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Used Aircraft Guide

Used Aircraft Guide: Cessna 182 – Still a Load Hulling Standard

By all measure of logic, the Cessna 182 should have passed out of production years ago. Given its horsepower, its slow and in an age of $5 avgas, its hardly economical. It handles like a truck. But its that truck part that explains why, in 2008, Cessna sold 223 new Skylanes, making it essentially tied with the Cessna 172 in sales popularity. Sales tanked in 2009, but that was true for the entire market. Still, in the teeth of a vicious recession, the airplane retains relatively good values on the used market, although not many are selling. The reason for this, we surmise, is that the 182 will haul about anything you can throw at it, it has good dispatch reliability and hardly any handling, except for nose-first landings. All that adds up to one thing: Buyers are comfortable with Skylanes and for many, its as far up the pecking order as theyll go in their flying careers. These days, you can buy a 182 with a full G1000 glass panel and a luxe interior for a price in the low $400s. A big investment, to be sure, but less money than a new SR22 from Cirrus.

Aviation Consumer Staff
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By all measure of logic, the Cessna 182 should have passed out of production years ago. Given its horsepower, its slow and in an age of $5 avgas, its hardly economical. It handles like a truck. But its that truck part that explains why, in 2008, Cessna sold 223 new Skylanes, making it essentially tied with the Cessna 172 in sales popularity. Sales tanked in 2009, but that was true for the entire market. Still, in the teeth of a

vicious recession, the airplane retains relatively good values on the used market, although not many are selling.

The reason for this, we surmise, is that the 182 will haul about anything you can throw at it, it has good dispatch reliability and hardly any handling, except for nose-first landings. All that adds up to one thing: Buyers are comfortable with Skylanes and for many, its as far up the pecking order as theyll go in their flying careers.

These days, you can buy a 182 with a full G1000 glass panel and a luxe interior for a price in the low $400s. A big investment, to be sure, but less money than a new SR22 from Cirrus.

Model History

Wind the clock back to 1956 to reach the beginning of the 182 evolutionary history. The fact that ii looks like a giant Skyhawk which itself looks like an inflated 150 shows that Cessna just did what it does best: It built on its experience with previous designs and scaled them up.

The 182 evolved from the 180 taildragger, so Cessna added the tri-gear, redesigned and relocated the exhaust and reworked the fuel vent system. Wet wings were used to hold fuel.

With the new gear, the 182 developed a nose heavy tendency and Cessna never did sort this out.

Even new ones require deft trimming or the lazy pilot risks smashing the nosegear into the runway and crow hopping down the strip. Its not unusual to see an older 182 with repaired gear and firewall due to a nose prang.

When the airplane appeared in 1956, the average price was just under $17,000. Thats equivalent to about $132,000 in 2010 dollars. Obviously, given the price of the 182T, aircraft prices have far outstripped inflation.

In the first 182s, power was provided by a 230-HP Continental O-470-L an engine that proved to be such a worthy choice that

Aviation Consumer Staff