My Plane N333FF

The mission of my 1970 Cessna 180 on straight Aerocet floats is to be the best two place float plane for exploring the remote lake of Alaska and Canada. It has a Pponk 520, Pponk McCauley 3 blade propeller, leading edge cuff, and a 185 tail with Kenmore weight increase STC. This gives a useful load on floats of 1074 pounds and great take off performance. Other mods were BSC belts, Kenmore 206 seat STC, battery to firewall, and Selkirk insulation and flat rear storage STC.

The panel has been rebuilt to include Garmin 430, MX20 and handhelds 396 and 295. Others mods included panel lights, FS 450 fuel monitor, and EDM 700 engine monitor. We fly with two people navigating independently which we think is critical in Alaska, if we do not agree we stop and figure it out. The FS 450 is hooked to the Garmin 430 and is critical in flight planning for if you can make the next fuel stop or if you have to turn around. The 396 goes into the cabin every night and we plan the next days flight. Getting a good understanding of my waypoints and routes is critical in having a safe flight to Alaska. I also have a Davtron 655-2 which gives me air temps and density. Going out of high short lakes makes it important to have an instant read out of the air density.

When we go to Alaska we take the rear seats out and we have a system of straps which fasten into track clamps. The strap system goes into the extended baggage area. We have tried other systems included nets but like this one the best. Note the orange waterproof bag, this holds the Sat phone. If we ever flipped the plane I want to know where the phone is.