Hello Cessna Experts

I purchased a 182B in July and have roughly 60 hours in it. I have a 1400’ strip with power lines on the east and 12” irrigation pipe on the west. I have the Horton and VG’s, the plane flys really nice at 45 mph, but my pitch is very mushy. I’m forced to fly final at 60mph to have pitch control, then remove the flaps in ground effect. I eat a lot of a short runway. I do fly with a 50 pound tool kits which has helped a little.

I have the McCauley C66 and I’m considering the 2 blade MT to shift my CG aft. I do have the hope to do the PPonk in the future when I find a core 470. If I do the Pponk am I better off with the 3 blade. Titanium gear legs and an MT would save over 50 pounds.

My goal is to slow my approach and maintain pitch control, thus using less runway. My 152 sparrow hawk does better than my 182.

Not MT advice, but have you tried to steepen up your approach? This allows you to keep it slow, then catch yourself at the bottom with a shot of power. You can come steeper over the lines, slower so you have less energy to float, all giving you more room. And saves you money so you can spend more on gas to practice the approach.

MT prop will help a lot for this, weight, you will definitely feel the nose lighter,CG will move backwards, acceleration, you will quicker throttle response and acceleration and it will allow you to come steeper for landings, MT prop is wide so its like an air brake, plus super smooth.

You wont be disappointed.

As for the Pponk, I still opted for the 2 blade MT, like the light weight feel on the nose, and its a great performer.

A1Skinner wrote:Not MT advice, but have you tried to steepen up your approach? This allows you to keep it slow, then catch yourself at the bottom with a shot of power. You can come steeper over the lines, slower so you have less energy to float, all giving you more room. And saves you money so you can spend more on gas to practice the approach.

^^This^^

Nice steep 40 deg flap approach, shot of power to grease the landing, dump the flaps and on the brakes while keeping full up elevator. Easily stopped in half your runway length if not wet or snow/ice covered. Dumping flaps in the flare is a good way to bend your airplane.

Yes, nothing wrong with what you have now. Should have no problem with 1400’ of runway. Approach in control with power properly and it’s all over soon, definitely shouldn’t be floating along. The C66 is a great prop, with what else you have on. Save your money and buy fuel for sure. What you’ve got will take you in and out of anywhere flown right. What part of the country are you located?

The mods you are considering are wonderful, but don't fool with them until you are consistently using half or less of your strip as is. What feels mushy to you now, will likely feel normal in just a few hours of developing a finer scale of mushiness... Your plane will happily do it at gross, unless something is terribly wrong, and then all the mods in the world aren't helping. If you start fooling with it before you master it, you will not know what accomplished what, and you will be masking (or trying to mask) good technique with gadgets. Something that bites more carbon cub owners than anything else. That is not a knock on CC's, they are great in good hands, (so is your 182) but they don't (always) make up for a shortage of skill.

regarding the MT, if you Pponk, you will be leaving thrust on the table by going 2 blade, or adding weight by going 3, the choice is a personal one. I have flown both on a Pponk, neither is a bad choice, just depends on what you really want. If your C66 is 86"-88", I would just see about getting it FA'd and save the $15K...

Take care, Rob

A quick question: Did you get a thorough checkout in the 182 with an instructor who has a lot of 182 time?

If not, why not?

I hear/ see this kind of thing pretty frequently, and it’s often related to either no or a poor checkout. Depending on your previous experience, you may be able to figure it out in time, BUT......A good checkout can really shorten up the learning curve, and might even preclude an “incident”.

MTV

Most nailed it, work on your technique first, the plane should get the job done as is with proper technique. Then once you're flying the plane close to its potential consider modding it one piece at a time.

mtv wrote:A quick question: Did you get a thorough checkout in the 182 with an instructor who has a lot of 182 time?

If not, why not?

I hear/ see this kind of thing pretty frequently, and it’s often related to either no or a poor checkout. Depending on your previous experience, you may be able to figure it out in time, BUT......A good checkout can really shorten up the learning curve, and might even preclude an “incident”.

MTV

YES. I flew a 182B out of my 1100 ft grass strip with a stock wing and without using brakes I got stopped in about 800 ft. Grass works good for brakes. Then I ended up with a 1956 182 and put a sportsman on. It did much better but it is also 100 pounds lighter