Cessna 185 Skywagon: Brawny, backcountry workhorse

Few single-engine piston airplanes can comfortably haul four adults in and out of rough, 1,200-foot airstrips. And if you tack on a desire for IFR avionics, FAA certification, and a tailwheel, nothing fits the bill like a Cessna 185 Skywagon.

This brawny backcountry workhorse is the culmination of the lessons Cessna learned during decades of building tailwheel utility airplanes, including the 170 (1948 to 1956), 180 (1953 to 1981), and 185 (1961 to 1985). Each has a distinct personality—especially the Skywagon.

If the Skywagon were an automobile, it would be a Ford pickup. If it were a dog, it would be a Labrador retriever. If it were a football player, it would be an offensive tackle. If it were a character on a TV western, it would be Hoss. You get it.

The Herculean airplane’s useful load can almost match its empty weight. Its range (with optional long-range fuel tanks and lean-of-peak engine management) easily tops 800 nm. Using oversized wheels, floats, or skis, it can operate from almost any surface. Cessna 185 owners tend to regard their airplanes as loyal and trusted partners.

“If I won the lottery today, I’d still fly a Cessna 185 tomorrow,” said John Kounis, co-founder and editor of Pilot Getaways magazine, who has logged about 4,000 hours in his 1980 Skywagon since buying it in 1996. “It might get a bigger engine, turbonormalizing, and amphibious floats, but it would still be a 185. It’s the perfect airplane for the kinds of flying I enjoy most.”

That is to say IFR and VFR, short and long distances, low and high elevations, and to and from busy city airports and remote backcountry strips (often with a dog in the back, and brother George, an aerial photographer, dangling out an open door).

Kounis cautions that the 185 can be a handful on the ground. During takeoffs with a crosswind blowing from left to right, full right rudder is barely enough to keep the airplane straight. Spring steel landing gear can make main-wheel landings bouncy affairs, and full-stall landings demand complete and total aft yoke to get weight on the locking tailwheel for positive steering.

“I had about 100 hours of tailwheel time in Huskys and Citabrias when I bought my 185,” Kounis said. “It took 50 more hours until I really felt comfortable in it.”

Evolutionary origins

The popular Cessna 180 had already been in production for seven years when Cessna launched the Skywagon. They share almost identical dimensions, but the Skywagon has a larger dorsal fin to account for its bigger engine (260 or 300 horsepower instead of 230), and fuel injection to gain efficiency and eliminate the possibility of carburetor ice. In 1966, Cessna boosted the engine to 300 takeoff horsepower with a Continental IO-520-D (with a maximum continuous horsepower rating of 285). The new model’s 10-pound empty weight increase was offset by a 100-pound rise in gross weight, a shorter takeoff roll, and a slightly higher cruise speed. Later models also adopted a 24-volt electrical system instead of the original 12 volts.

Operators embraced the 185’s stellar capabilities, particularly in Canada and Alaska—where it provided an alternative to the larger, thirstier de Havilland DHC-2 Beaver. Cessna 185s also did well in the export market with more than a dozen countries’ militaries employing them as utility aircraft. The 185 is approved for up to six seats, but almost all owners remove the rear bench to make room for more cargo.

Cessna built 4,448 Sky-wagons by the time production ended in 1985. When Cessna resumed single-engine piston production in the mid-1990s, 185 enthusiasts begged for a restart of the Skywagon line. To their dismay, however, Cessna chose the nosewheel 206 as its heavy hauler instead.

About 2,500 Cessna 185s are registered in the United States and Canada, a high number considering the punishing and hazardous places that many of them spend their working lives. Their staying power is a tribute to the inherent toughness of the original design, the quality of their construction, and the value owners continue to place on flying and maintaining them. And 185s still command a premium in the used aircraft marketplace, with immaculately restored versions pushing $250,000.

Many mods

Pilot devotion to Skywagons shows in their insatiable desire to modify them. More horsepower usually is a good thing, and one of the most sought-after mods swaps IO-470s and IO-520s for higher-displacement IO-550s. And as long as we’re installing bigger engines, why not throw in turbonormalizing? Kounis recently flew a Cessna 185 with a Tornado Alley turbonormalizer and said he was astounded to find that on a hot, humid Oklahoma day (19 degrees F hotter than standard), the airplane delivered 191 KTAS at 23,000 feet.

“That’s fast for a Skywagon,” he said. “And even on a hot day, it only took 20 minutes to get to 18,000 feet.” (Kounis normally cruises 132 KTAS at 8,500 feet in his own normally aspirated airplane.) Other popular add-ons include Robertson or Horton STOL kits; vortex generators; flap handle extensions; Cleveland wheels and brakes; inertia reel shoulder belts; P. Ponk main landing gear reinforcement; bush tires; steel brake lines; bubble side windows; easily removable rear jump seats; and a cargo net.

Flying the Skywagon

I flew a cross-country trip in a Skywagon with photographer Mike Fizer and a few hundred pounds of photo and video gear. Across Minnesota, North Dakota, Montana, Wyoming, and Utah, the airplane performed flawlessly in both snow and desert heat, at altitudes up to 12,500 feet. But that’s not to say it was easy.

The Skywagon demands a firm hand on the tiller and big, timely control movements. If a Bonanza is a “two-finger” airplane, the Skywagon is a two-hander.

For takeoff, raise the flap handle two clicks for 20 degrees, or half flaps; line up with the centerline; lock the tailwheel; and smoothly apply full power. The rate of acceleration varies according to the load, surface, and density altitude, but the roaring engine/prop cacophony serves notice that something epic is happening.

Elevator neutral, the tailwheel tends to rise on its own about four seconds after brake release. The earlier the tailwheel comes up, the stronger the left-turning tendency, and even with rudder trim at the full-right takeoff setting, the 185 demands heavy right rudder pressure during the takeoff roll and initial climb. With people and cargo in back, moderate to heavy forward pressure on the yoke can be necessary to get the tailwheel off the ground.

Some 185 pilots with a flair for drama begin takeoff rolls with flaps up, then snatch the flap handle and make the airplane vault off the ground in a level attitude. Kounis said he’s measured the ground roll using this technique and found no discernable advantage over a normal takeoff. Also, for a pilot with arms shorter than an orangutan’s, reaching down to the floor for the flap handle means bending so far forward that it’s impossible to see over the nose—and that seems foolish, considering the airplane’s predisposition to swerve.

Once clear of obstacles and climbing at VY, smoothly raising the flaps produces a slight sink. Sea-level climb rates exceed 1,000 fpm, even with a heavy load.

Both elevator and rudder trim are manual, as are wing and cowl flaps. In cruise, the rudder is heavier than the elevator, and the elevator is heavier than the ailerons. Roll rates and pressures are slightly slower and heavier than a Cessna 182, with a trace more adverse yaw. The good news about the relatively heavy control pressures and sedate response is that the airplane trims out nicely in cruise, and holding headings and altitudes for long periods without an autopilot isn’t taxing. Like other high-wing Cessnas, fuel tends to drain unevenly from the right and left tanks when the fuel selector is on Both, so shifting between one tank and the other keeps the load balanced.

In bumpy air, the 185 tends to hold its own equilibrium. And whether the airplane is heavily or lightly loaded, its cruise speed does not seem to vary more than a knot or two.

Approaches in later-model 185s with reinforced flaps give pilots tremendous flexibility, since the airplanes can “go down and slow down” simultaneously. Drop the first notch of flaps at 120 knots during the descent and the second at 110. You can use full flaps at 85 knots, although deploying them requires a mighty tug on the long flap lever at that speed. It’s best to wait until 75 or less.

Full flaps create a monstrous amount of drag, and it’s easy to develop a high sink rate—particularly at high elevations. Full flaps are helpful for steep, obstructed approaches, but all that drag requires carrying some power into the landing flare.

I have a strong preference for full-stall, three-point landings in the 185. Even though such landings aren’t particularly elegant, they tend to be consistent, predictable, and surprisingly short. With touchdown speeds a shade under 50 knots, the ground roll is typically about 700 feet with light braking.

The Skywagon sits at a fairly flat deck angle, so the tailwheel often touches first in a full-stall landing. But the main gear soaks up any bounce, and the airplane tends to track straight with the tailwheel locked.

In gusty winds and crosswinds, Kounis coaches his right-seater to raise the flaps the instant the airplane touches down, a trick that kills any remaining lift and keeps the wheels firmly planted on the ground. If he’s alone in the airplane, he leaves the flaps down during rollout and his eyes outside.

Like other heavy Cessna singles, the Skywagon can be a beast during full-flap go-arounds when elevator trim is typically near its nose-up limit. Kounis counsels adding partial power to stop the descent, then re-trimming, adding full power, and raising the flaps in 10-degree increments during climb-out.

“The 185 has some quirks, but it’s also got some unique capabilities,” he said. “You can learn to deal with the quirks. But no other piston plane can do all of the things the 185 does so well. Fifty years after it was first produced, there’s still nothing else quite like it.”

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Photography by Mike Fizer

SPEC SHEET
Cessna 185F Skywagon

Specifications
Powerplant | Continental IO-520-D, 300 hp
Propeller | McCauley 3-blade, constant speed
Length | 25 ft 7.5 in
Height | 7 ft 9 in
Wingspan | 35 ft 10 in
Wing area | 174 sq ft
Wing loading | 19.3 lb/sq ft
Power loading | 11.2 lb/hp
Seats | Up to 6
Cabin length | 108 in
Cabin width | 40.25 in
Cabin height | 47 in
Empty weight | 1,688 lb
Max ramp weight | 3,362 lb
Max gross weight | 3,350 lb
Useful load | 1,662 lb
Payload w/full fuel | 1,158 lb
Fuel capacity, std | 88 gal (84 gal usable)
Oil capacity | 12 qt
Baggage capacity | 170 lb

Performance
Takeoff distance, ground roll | 825 ft
Takeoff distance over 50-ft obstacle | 1,430 ft
Rate of climb, sea level | 1,075 fpm
Max level speed, sea level | 154 kt
Cruise speed @ 75% power, best economy | 147 kt 7,000 ft
@ 65% power, best economy | 140 kt 10,000 ft
@ 55% power, best economy | 129 kt 10,000 ft
Service ceiling | 17,900 ft
Landing distance over 50-ft obstacle | 1,430 ft
Landing distance, ground roll | 610 ft

Limiting and recommended airspeeds
V_X (best angle of climb) | 75 KIAS (64 KIAS with half flaps)
V_Y (best rate of climb) | 88 KIAS
V_A (design maneuvering) | 113 KIAS
V_FE (max flap extended) | 120 KIAS (with modified flaps)
V_NO (max structural cruising) | 148 KIAS
V_NE (never exceed) | 182 KIAS
V_S1 (stall, clean) | 57 KIAS
V_SO (stall, in landing configuration) | 49 KIAS

All specifications are based on manufacturer’s calculations. All performance figures are based on standard day, standard atmosphere, sea level, gross weight conditions unless otherwise noted.