The 185 is certainly a load hauler. A typical load in the PNG highlands was 500kg/1100lbs plus pilot/40usg fuel...off short strips in density altitudes between 6 and 10000'.
Until it was sold recently I still flew a mates 1956 C180 a few times a year in the UK. It now resides near Wanaka. You can see where Cessna got the 182 from...they just moved the main gear back and bolted a nosewheel on a 180. Never really worked out why
Happily a Kiwi mate has recently finished restoring his early model C185 which I have been invited to fly...it lives at Wanaka.
Looking forward to flying a 185 the way they were meant to be flown again...in and out of really silly places.
This is the 1963 model I owned in PNG in the early 90s...taken outside the Dero in Moresby.
I never really developed a preference although I have vastly more hours in 185s than 180s. The closest I ever got to describing the difference between the two, and this is purely subjective, was that the 185 was more 'hairy chested' than the 180. The 180 just seems a more 'gentle' aeroplane.
I don't know if they are the right words.
Another mate is very keen to buy a 195...now I am REALLY looking forward to that...I have in fact recently instructed him to pull his fecking finger out
