Cessna 206 vs 185

Tim said:
This is a old thead! Tastes better! Less filling! Ford! Chevy! What is the mission?
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Family hauler and sightseeing tours platform. Having investigated further the answer might be the 206 for insurance purposes since I have 0 tail time, no?
 
206 @16GPH Six good sized seats, 185 @ 16GPH 4 good sized seats 2 miget seats in the back . Not to many 185 that havent been ground looped or over on their backs. The 185 is not a good first time tailwheel airplane you better have some tailwheel time before you buy one.
300hp on the 206 or 185 makes a great seaplane unless it is on amphib floats then the useful load is real bad.
 
Family hauler??

Cherokee 6-300

they'll go almost anywhere a 185/206 will.

185 is a heavy aircraft, drop a main in a hole, it will damage the gear box. broken axels are pretty common with the 185. caused by the skis on ice, if you buy one best change the axels right away, to new solid steel.
 
brien23 said:
The 185 is not a good first time tailwheel airplane you better have some tailwheel time before you buy one.
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Forget prior time in tail wheel, and simply learn to fly the 185.
 
brien23 said:
206 @16GPH Six good sized seats, 185 @ 16GPH 4 good sized seats 2 miget seats in the back . Not to many 185 that havent been ground looped or over on their backs. The 185 is not a good first time tailwheel airplane you better have some tailwheel time before you buy one.
300hp on the 206 or 185 makes a great seaplane unless it is on amphib floats then the useful load is real bad.
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We have a 185 on Aerocet amphibs with a 550 and Robertson Stol and my father and I are both 6'4" and 260lbs. With us two up front and the wives (140-150 each) in the back, bags, and full fuel it has no problems. Dad is a 10k plus hour CFII with a couple 185's, L19, Twin Beech and a turbine and the one plane he will never sell is his 1200 zero damage 185!! That being said i do not like flying tailwheels. As a younger pilot the tower sent me to the active which turned out to have a quartering tail wind when i started the roll and the second my tail got light it was all i could do to keep it straight. Scared the hell out of me. Completely different animal than a tri cycle and im not at the point where i crave that extra challenge.
 
Yesterday we left Taos 7,000 MSL in my T206H for a quick trip over the mountains to Raton 6,300 MSL. 90 Gals. of gas and 3 guys combined weight around 650. Climbed to 15.5K at ~800 FPM (16.5K coming back). Cruised over at 160 @ 16.2 GPH. Could have climbed well into the 20's if conditions required, but 15.5K got us over the rocks and bumps. Went and turned around and came back an hour later. Two pilots with me took turns flying, neither had any 206 time. Both were able to fly this profile no problem, no drama, no surprises. It's a simple forgiving aircraft.

Just a data point and example of a 206 mission. I don't think you can go wrong with either, it just depends on what you want to do.
 
Ruthless53 said:
We have a 185 on Aerocet amphibs with a 550 and Robertson Stol and my father and I are both 6'4" and 260lbs. With us two up front and the wives (140-150 each) in the back, bags, and full fuel it has no problems. Dad is a 10k plus hour CFII with a couple 185's, L19, Twin Beech and a turbine and the one plane he will never sell is his 1200 zero damage 185!! That being said i do not like flying tailwheels. As a younger pilot the tower sent me to the active which turned out to have a quartering tail wind when i started the roll and the second my tail got light it was all i could do to keep it straight. Scared the hell out of me. Completely different animal than a tri cycle and im not at the point where i crave that extra challenge.
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Were you vacuum packed lol? I'm 6'0 170lb and the dude I flew with in basically the same plane was 6' maybe 220lbs and we were shoulder to shoulder and against the doors, I had to shift when he went for the flaps.
 
brien23 said:
Not to many 185 that havent been ground looped or over on their backs.
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Bah. Not true. Lots of 185s around here with no damage history. Too many trike pilots want to believe that taildraggers are dragons.

Dan
 
Henning said:
Were you vacuum packed lol? I'm 6'0 170lb and the dude I flew with in basically the same plane was 6' maybe 220lbs and we were shoulder to shoulder and against the doors, I had to shift when he went for the flaps.
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We have bubble windows on both the 185's and they make a huge difference. Other than that we fit just fine and at our normal seat adjustment my mom and my wife both 5'7 have enough leg room. Im not saying they are as comfortable as in the twin beech but they don't complain to much.
 
Ruthless53 said:
We have bubble windows on both the 185's and they make a huge difference. Other than that we fit just fine and at our normal seat adjustment my mom and my wife both 5'7 have enough leg room. Im not saying they are as comfortable as in the twin beech but they don't complain to much.
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He had bubble windows as well. I guess I'm just used to having elbow room.
 
Henning said:
He had bubble windows as well. I guess I'm just used to having elbow room.
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Well we sure dont have a whole lot of elbow room. Whichever one of us is not actively flying will usually put our inside arm behind the other one especially on takeoff and landing. I guess we are also just kind of used to it. He taught me to fly in a Tiger and now I mostly fly an Archer that he checked me out in so the 185 seems roomy to me.

Is that a twin beech in your picture? My dad and his buddy just got a twin beech high cabin a couple months ago. You want to talk about a roomy taildragger that is it. He got checked out in a regular and the head room wasnt too comfortable so he went with the HC.
 
Ruthless53 said:
Well we sure dont have a whole lot of elbow room. Whichever one of us is not actively flying will usually put our inside arm behind the other one especially on takeoff and landing. I guess we are also just kind of used to it. He taught me to fly in a Tiger and now I mostly fly an Archer that he checked me out in so the 185 seems roomy to me.

Is that a twin beech in your picture? My dad and his buddy just got a twin beech high cabin a couple months ago. You want to talk about a roomy taildragger that is it. He got checked out in a regular and the head room wasnt too comfortable so he went with the HC.
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Yep, Beech 18 on floats, got my MES rating in it.
 
Ruthless53 said:
Is that a twin beech in your picture? My dad and his buddy just got a twin beech high cabin a couple months ago. You want to talk about a roomy taildragger that is it. He got checked out in a regular and the head room wasnt too comfortable so he went with the HC.
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I owned a 1963 H-18 many years ago.
 
I learned to fly in a C-180. Say again what's so hard about it?

brien23 said:
206 @16GPH Six good sized seats, 185 @ 16GPH 4 good sized seats 2 miget seats in the back . Not to many 185 that havent been ground looped or over on their backs. The 185 is not a good first time tailwheel airplane you better have some tailwheel time before you buy one.
300hp on the 206 or 185 makes a great seaplane unless it is on amphib floats then the useful load is real bad.
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That's how I've planned it . . . well, the plane part anyway. The chapter about the diapers hasn't been written yet. Hopefully a few more years of big-boy potty, but who knows.

But we were able to buy some pretty nice underwear while flying around around the world in big biz-jets, so maybe it all evens out over time.

alaskaflyer said:
Fun. Is this going to be your last airplane too? :goofy:

Kind of like that old saying about how you both begin and end life in diapers...
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I know this is an old thread but I have seen a few comments about tail draggers and low/no time of potential buyers of a C185, discouraging them to make the leap from tricycle to a conventional gear bush plane. I am an owner of a 185 and I agree that it is a lot of plane to learn on if you have no tail time. But I actually bought and was able to learn on my plane with zero hours. The instructor who endorsed me did not have a problem doing it, but just know that it is not the ideal learning situation and plane. But it definitely can be done. In my case, I knew it was the plane I wanted because of its performance and versatility. Rather than learn on a light, less powerful and forgiving plane, and then transitioning, I jumped right into it. The takeaway here is it can be done. BTW, I love the plane and plan on putting larger tires on and eventually amphibs.
 
MarkWagonRider said:
I know this is an old thread but I have seen a few comments about tail draggers and low/no time of potential buyers of a C185, discouraging them to make the leap from tricycle to a conventional gear bush plane. I am an owner of a 185 and I agree that it is a lot of plane to learn on if you have no tail time. But I actually bought and was able to learn on my plane with zero hours. The instructor who endorsed me did not have a problem doing it, but just know that it is not the ideal learning situation and plane. But it definitely can be done. In my case, I knew it was the plane I wanted because of its performance and versatility. Rather than learn on a light, less powerful and forgiving plane, and then transitioning, I jumped right into it. The takeaway here is it can be done. BTW, I love the plane and plan on putting larger tires on and eventually amphibs.
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Be careful we went through a pair of 31" bush tires in about 6 months from landing on paved strips and those sob's arent cheap at all!!! On the new pair of tires we bought the quick disconnect hub and keep the regular tires on unless we are planning on an off airport trip. We have a winch so it doesn't take much time at all to swap. We do have the fat bush tire on the tail and leave it on all the time and haven't had any issues with it.
 
Capt.Crash'n'Burn said:
I was looking at Cessnas for sale and noticed that the 185's were pretty close in price to the 206. In my uneducated mind, the 206 seems like a far superior plane that would command a much higher price. Why do people want so much money for 185's?? Do they come with a complimentary Asian prostitute??
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The simple answer is yes. :yesnod:
 
I'll have to take a 185 over a 206... But, I'm biased

My '61 C185 with the IO470 sips between 11-12 gph at 23 squared and 140 kts over the ground. Almost a 1600lb useful as well.

Plus it's a tail dragger. Tail draggers are manly airplanes
 
Depends obviously on the age of the planes you are referencing. However, this is my two cents on the subject. We had a 206 that we put on amphibs, we also added the door, it was a nice plane however you do lose a lot of useful load adding the floats, we actually took the third seat out as we wouldn't be using it after we out the floats on it. A good friend has a 185 on amphibs and because of the weight of the floats our friends 185 outperformed our 206 when on the water and climbing out. If that is the use you are looking for I would go with the 185. On land the 206 has a great useful load, we had added tip tanks and had amazing range, a lot further than I could ever make it. Without floats I think the performance was better than the 185.

Hope this helps.
 
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