bigrenna wrote:There are several thicknesses for flooring. There is a thick heavy product that is probably what you are talking about... I went with the lighter stuff. When I pulled the carpet out of my wagon it weighed in at 12 lbs for just the floor alone. The Aerofloor product I installed was just about 3lbs for the entire install.

I guess I didn't spend enough time on the site. I'd like very much NOT to paint the interior, but rather to do the proper prep and then glue some of that only where my muddy feet can make contact. Ditto the baggage shelf. Other than those two areas everything au natural. My nephew runs a sign shop and vinyl wraps race cars on the side so the entire exterior gets polished (with the exception of the underside of the wings) and some sort of snappy accent wrap outside. Light weight. If I struggle and stress over it I imagine I can get it to just average weight.....say 600lbs. I met a fellow (a turkey actually) who had an 800 pound 701. Heh heh heh heh heh.

Barnstormer wrote:Won't help you out hotrod, but I will have the cargo net seen in the photo above up for sale just as soon as these mods are complete.

PM me a number, that may work for me in my wagon. Or you could use it for a deposit on a cargo pod...

Mountain Wave doesn't have any pricing info for their cargo nets on their website. Usually when that's the case I don't really want to know how much they cost.

Another thought I had...instead of a solid panel (metal or whatever), my old C170 had a snap-on naugahyde cover at the aft end of the standard baggage compartment. Something like that at the same station might be kinda handy in my 180 to keep the stuff in the extended baggage from migrating forward, also for keeping the cabin warmer & quieter.

hotrod180 wrote:Mountain Wave doesn't have any pricing info for their cargo nets on their website. Usually when that's the case I don't really want to know how much they cost.

When I bought mine it was $125 plus shipping.

The crappy weather we've had for the last week finally broke today so I headed out to the hangar to see how the carpenter was coming along with the bathroom, and just really to get out and enjoy the sun. I also took the Antigravity Battery with me to try out before I started pulling stuff off the 185. I thought a good test would be to hook up my ground power plug, which bypasses the battery and master switch. I had no idea what to expect. I mean I clipping this "Antigravity Battery" to my cheesy ground power plug with alligator clips, the plug is going over slightly corroded pins. I plugged it in and I heard the solenoid that bypasses the battery click, I looked at the tail and the old school red strobe light was working. I could hear the electric gyro's spooling up. The radios, gps and transponder were on. Wow pretty cool, but could it actually crank the engine over with power going through who knows how many feet of 42 year old battery cable, activating yet another solenoid then power an 18 pound old school starter. On top of that the temperature was 45 degrees. My friend, the guy who hauled "the device" in the trunk of his Toyota from Los Alamos to the Nevada Test Site, was there watching. He backed away figuring for sure the Antigravity Battery was going to burst into flames.

I leisurely climbed into the cockpit, put the key in the ignition switch....turned it....and the engine crank over every bit as good as it does with the Concorde 35 AXC. I let it crank for about 10 seconds to see if it slowed at all, it didn't.

Very, very cool. Can't believe how well it worked. I can imagine how good it will be starting my plane with the new, low draw starter, and only needing go through a couple of feet of new battery cable.

Just got back home and plugged it in to recharge, curious to see how much of the Antigravity Battery had been drained. Of the five LED charging lights four were on steady with the fifth blinking and the time it's taken to type this the battery is done charging. Wow.

It's hard to get a handle on that kind of technology. I'm certain of one thing though. It doesn't have anything to do with gravity. I wonder how it might work in an RC airplane.

Mister701 wrote:It's hard to get a handle on that kind of technology. I'm certain of one thing though. It doesn't have anything to do with gravity. I wonder how it might work in an RC airplane.

Planning an RC circumnavigation?

I'm going to have to order one of those for "in case"

I let it crank for about 10 seconds to see if it slowed at all, it didn't.

That is amazing. If it lasts for a few years, it sounds like just the ticket. Thanks for reporting.

Barnstormer wrote:

There's no way there's that much 'lectricity in that little box.

hotrod180 wrote:........ I afro-american-engineered a cargo barrier with a volleyball-net type thing I had laying around, and it looks it-- it works OK but it'd be nice to have something that looked good too.

Not as nice as something specifically designed for the application, but it works OK keeping my everyday stuff in place back there.

I don't think the ground service plug bypasses the airframe battery, I think it's like jumping a car battery, it just connects the two in parallel (or series, i can never remember which is which) The click you heard was power from the little battery, activating the solenoid, which then connected the airframe battery to the bus.

Thats the reason that the Anti-gravity battery was still charged when you got it home, because it wasn't doing any of the work. Maybe only slightly trying to recharge the airframe batt. after cranking for 10 secs.

If the airframe batt is too low to even engage the solenoid, not sure the anti-gravity battery would be much help...unless you use it to power up the radio and call somebody

Barnstormer wrote: .......Instead of putting in the front Selkirk panel I installed a cargo net. .....

Tell me more about the Selkirk front panel. If it's part of their extended baggage, I assume that it's easily removed. Is it plastic, aluminum, soft fabric, or ?

There are only two parts to the Selkirk ext baggage. The floor, and the panel that fits at sta. 140.

Not to sound like a broken record, but IMHO I would choose the Airglas over the Selkirk in a heartbeat. Just no comparison... Available for C180-C180K, 182-182D, and 185-185E (provided the A/C has the battery relocated from sta. 108.) The only downside is the price difference... Cant argue about that.

Airglas also comes with "approved" tie-down hardware that is made to work with Cessna P/N 2015009-3 or "equivalent."

bart wrote:I don't think the ground service plug bypasses the airframe battery, I think it's like jumping a car battery, it just connects the two in parallel (or series, i can never remember which is which) The click you heard was power from the little battery, activating the solenoid, which then connected the airframe battery to the bus.

Thats the reason that the Anti-gravity battery was still charged when you got it home, because it wasn't doing any of the work. Maybe only slightly trying to recharge the airframe batt. after cranking for 10 secs.

If the airframe batt is too low to even engage the solenoid, not sure the anti-gravity battery would be much help...unless you use it to power up the radio and call somebody

Not on my 185. It's a full bypass. I originally thought I could use it to charge the battery externally, not the case. Verified by my IA.

Barnstormer wrote:

bart wrote:I don't think the ground service plug bypasses the airframe battery, I think it's like jumping a car battery, it just connects the two in parallel (or series, i can never remember which is which) The click you heard was power from the little battery, activating the solenoid, which then connected the airframe battery to the bus.

Thats the reason that the Anti-gravity battery was still charged when you got it home, because it wasn't doing any of the work. Maybe only slightly trying to recharge the airframe batt. after cranking for 10 secs.

If the airframe batt is too low to even engage the solenoid, not sure the anti-gravity battery would be much help...unless you use it to power up the radio and call somebody

Not on my 185. It's a full bypass. I originally thought I could use it to charge the battery externally, not the case. Verified by my IA.

Well in that case, I stand corrected! Still hard to believe you could get starting amperage through those little wires and not have a smoking mess afterward Carry on!

hotrod180 wrote:

Barnstormer wrote: .......Instead of putting in the front Selkirk panel I installed a cargo net. .....

Tell me more about the Selkirk front panel. If it's part of their extended baggage, I assume that it's easily removed. Is it plastic, aluminum, soft fabric, or ?

Fiberglass. Just like the back panel and the two interior side panels. Net is way better and easier. Bear in mind that mine is a A185F, and 185 models after sn 185-1149 came with factory extended baggage, according to Todd Hitchcock. So Selkirk sells all the replacement pieces for these planes.

bart wrote:Still hard to believe you could get starting amperage through those little wires and not have a smoking mess afterward Carry on!

There's a video out there on YouTube somewhere where some guy hooked three of these up to weld a tie-rod in the field, pretty clever. Plenty of video's of guys starting their pickup trucks with the battery completely disconnected. Crazy.

bart wrote:Still hard to believe you could get starting amperage through those little wires and not have a smoking mess afterward Carry on!

Thought the same thing... The book calls for 2 gauge to the from the batt to the starter, but I suppose since it's such a short run you can squeak buy...

Fact is, you would only really use it in an emergency situation to get you home, so WFT. As I mentioned, you have to remove the shore power plug when moving the batt forward, so to use this method, you would have to make a custom cable that you could quickly install in the field to the batt terminals and jump thru the oil door, OR get a FA for installing the shore power plug on the firewall somehow like a later model 182. First option seems like the easiest.

bigrenna wrote:...you would have to make a custom cable that you could quickly install in the field to the batt terminals and jump thru the oil door,...seems like the easiest.

That's my plan.

And, as I mentioned earlier, when you do actually remember to turn your master switch off (leave the strobe switch on at all times as a clue) the little Anti Gravity battery works great to keep all your "gadgets" charged.

Great little tool in my opinion.

MTV