I think it a bit sad to see an aircraft, so much money spent on, and have an embarrassing paint job. Really what are you going to do with this, invade Cuba?
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Wow-1979-Cessna-182Q-King-Katmai-New-I-0-550-Bush-Master-Only-2053TT-/140968189560?pt=Motors_Aircraft&hash=item20d25bde78#ht_754wt_1048

Agreed. A lot like a beautiful woman wearing so much make-up that it hides her beauty.

Cary

If you ask me the asking price is far more embarrassing than the paint....

I thought camo made everything better haha...after polishing my ride for the last 12 hours even this paint job looks good

Rob wrote:If you ask me the asking price is far more embarrassing than the paint....

Agreed. The asking price is delusional.

Now...just maybe...if you got rid of that nose wheel...

dogpilot wrote:I think it a bit sad to see an aircraft, so much money spent on, and have an embarrassing paint job. Really what are you going to do with this, invade Cuba?
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Wow-1979-Cessna-182Q-King-Katmai-New-I-0-550-Bush-Master-Only-2053TT-/140968189560?pt=Motors_Aircraft&hash=item20d25bde78#ht_754wt_1048

Whatever you do, don't ever crash- they'll never find you. There are not one but two airplanes around here painted OD green (with shark mouths to boot)-- not the greatest choice for spotting if they ever crash in the green pacific northwest.
I like red & white paint on a Cessna but IMHO yellow is probably the best choice for being easy to spot in the air. I have a recurring urge (which I may have to follow through on some day)to paint my C150TD Cub yellow, including the black lightning bolt down the side.

The invade Cuba thing is for real with me. When I was based at Tamiami airport in Miami, there was a Wren Conversion (precursor to the Peterson, but had Wren Teeth on the wing ( a system on spoilers)) tied down in the grass in front of my hanger. It too was camouflaged in brown & tan. The only time I ever encountered a fed on the ramp. He flashed his badge asked to use my hanger to observe the aircraft for a few days. They wanted to nail the, you guessed it, Cuban, owner for something. I never saw it fly. I would just chuckle to myself, imagining the chunky owner and his three chubby buddies in all their camo glory, flying it down to Cuba. Viva La Revolution! We always had Omega 88 followers dressed in camo out in the everglades training for La Liberación.

I guess if I was in exile (self-imposed or not) in a foreign land because some asshole & his regime took over my country, I'd be hoping for "la liberacion" too. Hope it doesn't ever come to that for any of us.

Oh, its not that part. I worked in Central America for several years after I left the Navy and NOAA. I have friends that fought in Cuba, one, Ralphael Montalvo, spent three years in a Cuban prison after the Bay of Pigs. There are Cubans that walk the walk, but most in Miami, just talk the talk. You get rather sick of hearing about it, "just get in your boats and planes and go do it already!" Castro started with a handful of exiles and did his thing. Most Miami Cubans want somebody else to actually do it for them. Thats why they end up as cartoons of themselves. The Mad Magazine cartoonist of Spy vs Spy, Antonio Prohías a Cuban exile, was inspired by the non-action of Miami Cubans to do his parodies.

When I worked at the UN, I knew several Cubans from present day Cuba. While not exactly a paradise, they where not overly discontent with the system. But take Honduras for example, same size, culture, and resources. Supposedly a democratic country. The opposition presidential candidate committed suicide while I was in country. Shot himself twice in the chest with a shotgun. Most folks that have views different than the government there, or more importantly the military (who actually run the place) get "Russian Colds." So how exactly is it worse in Cuba? I never quite got it. I was lucky, I had and still have my little red card, issued by the Honduran military. So it was; hey they are paying me really good money to fly here, none of my business, "let's talk about the women. Uno mas cerveza, pro favor, gads it hot down here."

hotrod150 wrote: Whatever you do, don't ever crash- they'll never find you. There are not one but two airplanes around here painted OD green (with shark mouths to boot)-- not the greatest choice for spotting if they ever crash in the green pacific northwest.
I like red & white paint on a Cessna but IMHO yellow is probably the best choice for being easy to spot in the air. I have a recurring urge (which I may have to follow through on some day)to paint my C150TD Cub yellow, including the black lightning bolt down the side.

Yeah I think this is spot-on ^
To aid with clandestine backcountry ops I sometimes think about drab colours, but in reality you're asking for Murphy to kick your @ss. I went with Cub yellow.

I dunno I think it looks kinda cool. Some of the RV guys give their machines a militaryish looking paint jobs. besides Dog YOU may actually get to fly REAL missions in Cammo planes, something the rest of us will never have an opportunity to do.
I see some practical uses for the civilian BCP. Clandestine camping in areas you may not want observers. A squatter shack out in the bush or a small mineral claim you don't want discovered by anyone while your harvesting walnut sized nuggets from a dried creek bed. Yeah right A plane like that would certainly go good with a Capt Kangaroo military jump suit festooned with all the patches and pins you could stick on it . Oh yeah, not to forget, one of those funky helicopter helmets with the slide down visors.

Don't care what y'all say I like it.

Best,
O-2

Battson wrote: but in reality you're asking for Murphy to kick your @ss. I went with Cub yellow.

Yep, me too, but then Murphy will see to it that the bright yellow Maule will crash into an Aspen grove during autumn.

YB

I don't like the price but dam if I don't like the paint job. No waxing required, hit it with the pressure washer and walk away. I guess if we all liked the same thing all the time we would all be fighting for the same woman.

I've always said that many if not most pilots will intentionally have their airplanes painted in colors and schemes that they wouldn't be caught dead driving a car painted like that.......

But, I always follow that statement up with this one: Who gives a shit....if it makes him or her happy, and they like it, why should I care?

I'm sure the owner is proud of that thing. Not my favorite, but I'm not in the market anyway.

MTV

Unless you plan on keeping an aircraft until the end of time, or at least until it needs a new paint job. You should consider a more mainstream scheme, or it narrows down your potential buyers. Couple that with asking a large six figure amount to begin with on a heavily modified airframe. You have necked down your potential buyers to perhaps, six or seven in the entire world. What most potential buyers would be looking at is a minimum of 30 days down time to strip & paint the beast and at lest $8-12K for a decent job. BTW, when you calculate the cost of down time, on that aircraft is is about $7,000 per month burnt up money (capital cost, insurance and such).

Interesting note, in spite of all my strange jobs, never flown a camouflaged aircraft. Unless you consider airline livery, and not actually being with that airline or even doing commercial work with the aircraft, camouflage. We always thought it was funny when a C141 would show up on the ramp, in the old european woodland camo pattern. Like it helps it blend into the concrete it was parking on. The C141 couldn't go in the dirt, unless it was really hard packed. The Navy tried camo, but finally it dawned on folks, "hey, we're on a boat, who are we kidding!" Even the lowly Birddog had contrasting colors on the top of the wing and stab, so the guys dropping bombs from above wouldn't hit them. The Birddog in the photo was the closest I ever got to Camo, it was all black. We painted the white stripe on the side and tail (with some spray cans) so we could ferry it back to the US. Mexico gets all whigged out about camo or eccentric para-military paint schemes. Considering it belonged to the "US Council for World Freedom," they wanted no attention at all. That dog is now in Tennesee with good old BV.

Why did the snoop and poops fly black helicopters in Vietnam? They stood out like a sore thumb.

If you can't afford 330K here's a cheaper camo Cessna...
http://www.trade-a-plane.com/detail/Sin ... 51706.html

I said my thoughts on the paint. What surprises me is how many of these Katmai conversions I've seen, and they're all in that same price range or more. All of them have been in more normal paint schemes, though one was solid red. I'm not sure I understand that the alleged benefits are all that great considering the bucks involved. It seems to me that the argument is that doodads substitute for skill.

Cary