Barnstormer wrote:Might be worth looking at.

http://www.skywagons.com/_planes/9763H/9763H.html

You don't even need to PPonk it, it already has a good engine in it!!
Hello, and Welcome

Welcome!

My old 206 is for sale again: http://alaskaslist.com/1/posts/10_Trans ... a_206.html

Good airplane, not hammered at all.

Sierra Victor wrote:Sat in a Maule M7 this morning......no way I'll fit. They aren't made for a 6'4" body.
...With the cost of insurance on a 206 being prohibitive for me, and the lack of interior room and cross wind limitations of the 185, I'm actually looking at...........

a 182.

It is tough to beat a 182. As much as I wanted a 180, and looked at several, I just could not get past some things:

1.the wider fuselage (I'm 6'7 or so, my other half is close to that, and we fit 4 for weekend trips in the rockies).

2. While I burn 11 gph or so up high, but it goes *up high* at full gross without complaining. HP/wing loading is king.

3. purchase price- hands down winner. There are a lot of solid 182's with IFR panels for under 50k.

4. Insurance: I paid $530 or so for 65k in coverage for my 182 this year. Things will go back up with the financial markets, but more expensive insurance rates will go up even more.

5. If there is an airstrip over 1000' at under ~5k' DA, the 182 will do the job with plenty of room to spare when lightly loaded. You mow the grass with the prop a lot more

The itty bitty 5x5 tire up front sucks if it is soft, but an oversized nose fork fixes that. It's only a problem if you are headed into really rough or soft strips (and sand, in my case...I'm putting the itty bitty one back on after Utah gets cold). And the 6x6's on the mains seem to handle nearly any other patch of land that might be called an established airfield. 90% of the established airstrips in the Idaho backcountry are fine, for example, the few that aren't either have no good fishing nearby or a better strip a few miles away around the corner.