Backcountry Pilot • Joined the straight tail club today

Joined the straight tail club today

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Joined the straight tail club today

I brought this fine machine home to Denver from Boise over the last couple days:
Image

I was hoping to make it back with one stop in Rock Springs, however I got off the ground later than expected in Boise, and their weather has been tenuous at best lately. I ended up taking a stop in Idaho Falls after snow came up from the south, and decided I had a window to keep going eastbound from there. I was pushed north to Jackson to get around snow and mountain obscuration, but the turbulence was pretty much nonexistent, and I arrived in Rawlins at about sunset.

Obscuration, otherwise known as "nope":
Image

But I did get a very scenic view of Gross Ventre Wilderness:
Image

And a pretty sunset somewhere between RKS and RWL:
Image

I lost vacuum somewhere after leaving IDA and was getting tired, so I spent an unplanned night in Rawlins. The airport manager was already gone, but heard me flying over and came back to see if I needed anything. He ended up topping my fuel, lending me a car for the night, and directing me to a hotel and pretty good diner in town. Considering I had no idea how I was going to get into town at all, that worked out very well.

I went direct Denver from Rawlins this morning by way of Laramie, and had a nice uneventful flight home after a bit of an adventure the day before. The tailwinds in WY were nice as well, with a ground speed of 170kts at one point between Medicine Bow and Laramie. Denver Center was having a hell of a time with my a/c type, usually referring to me as a 172, but a couple times called me a Citation to a Cirrus flying underneath. I thought about correcting them, but I figure if they think I should be flying a jet, who am I to argue?

This plane flies fantastically well, has a good strong engine, and is in good shape all around. I'll clean up a couple areas on the paint and slowly make some upgrades, otherwise it's a solid flying machine and ready to take me wherever I want to go. I also can't speak highly enough of Bill Reid, he has worked with me for a couple months now remotely from his home in Vegas as I've been looking at airplanes. I flew him out to Idaho for the prebuy, and he spent a couple days going over her to make sure I wouldn't have any nasty surprises. The vacuum thing was a bit unexpected, but nothing he'd have seen coming, and I should have that fixed for under $100 so all in all I can't complain. I paid a very reasonable price in the end, and can't wait to see what this thing can do.
colopilot offline
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Re: Joined the straight tail club today

Right on! Nice looking straight tail.
robw56 offline
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Re: Joined the straight tail club today

Very nice plane. It seems like I have seen that plane before, recognize the paint. Good for you, enjoy.

And you might receive comments on your "Strait Tail" from some of the inmates here :P :P :P
SixTwoLeemer offline
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Re: Joined the straight tail club today

Nice looking 182! Looks like an early (1956-58) pre-cowl flap model?
I've always wondered if the cowl flaps are really all that necessary, never heard of any problems on those early 182's due to not having them.
It's always seemed to me that life would be just that much easier without having to mess with them.
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Re: Joined the straight tail club today

Congratulations!!! Nice looking Straight Tail and glad you had a safe trip home flying over that route.
58Skylane offline
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Re: Joined the straight tail club today

hotrod180 wrote:Nice looking 182! Looks like an early (1956-58) pre-cowl flap model?
I've always wondered if the cowl flaps are really all that necessary, never heard of any problems on those early 182's due to not having them.
It's always seemed to me that life would be just that much easier without having to mess with them.


I don't mean to Thread Drift a little. But I kind of wished I had cowl flaps or vents on my 58 Skylane a few times back when I owned it. I found on warm to hot days it was hard to fly slow with the Cub and Scout guys. If I remember right and to fly more their speeds (especially climb out over the Owyhees) I had to put two notches of flaps out and at about 70-80 mph, that gave me too high of a nose up attitude causing less air flow through the cowling and caused high cylinder temps. No biggie though, I'd just clean up, speed up and do a few 360's till the Cubs and Scout caught up. I found once at cruising altitude, I can configure for their speeds again and fly slow for a while with no issues.
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Re: Joined the straight tail club today

Yep, 1957 182A model. No cowl flaps, the lower cowl was definitely easy to remove without any of that extra junk going on. Assuming my CHT gauge is right (and that's a big assumption, until I check the calibration), I was seeing low 200's pretty much the whole time. I was also below freezing OAT for all but the last 45 minutes of the entire trip, so we'll see how that changes when July hits. It definitely needs some TLC on the baffles before then, but it'll live for now. Cessna seemingly added the cowl flaps later on for a reason, however even minimal disruption to airflow due to worn or backwards baffles will have a marked effect on temps, so we'll see how it gets.

I can tell you that I've had overheating issues on later 182's with the flaps trying to maintain a climb on a warm-ish day, so I think it's really about keeping the nose down no matter what. Those 470's put out some serious heat, and without enough air coming into the nose it won't matter how big the exit on the bottom gets. They will climb like hell getting off the ground, but aren't really meant to hang in that attitude for long without putting CHT's into a bad place.
colopilot offline
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Re: Joined the straight tail club today

colopilot wrote:I brought this fine machine home to Denver from Boise over the last couple days:
Image

I was hoping to make it back with one stop in Rock Springs, however I got off the ground later than expected in Boise, and their weather has been tenuous at best lately. I ended up taking a stop in Idaho Falls after snow came up from the south, and decided I had a window to keep going eastbound from there. I was pushed north to Jackson to get around snow and mountain obscuration, but the turbulence was pretty much nonexistent, and I arrived in Rawlins at about sunset.

Obscuration, otherwise known as "nope":
Image

But I did get a very scenic view of Gross Ventre Wilderness:
Image

And a pretty sunset somewhere between RKS and RWL:
Image

I lost vacuum somewhere after leaving IDA and was getting tired, so I spent an unplanned night in Rawlins. The airport manager was already gone, but heard me flying over and came back to see if I needed anything. He ended up topping my fuel, lending me a car for the night, and directing me to a hotel and pretty good diner in town. Considering I had no idea how I was going to get into town at all, that worked out very well.

I went direct Denver from Rawlins this morning by way of Laramie, and had a nice uneventful flight home after a bit of an adventure the day before. The tailwinds in WY were nice as well, with a ground speed of 170kts at one point between Medicine Bow and Laramie. Denver Center was having a hell of a time with my a/c type, usually referring to me as a 172, but a couple times called me a Citation to a Cirrus flying underneath. I thought about correcting them, but I figure if they think I should be flying a jet, who am I to argue?

This plane flies fantastically well, has a good strong engine, and is in good shape all around. I'll clean up a couple areas on the paint and slowly make some upgrades, otherwise it's a solid flying machine and ready to take me wherever I want to go. I also can't speak highly enough of Bill Reid, he has worked with me for a couple months now remotely from his home in Vegas as I've been looking at airplanes. I flew him out to Idaho for the prebuy, and he spent a couple days going over her to make sure I wouldn't have any nasty surprises. The vacuum thing was a bit unexpected, but nothing he'd have seen coming, and I should have that fixed for under $100 so all in all I can't complain. I paid a very reasonable price in the end, and can't wait to see what this thing can do.

Congrats! Looks awesome, great adventure!


Rod Hilton
Kincardine, Ontario, Canada
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Re: Joined the straight tail club today

It's a great airplane, I looked it over structurally pretty carefully in Hamilton last fall. Also did a little work on it at ACSR in Stevensville a few years ago.

If I wasn't in the middle of another 182 project, it might still be in the BItterroot.
Keep us posted on your adventures.

Glad somebody found it that will appreciate it.
richpiney offline
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Re: Joined the straight tail club today

I like the looks of it too!!!!!
180Marty offline
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Re: Joined the straight tail club today

Looks great! Congrats!
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Re: Joined the straight tail club today

Sweet looking 182, congratulations!
4Whitey offline
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Re: Joined the straight tail club today

colopilot wrote:Yep, 1957 182A model. No cowl flaps, the lower cowl was definitely easy to remove without any of that extra junk going on. Assuming my CHT gauge is right (and that's a big assumption, until I check the calibration), I was seeing low 200's pretty much the whole time. I was also below freezing OAT for all but the last 45 minutes of the entire trip, so we'll see how that changes when July hits. It definitely needs some TLC on the baffles before then, but it'll live for now. Cessna seemingly added the cowl flaps later on for a reason, however even minimal disruption to airflow due to worn or backwards baffles will have a marked effect on temps, so we'll see how it gets.

I can tell you that I've had overheating issues on later 182's with the flaps trying to maintain a climb on a warm-ish day, so I think it's really about keeping the nose down no matter what. Those 470's put out some serious heat, and without enough air coming into the nose it won't matter how big the exit on the bottom gets. They will climb like hell getting off the ground, but aren't really meant to hang in that attitude for long without putting CHT's into a bad place.


Use Fuel for cooling and cowl flaps for everything else
JamieG offline
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Re: Joined the straight tail club today

A great Colorado mountain plane, congrats on the purchase! =D>
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Re: Joined the straight tail club today

Congrats! What airport are you at in Denver?
asa offline
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Re: Joined the straight tail club today

Nice work!
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Re: Joined the straight tail club today

asa wrote:Congrats! What airport are you at in Denver?


FTG. Got into a reasonably-priced, powered T-hangar with no wait list, and it's only a bit longer of a drive that APA from where I'm at. Judging by what I've seen in a few of the hangars out there so far, I think it'll be a fun place to hang out when the days get warmer.
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Re: Joined the straight tail club today

Congrats on the new plane! It is good to have another one here on the Front Range.
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Re: Joined the straight tail club today

Congrats! Good to see another 57 A model join the BCP crew. Good looking bird!

The CHTs sound about right for the temps you were flying in. I have had a hard time keeping my temps up this winter also. No cowl flaps.
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Re: Joined the straight tail club today

Crzyivan13 wrote:The CHTs sound about right for the temps you were flying in. I have had a hard time keeping my temps up this winter also. No cowl flaps.


Where do you run EGT's? Absent a 6-cyl monitor for the time being, I was just leaning to 50 ROP in cruise. I'll play with that setting closer to home, especially since I don't have to climb a lot to be at 65% or lower power, but without knowing individual cylinder temps it's a bit of a guess as to what's actually going on.
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