Say you were starting over, or needed a change. If you had $150k to spend on a new bush plane, what would you buy? Newer, older, certified, experimental, homebuilt. Only requirement is it has to have room for 4, 2 adults, 2 young kids, and camping gear. Have fun!

AK2ID wrote:Say you were starting over, or needed a change. If you had $150k to spend on a new bush plane, what would you buy? Newer, older, certified, experimental, homebuilt. Only requirement is it has to have room for 4, 2 adults, 2 young kids, and camping gear. Have fun!

Bearhawk.


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Ditto the Bearhawk. You can buy/build a *whole* lotta Bearhawk for $150K!

Cyclone 180

A 182

Great performance, cheap to insure and it will go 90 percent of the places down here in the states that most backcountry pilots go to. Great performance bang for the buck. If you are not into backcountry flying put small tires and wheel pants on it and have a nice cruiser. Even with small tires and wheel pants it will still go a lot places in the backcountry. Great airplane!

A 206 is even better but might be hard finding a good one for under 150k. 205's are great too but good ones are hard to find.

Kurt

The Maule M6 currently listed in the marketplace ads. Then I'd use the extra 30K for gas!

Consider a Cherokee 6 also.

There’s a really nice Bearhawk for sale on barnstormers for 139k.

Something to think about is cargo area with all 4 seats in place. There doesn’t seem to be a whole lot of room for camping gear in the Bearhawk with all 4 seats installed. It may or may not work out for you depending on how much stuff you bring along. I can tell from the looks of it and how much crap my family brings along that it wouldn’t work for me. A Cessna 180/185 with a flat floor extended baggage area leaves a lot of room for gear even with 4 seats in. You can also add a cargo pod for more room. Or a 205/206 would probably be the best bet for a family of 4 and gear if it doesn’t have to be a taildragger.

Chris In Marshfield wrote:Ditto the Bearhawk. You can buy/build a *whole* lotta Bearhawk for $150K!

I have to agree that the Bearhawk fits the mission well, and has a fun element to it, but they aren't available complete, only as kits. There are few used ones to be found, some with amazing build quality and some with horrendous build quality.

From this page, which could use some beefing-out, there aren't that many options.

- Bearhawk
- Dream Tundra
- Murphy Moose
- Glasair Sportsman 2+2
- Maule models
- Pacers
- Stinson 108
- 4-place Cub-types
- Zenith CH801

I omitted Cessnas because it seems like you've already barked up that tree.

Cessna 180-185 -even a 182 will go 90% of the places the Skywagons will go. 205 is good too. Why reinvent the wheel? Well proven designs with good parts support. Sorry-Bush hawk is just a glorified homebuilt Pacer. Four people and cargo is going to be stuffed to the gills. Then there's the other issue of resale. Plain fact that you will be lucky to get just the price of the materials and parts on the resale of a homebuilt.

The M6 mentioned above. Certified, fun, fast, utilitarian, in and out short, all with a very high badass factor.

Cessna 185

Meh, just buy a Maule...

RockHopper wrote: Sorry-Bush hawk is just a glorified homebuilt Pacer. Four people and cargo is going to be stuffed to the gills.

Nah...the Bearhawk is quite a bit bigger dimensionally. If you hang a 540 on it it has the juice and balances well such that you can use a little extended baggage. Plus it has the huge double cargo door like a Maule.

I can't say anything bad about the 185, but the Bearhawk is much more than a glorified Pacer.

Cessna 180/185

Unless you can provide suitable housing go aluminum, go 180/185

We have raised two boys, from infancy through their current 15 and 16, in the back of a 180. I highly recommend one.

A quick Barnstormers search resulted in this 180; no connection to me. The 3190# gross weight is a nice feature. If you're not interested in floats, they could be sold for 20K +/-. That leaves lots of room under 150 for improvements and gas.

1974 CESSNA 180 ON AEROCETS • $117,900 • PRICE SLASHED • FOR SALE 1974 C180, 3366TT, 988SMOH ( Bulduc ), Aerocet 3500L, P Ponk Gear Box mod, LR fuel, Auto STC, 4 pl icom, jump seats, Ext baggage, Horton STOL, KX250XL, Garmin 340, transponder, BAS harness, new bladders, tail pulls, new fuel sumps, 3190 upgross, one pc windshield, APU, Tanis heater, Rosens, paint/ int 5. Wheel gear included. Located northern Minnesota. $117900.. CONTACT: Randy Macdonell Owner 218-244-9113 • Contact Rusty Eichorn - NORTHBOUND SEAPLANE BASE, Friend of Owner - located Grand Rapids, MN USA • Telephone: 218-244-1049 . • Fax: 218-326-9437 •

Now if you could just put the 170B tail-feathers on a 180 she'd be damn near perfect !!!!!

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Short answer: cessna 185