My Skywagon featured on the new Backcountry pilot site

With a new super-sized engine, a composite prop, bushwheels, and a wing cuff kit, Kevin Quinn takes his Skywagon into places that most Super Cubs would think twice about– usually above 7,000 MSL. View the host of modifications that make this plane a standout.

 Welcome to the very first installment of Featured Bushplanes, our new periodical series on best-of-breed light aircraft specifically setup or modified for bush and backcountry flying. This column is mean to be an inspiration for those who are shopping for airplanes, looking for ideas for modifications to their own aircraft, or who simply can’t get enough of bush planes. Look for a new article about once a month.

Who qualifies to be featured? That’s a good question. It takes a special person who is proud enough of their bird to take the time to share in detail exactly what they’ve done to improve its performance, condition, and appearance by doing a little writing and providing some nice photographs. Our first ever featured bushplane is Kevin Quinn’s 1953 Cessna Skywagon, well known to forum users and locals in the Truckee, CA area.

Kevin’s a fairly experienced pilot at 3,500 hrs in his logbook, but he only began flying tailwheel aircraft recently in his career after buying N1677C. His previous plane was a 1970 Cessna 182 which he’d added a host of STOL options to, as well as the big tire/big nosewheel mod, but once he caught the bug for taildraggers it was up for sale within days. N1677C was found just a few miles away in the Sierra foothills of Placerville, CA at Stancil Aviation, a long time Cessna broker.

Kevin has this to say about his plane:

In my own humble (maybe not so humble) opinion, the Cessna 180 is the quintessential backcountry aircraft. My 1953 (2013) model with all of the upgrades is by far the very best aircraft for my personal mission. I do often ponder the idea of owning an experimental type Cub or Highlander but far too often I find myself flying with these lighter types and loving the idea that my Skywagon can keep up…almost. None of those can match the load hauling capabilities of the Skywagon, however. Having the ability to have a gross weight of 2,950 lbs says it all.

I have flown the 180 with all sorts of mods (stock wing, Horton, Bush) and have found the Sportsman cuff with the Wing X conversion to be exactly what I am looking for in terms of performance. The extended wings have slowed the roll rate slightly, but again for my mission the roll rate does not need to be “snappy” when flying on the edge of a stall, hanging on the prop trying to land somewhere very short. When I say short, I am talking about 500 feet or less and generally above 6000 feet MSL. The numbers in the POH will never show that but a Skywagon can very easily perform like that when flown properly and modified.

Another upgrade that I have found to be one of my favorites is the MT prop. I have flown the Skywagon with the 2-blade 88″ McCauley and loved it. Then I did a test between the 3-blade Mac 401 and the 3-blade MT. After the time-to-climb tests and the static thrust pull test, the MT outperformed the Mac, not to mention losing the 30 lb dumbbell on the nose helps keep the Cub-like feel.

With the big heavy Mac my trim was always aft of center and landings where just not the same at a high AOA. You could very easily run out of elevator. When going to the MT and the loss of the 30lbs way out front, I found that I could stall the aircraft at an extra 5-8 mph slower and still have very positive elevator authority. When trying to land short, that’s a lot. It ended up being a no-brainer for me. Obviously there are certain skepticisms out there on the actual durability of the MT due to its construction, but again, I have found it to be “wear worthy” so far. This is with almost 200 hours on it at the time of this writing, and a lot of landings and take offs in the dirt, tall sagebrush, tall grass, snow and ice, rain etc. It still looks brand new. Time will tell, but I have to think that with all that I have put this MT through so far, it’s a winner in my book.

I have done a lot of other various mods to keep the plane as light as possible but also have added weight by doubling up longerons and supports in all of the areas that would need it. I am very hard on my aircraft and many Skywagon owners cringe at the idea of landing a Skywagon in some of the areas that I do, but that’s what I enjoy most.

Somewhere in Utah during the 2013 Caveman fly-in…

Zane Jacobson

Zane Jacobson is the founder/editor of Backcountry Pilot and currently flies a CubCrafters Sport Cub S2 around his home area of Portland, Oregon.

Website: www.backcountrypilot.org