I'm starting to contemplate a family adventure plane. It is me, my wife and two kids. The top two I'm looking at are a Boss 182 and a 185. These would pull some general travel duty, but ideally alternate between amphibious floats and bigger tires. Bigger tires would be for unimproved and maybe some off airport stuff, but nothing really crazy.

The Wipaire package looks pretty impressive. With the 3500 lb gross weight you can still have 950 lb useful load on amphibious floats. That will carry my family, some gear and still about 50-55 gallons of fuel. They advertise improved CG as well compared with other float equipped 182s with the ability to run two front seat pilots and full fuel.

I read this quote earlier in another thread: "My 185 is good for two people and gear or three and no baggage when on Aerocet amphibs."

Depends on gear

Some folks like me can be away for a few weeks with a 60L bag that’s not even maxed out, others need hundreds of pounds of crap

Depends on the people, normal sized people you can fit in more, if we are talking supersized people that’s going to be a factor

Amphibs, they take their weight penalty on all aircraft, float lockers are nice for storage but can get wet and smelly.

Personally with those two options I’d get the 185, the 182 was never built to be a float plane, not saying wip probably didn’t do a great job making it fit into that role, but it’s a square peg that hand to be machined to fit into the round hole, I’d also guess years down the road it’ll be viewed as just another 182 with some wip mods, the 185 will always be a 185

The better planes to compare would be these

Look at 180/185s and also look at U206s, if you’re looking to haul a bunch the 206 is hard to beat, as is that rear door

Might also want to look at some of the bigger maules

Never heard of a "Boss 182" so I googled it.
Hmmm, looks like a (later model 540 Lyc powered?) 182 fitted with an IO580 Lycoming.
Sounds very spendy.
If you're concerned about room and useful load, why not a 206?
With an IO-550 if you have the money.

Hard to beat a 206 for a family airplane on wheels. Put amphib floats on any of the airplanes you mention and they get heavy, you may want to reconsider or narrow down your mission and airplane that will fit that mission.

Kurt

A 206 is definitely in contention. However, from what I have seen a 206 on amphibious floats has a useful load of about 900-1050 lbs and the Boss 182 with the max gross weight STC can have a useful load of 950 lbs with better performance. The 206 wins on loading/unloading with the back doors for sure.

https://www.flyingmag.com/aircraft-pistons-cessna-turbo-206-amphibious-floats/

https://www.flyalaskaseaplanes.com/charters/Cessna-206/#:~:text=Our%20Cessna%20206%20floatplane%20is,to%20four%20people%20and%20baggage.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mzn9gmwryLA

NineThreeKilo wrote:Depends on gear

Some folks like me can be away for a few weeks with a 60L bag that’s not even maxed out, others need hundreds of pounds of crap

Depends on the people, normal sized people you can fit in more, if we are talking supersized people that’s going to be a factor

Amphibs, they take their weight penalty on all aircraft, float lockers are nice for storage but can get wet and smelly.

Personally with those two options I’d get the 185, the 182 was never built to be a float plane, not saying wip probably didn’t do a great job making it fit into that role, but it’s a square peg that hand to be machined to fit into the round hole, I’d also guess years down the road it’ll be viewed as just another 182 with some wip mods, the 185 will always be a 185

The better planes to compare would be these

Look at 180/185s and also look at U206s, if you’re looking to haul a bunch the 206 is hard to beat, as is that rear door

Might also want to look at some of the bigger maules

What is your useful load on amphibs?

We’ll that’s a rather intimate question lol

About 900lbs

That said I don’t have extended tips, and I have small floats, for me it’s plenty for my mission, plus I cruise 120kts easily

The issue with the 185 is if you’re putting stuff in the back.
185 only has two real doors, plus a SMALL cargo door, and it’s a narrow plane

185 is a sexy 2 seat pickup truck IMHO

U206


M7

Thank you. I do understand about the 185 small baggage door and narrower body. That isn't a bad useful load though.

The 206 is appealing with the back doors. I fly a 182 in a flying club and am very happy with it overall to haul the family and gear. But my A36 is very convenient with the back doors.

We've got a 205 for our family of 4. If I was in your shoes I'd take a hard look at the 206. We almost bought a 182, but I'm sure glad we didn't. The 205 holds so much more baggage volume. The 206 would be one more step up in performance, useful load, and comfort. I've also been very glad I had a nosewheel on a number of occasions when our destination was much windier than forecast, and the insurance premiums are lower.

jcadwell wrote:We've got a 205 for our family of 4. If I was in your shoes I'd take a hard look at the 206. We almost bought a 182, but I'm sure glad we didn't. The 205 holds so much more baggage volume. The 206 would be one more step up in performance, useful load, and comfort. I've also been very glad I had a nosewheel on a number of occasions when our destination was much windier than forecast, and the insurance premiums are lower.

If I were looking at a standard 182 I would totally agree. But did you check out the performance and specs on the Wipaire Boss 182?

Cooperd0g wrote:

jcadwell wrote:We've got a 205 for our family of 4. If I was in your shoes I'd take a hard look at the 206. We almost bought a 182, but I'm sure glad we didn't. The 205 holds so much more baggage volume. The 206 would be one more step up in performance, useful load, and comfort. I've also been very glad I had a nosewheel on a number of occasions when our destination was much windier than forecast, and the insurance premiums are lower.

If I were looking at a standard 182 I would totally agree. But did you check out the performance and specs on the Wipaire Boss 182?

Useful load and baggage volume are two different metrics, a 205/206 will trounce a 182 on volume by a wide margin.

I'm certain that it's a performer with a huge engine on the 182. With our 205, my wife and two daughters can pack our 4-Runner entirely full of whatever they want to bring whenever we go anywhere. I've had 4 bikes and enough camping gear for a week in it, and everyone was comfortable. The 182 is just a lot smaller inside, even with extended baggage. I never have to argue with my wife about what she brings. If it fits in the car, we can bring it. That's priceless to me.

jcadwell wrote:I'm certain that it's a performer with a huge engine on the 182. With our 205, my wife and two daughters can pack our 4-Runner entirely full of whatever they want to bring whenever we go anywhere. I've had 4 bikes and enough camping gear for a week in it, and everyone was comfortable. The 182 is just a lot smaller inside, even with extended baggage. I never have to argue with my wife about what she brings. If it fits in the car, we can bring it. That's priceless to me.

That is a very valid consideration.

Cooperd0g wrote:

jcadwell wrote:I'm certain that it's a performer with a huge engine on the 182. With our 205, my wife and two daughters can pack our 4-Runner entirely full of whatever they want to bring whenever we go anywhere. I've had 4 bikes and enough camping gear for a week in it, and everyone was comfortable. The 182 is just a lot smaller inside, even with extended baggage. I never have to argue with my wife about what she brings. If it fits in the car, we can bring it. That's priceless to me.

That is a very valid consideration.

The 205/206 will be significantly easier to load as well; think about your back, be kind to it.

On the big engine 182, I flew one for a week, older one but had a 550 in it, it didn’t fly well, very nose heavy on landing to the point I would keep a little power in, let my logbook entry I kept 1300RPM in in the flare otherwise the nose would come down harder than expected, climb speed wasn’t really better than the larger 206.

The 550ed 206 I could touch the mains dirty slow and hold that nose off for days

For a back country plane that has some value to me, especially in a more delicate trike configuration

^^^ This.

Interior volume aside, and that is an important side not on a 'family adventure plane', spend some quality time with a 18X wing and then the same time with a 206 wing and then revisit your goals. All the engine in the world doesn't make a lesser wing fly like a superior one. I love 180/5's but their wing is not a 206 wing, and never will be.

Take care, Rob

This is the kind of information I was hoping to get here. I have a decent amount of time in 182s. I have no time in a big engine 182 and no time in a 206. This project is probably a couple of years out still so I have time to try and make that happen.

I'm sure you have "run the numbers" or will, both are well above my snack bracket so I'm just spit-balling on this. My suspicion is that you could have a good 205, maybe even a 206 in the barn for less than a fully pimped out Boss 182. The floats would be an extra expense in both cases but very similar I suspect, do a wheel to wheel evaluation to start with.

Rob wrote:^^^ This.

Interior volume aside, and that is an important side not on a 'family adventure plane', spend some quality time with a 18X wing and then the same time with a 206 wing and then revisit your goals. All the engine in the world doesn't make a lesser wing fly like a superior one. I love 180/5's but their wing is not a 206 wing, and never will be.

Take care, Rob

Hmmm! I believe the 206 uses the same NACA 2412 airfoil as employed in the Cessna 180/185 series wings. Furthermore, it is the same 174 square feet unmodified.

Mapleflt wrote:I'm sure you have "run the numbers" or will, both are well above my snack bracket so I'm just spit-balling on this. My suspicion is that you could have a good 205, maybe even a 206 in the barn for less than a fully pimped out Boss 182. The floats would be an extra expense in both cases but very similar I suspect, do a wheel to wheel evaluation to start with.

This is also valid. A run out engine 182S is still about $200-250k right now. I have not spoken to Wipaire directly yet as I'm pretty early in the process, but I think the Boss upgrade is at least $300k.