Lance,
There was a real nice '54 180 in ND with 115SMOH for $79K last summer. There is also an early model with very few hrs SMOH in central MN that I know the guy still has. It is not advertised and was offered to me because he is a friend. Not sure if he wants to sell it still as he wanted to trade for one I had. He was asking $75K for it.
If I can find the guys number I'll forward it to you since I think I have given up on being able to afford the upkeep of one. I could buy one but it would not be flown as much as the other planes I have.
Keith

Thanks Keith, I would appreciate any tips you guys have.

Lance

I shave my back and stand up to poop. So, where does that put me on the foodchain?

I think your still evolving.

Bill

Pre-Buy comment

Learned the hard way that you want to have an ANNUAL done rather than a pre-buy. The annual requires the mechanic / inspector to SIGN off on it. A pre-buy has no "official" standing with the possibility of key items that are not obviously visible to you to be delt with at the next annual.

I have seen people get stuck with close to $20,000 of repairs at annual that were not covered at a pre-buy.

You can tell the seller that you will pay the pre-buy cost of an annual, but if the ANNUAL comes up with lots of EXTRAS, the seller still owns it. and the problems.

Lance

If you haven 't found the 180 buyers guide at he 180 club website yet, here's what you do.

Go to the website. Go to members only. Then to aviation clasifieds. Scroll down to other resources. It should be the 1st article when you enter. I was just there.

Good luck Gary

Thanks for the info--There is some good info there!

Lance

Just a thread bump here as I know several folks shopping for a 180.

I would say that having my plane on skis has been the hardest thing on my aircraft hands down. With floats you get the doubler on the belly skins but not with skis and IMO opinion, skis are much harder on the skins than floats. At least water is a bit forgiving but snow has so many variables and the forces you get from turning on skis just works your plane. Just my 2c.

AKT

Remember when there was talk of an AD on Cessna 170/180/185 gear legs? As I understand, the ones that were failing all had ski time on them. And there's a rason why they call steel or solid (not hollow) aluminum axles "ski axles".

Anyone know off hand what the steel ski axles weigh? Thinking about removing mine given that it no longer snows in the Sierras not to mention how hard they are on the plane

aktahoe1 wrote:Anyone know off hand what the steel ski axles weigh? Thinking about removing mine given that it no longer snows in the Sierras not to mention how hard they are on the plane

Kevin-
I mis-read your question the first time I replied to it. I guess you are referring to the stub axles for your wheel skis. I was going to put in a plug for titanium main axles. I don't know if the Landing Gear Works makes titanium stub axles, or if they'd be willing to custom-fab a set. Sorry about your poor run of snow years down there. Ski flying may be hard on an airframe, but I'm too far gone now to kick.
-DP

Wow--fun to see this thread come back up!

We ended up buying a 54 model back in March of 08, and still have it today.

Nice choice!