Taken by John Scott during return from Oshkosh 2007. Gil's Thorp was the camera ship.	Taken as the airplane was brought to 00V for the first time. Mom and Dad painted it this way in 1965. Kinda faded now.	Linda took this shortly after the new paint. Gene Kear did the work.

I painted my airplane in 2003:	David Griffiths owns a '56 too, and he painted his in 2005:
		(click on images) ... interesting to compare Griffiths' airplane to the original paint on my airplane

N6555A Perhaps we'll flesh this page out over time, but for now ...

• 1956: N6555A is a 1956 Cessna 180 manufactured in 1956 (#32452), we believe in March, just months after me. (The test pilot failed to date the test flight in the log.)
• 1960: A kindly old retired airline pilot purchased N6555A from the factory, and he and his impressively short wife flew it for four years. Citing concerns about continued proficiency with the airplane, the couple decided to sell the airplane and get a Comanche. My father's mechanic, Cable Airport's (Claremont, CA) George Veith, became aware that N6555A was on the market. My parents bought the airplane ... and it has been in our family, indeed, become part of our family, ever since. My mom even learned to fly power in it!
• The airplane has been based at Cable (1956-1963), at Van Nuys ('63-'67), Rose Valley (now Potomac Airpark, one of the "DC-3", in '67-'68), Manassas ('68-'80?), Shannon ('80?-'92), and more recently at St. Mary's County ('92-'03) near Patuxent River NAS in Southern Maryland.
• 2002: In this year, Dad found it was necessary to stop flying after 50 years of participation in general aviation and an illustrious career in private industry and as part of that not always large cadre of FAA employees that actually try to help the aviation community.
• 2003: So Mom and Dad have kindly allowed me to have and fly the airplane. It is now based at Meadow Lake Airport NE of Colorado Springs CO. Since it is a family member, I of course attempt to treat it with the same care as he.
• 2006: We are nearing the end of an engine change. Late in 2004, the old trusty "-K" started making metal at 1950 hours. Obviously it owed us nothing - time for a change. With three in college, we opted for a temporary solution: I found an "-R" (Continental O470-R) motor remanufactured in 2001 that was already at TBO (1500 hours). It was flying in a 182 doing Part 135 Canyon tours out of Prescott. Craig Kloppenburg and I (mostly Craig!) have been making lots of little improvements and changing out the engine. We're having a little trouble here at the end getting one of our paperwork evolutions done, but it's almost complete, and the airplane is ready to fly. Looking forward to having it in the air again.
• 2007: Done! The airplane is flying. We planned and executed three great trips in 2007. One was to Oshkosh (see picture above). Earlier, in May, we flew to Southern California to see my daughter graduate from Scripps College. Finally, late in the year we flew back east to a number of vacation stops, including locations in MO, MD, PA and OH. First flight was actually on the 10th of December 2006. Flew great. The FAA finally approved the combination of -1 mount, -R engine, and -K exhaust system. Without the approval, I would have been in for significant changes, including appearance, as a differenct exhaust would have required a different cowling. Now, of course, I can use any -R engine without needing another approval, and they are much easier to find than -Ks. Thanks of course to Craig Kloppenburg for all his work getting my 180 back in the air. But thanks also go to David McRae and the FAA guys who worked with us to finalize the paperwork.

So, you're asking whether it's really true that this airplane has been in the family since 1960? I gotcha covered. Here's two pictures of the airplane before it was painted in 1965; that is, this is the original factory paint job. That's me and my parents at Menachee Meadows in the High Sierras. Yeah, I was about 7 I think. Interesting strip, it was about 1800 feet long with a mountain at one end. These two pictures are nearly 1MB in size apiece. Can't do much about the lack of focus on the one. These are actually from a couple slides Dad found for me when we got to thinking about painting the airplane using the original pattern.

Mom sent me these two photos, I believe taken by Lou or Judy Divone from the cockpit of Old Charlie, of Mom and Dad in formation with them somewhere over the Commonwealth of Virginia. So that's the paint job "in the middle" while it still was in pretty good shape (though the photos are pretty old - pre Clevelands so pre 1978, those are the speed covers over the Goodyear brakes.

More Pictures

• Here is a set of photographs take by my wife Linda during our first arrival at Meadow Lake (00V) following our cross-country from Maryland, and during the trip itself.
• Here is a set of photos of 55A following its brand new paint job! October 2003.
• More 55A photos, some at a fly-in at the Runaway Inn and a few others including a fly-by and some photos at Phoenix.
• 55A's owner manual, a little history

Other interesting 180 links:

• Skywagons.com
• Original '56 Paint Scheme (Our original colors were white with black and yellow trim.)
• International 180/185 Club
• Lazy 8 Ranch
• Australia
• New Zealand
• NASM has one (Gerry Mock's)
• Potts' online treatise on Bush flying has a short commentary on the 180.
• Colorado Pilots Association
• The Iditarod Air Force, a volunteer organization of mostly 180s/185s it seems who support the Iditarod each year.
• Budd Davisson's 1999 P&P article Cessna's 185: "One Man's Interpretation" on Tom Rabourn's screaming 185. Rest in peace Mr. Rabourn.
• Okay not a 180 link, but an airplane I got to fly once (really! -- a G model Staggerwing N80317!) Oh darn, the link seems to have stopped working (3/2007)

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