Mission Possible - A Complete Restoration of a CESSNA 180 - Dana Brejakova, Contributing Writer & Photographer

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Mission Possible - A Complete Restoration of a CESSNA 180

Dana Brejakova, Contributing Writer & Photographer

A rather sad-looking bird in the maintenance shop's corner seems like she has seen better days. Gutted torso, missing doors, demounted tail, no seats, no panel, and exposed wires hanging from almost all cavities may not look too optimistic at first glance. However, a closer look offers telltale signs of consistent work to put this timeless classic - Cessna 180 - back on track. It will take time but hang in there, Cessna bird. You will be flying again.

For the last several months since work started, I have been around and peeking over the shoulders of our skillful team working on the bird. Sometimes equipped with my camera, other times armed only with my dumb questions bothering the heck out of the guys. Either way, I have always been happy to observe, document, and hopefully learn a thing or two. Well, I also admit that I drifted away from work on the bird looking for other exciting spots to photoshoot quite a few times. As Jimmy, the Squirrel, would say, "Are you looking for Dana? If she is not by the birds, she is trying to find beauty in some abandoned object in a dark corner again." And yes, Jimmy is not wrong. I love finding beauty in the most ordinary things (especially when they are lying abandoned in a dark corner).

But back to our Cessna 180. This one will get somewhat technical, and I am sweating blood and tears to get the data straight. I can say with confidence, I am far beyond my comfort zone for this one.

There she is, looking a bit sad. Even though her days in the maintenance shop will be long, steady progress is the main thing to celebrate.

The new windshield will not be installed until all the systems and panel work are complete.

Check out the spaghetti of wires. Yikes! How can anyone navigate through these?

The 6-cylinder Continental O-470S engine provides 230 hp and weighs 400 pounds.

One modification seen here is the F. Atlee Dodge firewall battery box.

The stock 0-470S is coupled to a McCauley constant-speed propeller.

A closer look at the forward-mounted magnetos.

Here, we see new seat rails installed for the Kenmore 206 rear seat STC.

Panel being stripped out in preparation for a new Garmin G3X Touch glass panel. Boy, I cannot wait to snap a picture of the cockpit after the new panel is installed. Those will be wonderful "before" and "after" photos.

More old spaghetti to be removed.

Looking aft into the bowels of the ship. No space for anyone who suffers from claustrophobia. Suppose you need to dive right into the fuselage torso. In that case, you need good powerful light, air circulation, and a meditative mantra.

Aft floorboard with open inspection holes. This 180 has the stretcher door factory option, which can be seen in the photo's upper part.

If you see a blue gym ball inside the door gunwale, you are not mistaken. Usually used for exercising, the ball serves as a wonderful rolling belly cushion for working in the tail cone's deepest depths. Diving down there without this half-filled gym ball could be considered as pure masochism.

All-new control cables and SCAT tubing is being installed.

Remote compass in the left wing tip will be removed and replaced by a Garmin magnetometer.

Empennage removed from the fuselage to facilitate new trim jackscrews and installation of the AirPods rear maintenance access panels STC.

The new ABI tailwheel assembly is safely latched down to the tail stand to level the aircraft for easier work conditions.

Main wheels are chocked for security. A Cleveland brake conversion kit was installed on the main wheels.

You always have to have your schlock box of random hardware on your toolbox.

I am rich! I found gold and silver! Oh, wait a minute, that is not a treasure box I have always wanted to find. Those are drawers filled with anodized rivets that only shine like precious metal. Darn, what a bummer.

I must admit, those rivets were pretty. No wonder my "gold and silver jewelry alarm" went off.

And more rivets!

First laser cut of instrument panel overlays before deciding to go with Garmin glass.

It is more than the obvious there is a lot of work that has to be done to put this bird back in the sky. When I first saw the airplane in the maintenance shop's corner, I thought the bird was done and was waiting to be sold for parts. What a surprise it to see the guys move their toolboxes closer to the Cessna and actually start working on it!

"What?" I yelled.

"This bird is not for parts? You want to restore it? No way!" in semi-rejection mode, I could not believe the bird was up for restoration.

However, as the springtime turned to summer and summer turned to fall, the constant work and steady progress started showing off. Wow! There is a long way to go still, but I am now as hopeful as the rest of the team.

One of my drift away moments when I went to check dark corners for some charming ambiance. Ordinary plastic cover for aircraft documents stole my attention, and snapping a few shots of it was the next obvious thing.

Another one for my "Drift away collection" - two steam gauge instruments sitting next to each other on a shelf looked way too awesome to not have a black and white picture of them.

Nonchalantly placed differential pressure gauge was another fantastic object I found very appealing.

Once bright yellow wheel chocks, now beaten by the flow of time and environmental conditions, looked cool and rugged.

Wide open door of the shop sometimes offers spectacular views of the sky we all enjoy while working. Some of the prettiest cloud formations I have ever seen can be observed only here. Good times.

By Dana Brejakova, Contributing Writer & Photographer

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