Wondering: what's the lightest interior kit currently available for the 180/185? We love the warmth and sound deadening of the puffy interior, but the weight - oh my!

New 180 owner. Mine is mostly calculated, and still going through the logs to see what might not have been weighed. Goal is to get it under 1600 and still be a comfortable 4 place airplane.

1955 180
1641lbs

Rear battery
Full leather interior
Old school IFR panel
470L
82” C66
185 gear legs
6.00x6 with panties

Bwilson2391 wrote:New 180 owner. Mine is mostly calculated, and still going through the logs to see what might not have been weighed. Goal is to get it under 1600

No way. I would say absolute lightest with stripped out interior, no paint, no wheel pants, no instruments, no back seat, no radios, small battery, small starter, etc is 1650-1700, which includes full oil and unusable fuel.

Bwilson2391 wrote: New 180 owner. Mine is mostly calculated, and still going through the logs to see what might not have been weighed. Goal is to get it under 1600 and still be a comfortable 4 place airplane. 1955 180 1641lbs …..

Seems awfully light considering how it's set up
.Mine is heavier than that with jumpseats & small firewall battery.
You might try to get it on a set of scales to verify before you start making changes.
I'm curious what you are thinking of doing to reduce weight?

hotrod180 wrote:

Bwilson2391 wrote: New 180 owner. Mine is mostly calculated, and still going through the logs to see what might not have been weighed. Goal is to get it under 1600 and still be a comfortable 4 place airplane. 1955 180 1641lbs …..

Seems awfully light considering how it's set up
.Mine is heavier than that with jumpseats & small firewall battery.
You might try to get it on a set of scales to verify before you start making changes.
I'm curious what you are thinking of doing to reduce weight?

I have no doubt it would weigh a bit heavier than 1641. However, I have the original 1955 weight and balance from the factory, and has the airplane at 1535lbs.

Nothing crazy for weight reduction, just plan pull some of the old radios out, firewall light weight battery, just a pound here, a pound there. Toying with the idea of an MT 2 blade, which would shave off some more weight.

Just daydreaming.


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The original weight and balance from the factory are pretend numbers. My 170’s original W&B says 1223 lbs. Not a chance in hell! Maybe with the all the seats out, no carpet, one yoke, no paint. When I bought my plane, it had never be put on scales. Everything had been calculated. When I put it on a certified set of scales for the first time, it gained 115 lbs.

Bwilson2391 wrote:I have no doubt it would weigh a bit heavier than 1641. However, I have the original 1955 weight and balance from the factory, and has the airplane at 1535lbs.

Seriously, the plane has never been on scales? Those factory #'s are not real to begin with and didn't include a lot of items, either. Nor did it include unusable fuel, full oil, etc. Take out the interior, back seat, instruments, radios, strip the paint, put the original gear legs back on, etc., etc and you still are not going to be lighter than 1650

I wasn’t trying to start an argument. The logbooks show the airplane weighed on scales back in the 50’s a year or so after delivery, and has documented, IA signed WB changes since then. I’ll get it on scales soon.


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Its not even just the weight that matters so much from original, but also the CG location. I just had a '76 182 on scales. Calculated at the factory and every time since then. Turns out the weight was fairly close, but they had the CG calculated 2" further ahead then actual. This makes quite a difference for loading.

Bwilson2391 wrote:I wasn’t trying to start an argument

I certainly wasn’t trying to either. There is enough drama around.
That’s a very clean looking 180 you got there. Nice find. Looks like a great place to throw 10’s of $1,000’s at

Don’t guess I’ve contributed to this yet...

‘67 H model, 29” ABW, 88” C66, utility/stripped interior, firewall battery w/Airglas extended baggage. Cadillac articulating seats is the only luxury.

1735lbs as weighed last annual. Still have boat anchor navcom and vacuum to ditch as well as LW starter and alternator on the list this year. Think I can get reasonably close to 1700lbs on bushwheels.

akgreg wrote:That’s a very clean looking 180 you got there. Nice find.

I agree - nice, clean simple scheme

I had a guy ask me what my '53 weighed last summer. He has a 55 I think.
I have a 520, 3 blade, 6 bolt clevelands, 8.50's at the time, 10" tailwheel, jump seats, sportsman cuff, 185 gear legs, firewall battery, basic vfr panel, and minimal interior. It was weighed just after I bought it, the only W&B that came with the plane said it weighed 1550. The scales said it was 1701.
I told the guy who asked that it was 1701, he immediately looked inside and said "what do you have, lead panels in there?" He insists his is far lighter, I don't recall the number but it seemed incredulous to me. Especially since he has the same prop, 0470-50, 8.50x10's, and other weight adding items.

I am new at all this airplane stuff, but it sure seems to me that most people have not weighed their planes, and what they think it weighs is not reality.

I'm hoping to get mine down to 1650. I've removed about 20 pounds so far, 14 of it in seats.

Pinecone wrote:1976 A185F. 18502909. Pushing 1900 lb. empty. IO-550, MT 3 blade. King digital panel. Articulating seats, 4 seats total. Rear battery. No STOL kit. 6:00 X 6. Heavy upholstery and carpet. Float kit.

Planning to go to the firewall battery, and flat floor baggage, but add a hydraulic pump for Aerocets in the tail plus the hand pump. Lakevue second row seats are in hand. Lighter carpet and upholstery planned. Panel will be upgraded, but this is also my cross country cruiser, so I may end up with Aspen, GPS Nav com, etc. Would like to ditch the Vacuum pump, so maybe a Sandia or L3 backup EFIS. Probably still a net weight increase though. I hope I can keep it under 1900 on wheels. We just added secondary seat stop, door stewards, and planning PPonk gear kit, so it's really hard to keep these things from getting fat. I also carry a lot of "stuff".

The solution is more power!

My airplane keeps getting fatter. Just added 8.50-6 tires and tubes, 6 bolt ABI wheels and brakes, ski axles and cable attach fittings, and a Pponk gear reinforcement kit. Now at 1944 lb. with the skis on it’s 2076 lb.

And I’ve yet to add a tail ski.....

StillLearning wrote:... seems to me that most people have not weighed their planes, and what they think it weighs is not reality

Sometimes ignorance is bliss.

We all run into owners who think they have a light airframe, but have never weighed it. I’m a bit discouraged with how heavy I’ve made my airplane, but there’s no STC I’d remove, and I’m glad to know the true weight.

I’ll confess to having been overweight once or twice. Once all the cargo is loaded, you’re faced with the question how much fuel should you load. Knowing that the airplane will fly a little overweight, but won’t fly on empty tanks, I’ve erred on the side of safety. I also know that the limitations are based more on performance than structural limitations. I make up for a bit of that with extra horsepower.

I worry about those who don’t weigh. They may do the same as me, and having lied to themselves, end up even further outside gross weight than they think. Even worse, outside CG limits.

Pinecone wrote:I worry about those who don’t weigh. They may do the same as me, and having lied to themselves, end up even further outside gross weight than they think. Even worse, outside CG limits.

A lot of these planes probably have an empty weight CG far more forward than the owners realized.

I did a complete glass panel upgrade on my 1964 Cessna 180, removed the vacuum system since I installed a backup G5. The plane has been in my family since new, and it has never been reweighed since picked up from the factory. Over the course of the past 56 years, it has had two instrument upgrades, STC for O-520, STOL, Flint tip tanks, increased gross weight, float kit, several other more minor mods. It has 8.00 tires. The new weight and balance after each has been calculated. The recalculated weight after the panel upgrade suggested that it was 27 pounds lighter. I decided to do an actual re-weigh and the actual weight came in at 1870 pounds, 123 pounds heavier than the calculated weight. I'm sure that the original factory weight was not accurate anyway, but with all the years and mods, the calculated weight likely got even farther from reality. With a gross weight of 3190 pounds and 84 gallons of fuel, it still can carry 822 pounds.

Boneflier wrote:I did a complete glass panel upgrade on my 1964 Cessna 180........With a gross weight of 3190 pounds and 84 gallons of fuel, it still can carry 822 pounds.

Don’t forget that AD75-16-01 downgrades your 84 gallons of fuel to 80, so you get an extra 24 pounds of payload! With “full fuel,” now you can carry 846 pounds.

Chris


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Interesting. As part of the upgrade, I put in the Cies fuel senders which are very accurate. When we calibrated them, the tanks each took 30 gallons. I guess those last 4 gallons don’t weigh anything.