Cessna 180 Skywagon G-AXZO

What can you say about the Cessna Skywagon that hasn’t already been written? Peter Underhill flight tested this very aircraft for Pilot Magazine in April 1995 and he noted the Cessna 180 gets off the ground quicker and lands shorter than the esteemed Piper Cub. Any Cessna 180/185 is a prized possession all around the World by people who need to lift heavy loads from 900ft runways all year round.

We owned and operated a Cessna 180 in the early days, and bringing 4 people out of microlight strips where they had never seen a Group A aircraft land was its party piece. It didn’t just work on tiny strips with obstacles at each end, it worked on farm fields, beaches, mountain roads, hotel driveways, frozen lakes you name it. Starting the take-off roll with the nose pointed right of centreline, full aft trim and a well-timed application of full flap the aircraft can levitate at about 42kts and climb away. Seasoned hands can make music at the very bottom end of the airspeed indicator markings, coming in to land effortlessly over tall trees or wires to a well-judged flare at Piper Cub roll-out speeds. If you need to get from A to B the 180 will get you almost as close as a helicopter if you know the nearby farmer, which invariably Cessna 180 owners do! Bank on 120kts of cruise speed and being rock solid in IMC if you need to push it on. We know a C180 owner who takes off on a well-cut lawn, and a weekend jolly for him would be down to Tangier and back. When you buy a Cessna 180/185 you become a de facto member of a very exclusive club, and the folks in it are as interesting as the aeroplanes themselves. This aircraft is to farm strip flying, what the Bucker Jungmann is to aerobatics. G-AXZO itself is a rather famous and well-known historic aircraft. A Schnieder Trophy Air Race winner in 1987, previously owned by luminaries like Andrew Brinkley and Glenn James. Yes, it’s got history and has been rebuilt before, but anyone pushing the envelope knows this is part and parcel of the life cycle of a vintage high-performance aircraft.

We will happily sit and review the finer details with you and your engineer but the broad brush strokes are, the 1954 model year airframe has 5365hrs and the aircraft will have a new annual completed May 2023. The O-470A engine has 760hrs SMOH by Deltair on 2^nd February 1996. It had a SLI by Robert Ronaldson in March 2004, and it has 330hrs STOH when it as fitted with 6 new cylinder kits in December 2010. Both magnetos have 91hrs ran since 500hr inspection on May 2019 and the Hartzell 3 Blade prop also has 91hrs SNEW. The panel has been updated, with a cut metal panel being installed by Aerofab at Thruxton in 2019 making for a much clearer layout. The aircraft has a Garmin GNS-430 8.33khz Com/Nav/GPS, Garmin GMA-340 Audio panel and a Garmin GTX-328 Mode S transponder. A nice touch is the Mid Continent digital clock/USB port with a handy RAM ball mount for an iPad. There is a Garmin GI-106A ILS/CDI and Kannad 406Mhz ELT, and a nice Vertical Card Compass.

This aeroplane won’t be for everybody, but rest assured there is a niche group that will bask in the opportunity to own this well-known piece of STOL machinery. The aircraft is valeted and hangared at Bagby where we can provide a demonstration flight to prospective new owners. Ongoing maintenance, upgrades and trade-ins are all things we are happy to chat about. You don’t need to travel the world and import one, it’s right here and we are happy to help with any questions you may have. Pilot Magazine summed up “Of all the Cessna high-wing singles it is universally acknowledged on that Overall Index of Performance – that mythical equation taking into account practical figures as well as imponderable feelings – the Cessna 180 is the leader of the pack”

£129,950 STG (No VAT) or €149,950 Euro (No VAT)