The 182 lumbers

mention that as one of the features they like best about the aircraft; they have confidence in the engine. Rate of climb is another plus. You can get off quickly and through weath- er at a respectable clip. Climbing out at 80 knots produces an initial climb rate of about 1,000 fpm; it gives you a margin that allows you to operate where you might not want to with an- other airplane. While prices for new Sky lanes are climbing almost as briskly as the air- craft itself does, used ones can make a SKYIANE Third on the lighfplane best-seller list, it's roomy and solid. 34 • OCTOBER 1981 good investment. The new 1981 Sky- lane on the cover, without avionics, costs $56,510.92. The $5,000 differ- ence between that price and the list price of $51,500 pays for dual con- trols, control wheels, alternate static source, necessary lights, an engine priming system and an articulating seat for the pilot. But used 182s cost much less. Two AOPA staff members, Robert Warner (vice president, ATC, Airports and Airspace) and Dennis Wright (di- rector, Airspace Technology Depart- ment), own a 1964 model, their second Sky lane. They bought it in 1979 for $18,600; book value is now $17,800. When they bought it, the aircraft had 130 hours on a factory-remanu- factured, chromed-cylinder engine, brought up to specs. They have had no engine problems, and the compression is still, with half the engine TBO run out, "tight as can be," said Wright. They have definite ideas about the aircraft, too. Wright said that the en- gine and the long-range tanks are what he liked best about it. Warner voted for the stability-"it's a great instrument platform"-and capacity-"it's like a bus, in that it will haul anything you can cram into it." Archie Trammell, executive vice president of the AOP A Air Safety Foundation, also owns an older Sky- lane and likes it for much the same rea- sons that Warner and Wright gave. Trammell has flown a number of more sophisticated, faster craft, but he in- tends to stick with the 182. His was three years old when he bought it in 1972, and a Montana rancher had put 400 rough hours, plus a few dings and dents, on it. It had only one ARC 300- series radio then and the usual Skylane package, but he has been through three or four sets of radios since. He current- ly has a King KX 170 as the number- one nav/com, with glideslope, and a Collins Microline B as number two. The panel includes a King KR 86 auto- matic direction finder (AD F), a KN 65 DME (distance measuring equipment), an IDC VNA V (vertical navigation sys- tem) hooked to the number-one radio and a King KMA 20 audio panel. A King KN 74 RNA V (area navigation system), a device that Trammell has found to be especially useful, is mated with the KX 170. The eclectic panel also has two transponders, as a backup-a King KT 76 and an IDC servoed altime- ter, and a Collins Microline transponder with an Aerosonic encoding altimeter. The investment in equipment on a 1969 aircraft suggests serious instru- ment work, and that is exactly what Trammell uses it for. He has flown the aircraft for 2,500 hours, in the nine years he has had it, including a lot of IFR hours. Trammell said he tends to take rather long business trips in it. Though he might make up a few hours in a faster airplane, the whole business day usually is taken up anyway; so saving an hour or two really does not seem a great advantage. Warner and Wright have not added as much equipment, but they haven't owned their Skylane as long as Tram- mell has. With dual nav/com (one King 720-channel, one ARC), glide- slope, marker beacon, King transpon- der and ADF and a Brittain one-axis autopilot, they regularly fly IFR, too. Because they do, they have installed an intercom, which was assembled from a Radio Systems Technology kit, with jacks, push-to-talk buttons and micro- phones for both. New Cleveland wheels and brakes were among the first things on the re- placement list. The original ones were "noisy and awful," said Wright. "With the new ones," Wright said, "I think you could recalculate the ac- celerate/stop distances." A Brackett air filter works better than the old one, they said, and is less expensive to maintain. The old one had a paper element with a screen on each side, and you had to toss the whole thing when changing the filter. The foam pad element for the Brackett takes "two minutes to install, if you're slow," and costs only $5. Wright and Warner perform oil analyses and said they can tell from the reports when they have overextended the air filter. Norman Smith's aileron trim is a new addition, which they helped in- stall. A new windshield, without a cen- ter post, called for the relocation of the wet compass, which they also replaced at the same time. A DG (directional gyro) gave out and was replaced, and an ADF antenna broke in flight; but the only other maintenance problems the co-owners have had was with normal replacement items, such as tires. The Goodyear fuel cell airworthiness directive in 1978 had been complied with before Wright and Warner bought the airplane, but Trammell was not as lucky. Since he is also an air- frame and powerplant mechanic, he in- stalled the replacement himself. New fuel cells cost, at the time, $700 each, wholesale. Cessna switched to wet wings in 1978. Trammell has just had his second major engine overhaul. The first, at 1,870 hours, was done in July 1976, after a jug blew and one exhaust valve started leaking. Between majors, he had two chrome cylinders installed and changed the exhaust system. At 2,869 hours, after five years of operation, valve guides were leaking, the propel- ler-governor drive gear came loose on the shaft, and a couple of other prob- lems surfaced; so the second overhaul was done. The rest of the cylinders were replaced, a new alternator was in- stalled, and the starter was overhauled. Trammell's original prop was chewed up from ranch operations, so new blades were installed; then a major prop overhaul was done at 1,900 hours. A cowl flap once broke loose in flight-a not-uncommon occurrence in Skylanes. Replacement cost $100, and the actual break caused consternation in flight. Skylane pilots should caution their mechanics to look carefully for cracks in the cowl-flap hinges when per- AOPA PILOT· 35 Nol all Slcylanes come wilh Brand C avionics. The cover aircrafl's nalced-Ioolcingpanel (above) was wailing inlhe shop of Summil Aviation in Middletown, Delaware, for an installation of the purchaser's choice. Chances are, it may not be as well equipped as the one that Summit did for the Delaware State Police, with Collins Microline and a King flight direc/or (below). confinud forming inspections, Trammell noted. Carburetors, because of their loca- tion, get a lot of vibration; Trammell has had two new ones and had one of them overhauled. Sky lane pilots should be careful not to bump into the fuel vent under the left wing. The position of the vent is critical to one thirty-second of an inch-if it is off, it could collapse a fuel cell. Another cautionary note: If you no- tice oil on the nosewheel pant, it could be a sign of bad intake-valve guides. You can check further by feeling in the carburetor inlet to see if there is oil there. Oil from the rocker-arm covers finds its way through worn guides to the intake manifold and then to the carburetor and wheel pant. Windshields are another thing to look out for. A couple of years ago, I was flying a 40-hour-old Skylane over Kentucky, through a heavy rainstorm. My copilot started mopping up the wa- ter that was bubbling through the base of the windshield. Then, to my horror. I noticed that my feet were getting wet. (My real concern was not for my feet, but for the avionics.) The problem is not confined to new Skylanes. Tram- mell jokingly said that he judges the severity of instrument conditions by the number of Kleenexes used on the windshield on a flight. Skylane pilots buy a lot of caulking. The caulking problem with newer Sky lanes is one of the difficulties Cess- na has been having with quality con- trol. The two most obvious indications are the caulking and what appears to be poor skin preparation before the air- craft are painted. Everything from the snugness of a door fitting to rigging to electrical wir- ing can be below par. One staff mem- ber flew a new Skylane in which the panel rheostat lighting control some- how had been wired into the avionics speaker. If lights were needed, he had to suffer an unearthly howl. Certain supplied parts, such as gyros, can be below specifications also. As we have suggested in other arti- cles, it pays to check a new aircraft, as well as used ones, thoroughly. (Pilof plans to run an article on preacceptance checks within the next few months.) There has not been an excessive number of major ADs on the Skylane. However, there were several on magne- tos, carburetors, vented fuel caps and dry air pumps. The latest requires the inspection of certain Stewart-Warner oil coolers for leaks before each flight. Ask a Skylane pilot what could be done to improve the breed, and you will find a relatively content bunch. Cessna has retracted the gear, for the Sky lane RG, and turbocharged both the RG and the straight-leg. What else could be done? Charlie Seibel, AOPA 355532, has an an- swer. As we reported in the Februaty 1980 issue of Pilof (p. 78), Seibel and his wife Julia first worked on cleaning up the Skyhawk, to the tune of an ad- ditional 11 knots, then started improv- ing the Sky lane's performance. Seibel claims that with his streamlining modi- fications to the nose gear, main gear, wing-strut fairings, cowling and pro- peller-spinner closures, flap well and aileron seals, a straight Skylane will cruise better than 17 knots faster, or 20 to 23 mph, depending on the model of Sky lane. Or, he puts it another way, you can fly 50 percent farther on a gal- 36 • OCTOBER 1981 SKYIANE New-Skylane prices are climbing as briskly as the aircraft does. Ion of fuel at current cruise settings. "A 30-gallon trip becomes a 20-gallon trip," Seibel said. . Seibel started marketing complete kits the first of the year; his company is Flight Bonus, Post Office Box 665, Hurst, Texas 76053; telephone 817/265-1650. The works would cost you between $1,805 and $2,130, de- pending on your model of Skylane. Seibel said that the Skylane SG (for streamlined gear, which is what he is calling the conversions), performs like a Skylane RG, without the increased insurance cost (for the retractable gear) and increased maintenance. Seibel said that landing gear on the Skylane creates one third of the total drag of the aircraft and the conversion eliminates 83 percent of that. In addi- tion to cleaning up the gear, which in- cludes covering the brakes, Seibel of- fers flap-well seals to smooth the flow of the air under the wing's lower sur- face, more streamlined wing-strut fair- ings and a kit to eliminate what he calls unnecessary airflow through the cowl- ing and the prop spinner. Flying a Skylane in rain shows some of the more visible areas of drag. Water pools and runs up the wing struts; it pools on the top of the main-gear fair- ings and also on the tailcone behind the rear window. Seibel's improvements include more modifications since our 1980 report; we plan to fly an SG for a later article. Owners can do the conversion; it is time-consuming work, Seibel admitted, for it involves a lot of fitting and trim- ming. You also can have it done. George Kennedy, the actor, AOPA 389008, is one SkyIane owner who has had the modification done in Texas, by Robertson Enterprises. Kennedy, who bought his 1979 Sky lane used, with about 200 hours on it, told me that he has owned seven airplanes, but ended up with a Skylane because he loves it. He has put about 35 to 40 hours on his conversion, flying it from California to Dallas, to Vancouver, to Albuquerque, and has done extensive and detailed checks and cross checks. ''I'm not in the business of selling kits for Charlie Seibel," he told me, "but his informa- tion is absolutely accurate. My aircraft consistently trues out at 152 knots, in- stead of 144, at the normal altitudes- 4,500 to 9,500 feet. And air tempera- tures have been running 20° to 30° above normal out here." Kennedy has a Sperry radar pod on the right wing, so he thinks that an SG without radar might do even better than his does. He does say that the cleaned-up airplane is a lot slipperier and floats much more than a regular Skylane does. Another thing you can do to a Sky- lane is take it to Robertson Aircraft Corporation for a STOL (short takeoff and landing) conversion. Robertson, at Snohomish County Airport, North Complex-72, Everett, Washington 98204, telephone 800/426-0192, works on customer-owned aircraft. The company does about 20 single-en- gine Cessna conversions a month at the Washington facility. It also has four franchised installation centers in this country and three in Canada. In five working days, your 1972 or newer Skylane can be modified for $6,200; 1956 through 1971 models take 10 working days and $7,500. In 1971, Cessna started offering the mod- ified leading edge and wing tips; so Toby Andrews of Robertson said the later models need only the internal in- terconnections of the flaps and the aile- AOPA PILOT' 37 SKYIANE Here 10 slay, Ihe Skylane has earned ils forgiving repulation. rons, not the new leading edge and wing tips. Basically, the modification makes the ailerons droop with the flaps for a full- span trailing edge flap that increases lift for takeoff and drag for landing. Andrews said, that with a standard air- craft at gross weight on a standard day with no wind, the Robertson STOL conversion reduces takeoff distance over a SO-foot obstacle from the facto- ry figure of 1,350 to 815 feet. Landing over a SO-foot obstacle is reduced from 1,350 to 777 feet. Takeoff speed goes down to 45 knots, and you approach at 55. Stall speed is reduced by seven knots. (These figures are for a fixed- gear Skylane, but Andrews pointed out that all Sky lanes can be converted.) The next best thing to a conversion is joining the Cessna Skylane Society, recommended Warner and Wright. For $18 a year, you get a monthly news let- ter (except in August, when the annual convention is held). It contains six pages of editorial material-ADs, serv- ice letters, new products, tips, ques- tions and answers-plus an eight-page advertising supplement that also goes to members of the related Skyhawk and Centurion societies. The advertise- ments offer substantial discounts to members. Warner and Wright have taken advantage of the discounts for many of the additions and modifica- tions to their Skylane. Robert Greene runs the three organi- zations. You can contact him at No.3 Lafayette Court, Post Office Box 761, Camden, South Carolina 29020; tele- phone 803/432-3586. Greene flies a Sky lane himself and likes it for the same reasons the rest of us do, with emphasis on the roominess-he weighs 280 pounds. He thinks that the design needs little improvement, echoing oth- ers' sentiments on the Seibel modifica- tions. Once you have gained an extra 23 mph from the airplane, what more can you ask of it? (One might ask why the factory has not been able to get an extra 23 mph out of it.) I have flown the Skylane down many a glideslope myself, glad that it is roomy, comfortable, stable, depend- able, reliable, solid, sturdy and forgiv- ing. When you receive four clearance changes before you take off and you know it is going to be one of those flights, when you are vectored an hour and a half on what should be a 30- minute leg or when the VFR forecast turns black, it is nice to know that the Skylane is helping you through, not likely to add to your problems. But Skylane pilots can still wish for a touch more speed, a bit more dash, smaller fuel bills, and a great deal more quality control. 0 CESSNA 182R SKYLANE 1981 Base price $51,000 AOPA Pilot Operations/Equipment Category: IFR Specificalions Powerplant Teledyne Continental 0-470U, 6 cylinder, 230 hp @ 2,400 rpm Recommended TBO 1,500 hr Propeller McCauley 2 blade, 82 in, constant speed, hydraulically actuated W~p~ ~ft Length 28 ft H~g~ 9ft3~ Wing area 174.7 sq ft Wing loading 17.8Ib/sq ft Power loading 13.5Ib/hp Seats 4 Cabin length 11 ft 2 in Cabin width 3 ft 6 in Cabin height 4 ft Empty weight 1,720Ib Useful load 1,3901b Payload w/full fuel 8621b Max ramp weight 3,1101b Max takeoff weight 3,1001b Max landing weight 2,9501b Fuel capacity, std 552 Ib (528 usable) 92 gal (88 usable) 12qt 200lb 970 nm 980 nm 4,900 ft 129 kt 133 kt 66 pph (11 gph) 140 KlAS 95 KlAS 143 KIAS 179 KIAS 54 KlAS 49 KIAS Cruise speed, 65 % power 4,000 ft 8,000 ft Fuel consumption Cruise speed, 55% power 4,000 ft 118 kt 8,000 ft 121 kt Fuel consumption 57 pph (9.5 gph) Range @ 75% cruise w/45-min res, std fuel, best economy 4,000 ft 805 nm 8,000 ft 820 nm Range @ 65% cruise w/45-min res, std fuel, best economy 4,000 ft 890 nm 8,000 ft 905 nm Range @ 55% cruise w/45-min res, std fuel, best economy 4,000 ft 8,000 ft Service ceiling Landing distance ground roll 590 ft over 50 fl obstacle 1,350 ft Limiting and Recommended Airspeeds Vx (Best angle of climb) 59 KIAS Vy (Best rate of climb) 81 KIAS Va (Design maneuvering) III KIAS Vfe (Max flap extended) up to 10' 10' to 40' Vno (Normal operating) Vne (Never exceed) Vsi (Stall clean) Vso (Stall in landing configuration) All specifications are based on manufacturer" calculations. All performance figures are based on standard day, standard a/mo- sphere, at Sia level and gross weight, unless otherwise noted. Opera/ions/Equipmen/ Category ref/eels aircraft mode!"s maxi- mum capability. See June 1981 Pilot, p. 103. 805 ft 1,115 ft 865 fpm 146 kt 137 kt 142 kt 78 pph (13 gph) Oil capacity Baggage capacity Performance Takeoff distance (ground roll) over 50 ft obstacle Rate of climb, sea level Max level speed, sea level Cruise speed, 75% power 4,000 ft 8,000 ft Fuel consumption 38 • OCTOBER 1981