A myself and I love flying it, great performing and very solid feeling airplane.

I am trying really hard to ignore how nice that polish/paint job looks as it might well end up costing me a paint job on mine if I keep on staring at the pictures. Mine is modded up pretty nice but my paint is faded pretty bad. I keep telling myself that new paint won't make it any faster or safer.

Enjoy the new bird, maybe we will meet up someday.

The Retriever likes it... that's all you need to know. The dog instinctively knows that it will take you both to a lot of great fun places. Congratulations.

Crzyivan 13,

You are getting older and wiser. Demand is the expensive part of "supply and demand." When I was young an poor, I got along OK on the stuff that came on your age airplane. When I got older, my demands became more realistic and less oppressive. Based on myself and my friends, I would say the legal age for growing up is about 40.

Really nice airplane!

Contact

Evan what a beautiful ship!! If one could ever find such an unmolested 180 like that it would probably fetch 150k!

When I researched the early 182's they told me the scoop you have mounted below your spinner was worth an extra inch of manifold pressure-

Take care,

Wow, gorgeous plane! You will find that the 182 is a very capable aircraft...and the fact that it doesn't have a tailwheel keeps me out of way more trouble than it gets me into.

SixTwoLeemer wrote:Evan what a beautiful ship!! If one could ever find such an unmolested 180 like that it would probably fetch 150k!

When I researched the early 182's they told me the scoop you have mounted below your spinner was worth an extra inch of manifold pressure-

Take care,

I had the same thoughts about finding a 180 in comparable condition. Way over my budget. I did not know about the scoop adding MP. Good to know!

Thanks everyone for the kind words. I am so stoked to own this airplane. It is everything I need and then some.

Here is a sub 400 ft takeoff with half fuel, the pup, and about 50 lbs of baggage. Taking off from my house in Ohio. 1000'x50' Grass surface. This was my 10th takeoff in this airplane.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k1rYsUtj2RI