By Michelle Adserias

“I was that kid that was born into the affliction and thereby enabled by my wonderful parents!” This was Bryan Rose’s response when asked how his love for flying began. He grew up on a Texas cotton farm with a toy airplane in his hand. When the crop dusters flew over, he would rush outside to watch them work. It’s not surprising, then, that he began flight lessons a few weeks before his sixteenth birthday.

By then, his family had moved to the original Rose family farm, started by his grandfather, Walter B. Rose. Not having a driver’s license didn’t stop him from driving 120 miles round trip (with permission) for flight lessons with a Cessna dealer at Lubbock Executive Airpark Airport (F82), formerly Town and Country. Unfortunately, Bryan was a typical sixteen-year-old – distracted! It wasn’t until he graduated from high school, while attending Texas State Technical College, that he began thinking about flying again.

Bryan purchased his first air­plane, a 1946 Cessna 140 (N72644), in 1984 and continued his training under the tutelage of Jay V. Canon, a World War II P38 Lightning pi­lot. He completed his PPC in 1985 at Tradewind Airport in Amarillo, Texas (KTDW) in 1985. Since then, he has owned and flown many, many different planes (somewhere in the neighborhood of 70).

Settling on the Cessna Skywagon

When Bryan settled on his 1974 Cessna 185F, he found the aircraft he was looking for. The Skywagon is ideal for visiting the family ranches, taking his wife and daughter to Dallas and go­ing on other adventures. Some of Bryan’s favorite destinations, besides Dallas and the ranches, are Horseshoe Bay and the Big Bend area – though almost any destination will do. When he purchased N185SS, he was flying a 1996 American Champion Scout and owned a Piper Twin Comanche, which he found him­self working on more than flying. He traded both aircraft for the Skywagon and has not regretted his decision. Flights to Dallas take only 25 minutes longer in the 185F than in the Comanche and there is less maintenance involved.

“The Skywagons are officially a cult plane and everyone wants one. They are the coolest piston single on the ramp, for sure, and people are definitely going to come take a look when you land.” As much fun as it is to fly, Bryan notes it’s also a very challenging plane to handle, especially in the wind. Skywagons are big, heavy and powerful taildraggers that should be flown with great care. Though he flies his plane in the winter and spring, in 30 knot winds, summer days with winds at 15-20 knots are best. Even with thousands of tailwheel hours under his belt, Bryan finds his Cessna 185F seriously challenging to land about twice a year. “We joke around here that they were made to wreck… They are not for tailwheel neophytes. I cannot stress that enough!”

Updates and Upgrades

“I’d say that N185SS was in fairly decent shape when I pur­chased it in 2015. In about 2002, it was heavily damaged during a ground loop in Fredericksburg, Texas (under a different tail number). It still carries scars from the wreck to this day… So, after buying it, I knew fixing every issue would be a journey. But I have loved every minute of it.”

Bryan explained it took about four years to improve on the repairs that were made prior to his purchase. The first thing he did was alter the paint job. He changed the color scheme from orange, black and white to simply black and white. And then, of course, he put it on 29″ bush wheels – not a surprising decision for the head honcho of the Fat Tire Cowboys.

Next, he took it to an avionics shop and had the existing panel and wiring removed and replaced with a new flat panel, com­plete with G5’s, EDM 830 and later, the Garmin 500 autopilot. Bryan replaced the exterior antennas and his IA wrapped in LED lighting as he rewired everything in the wings on down to the tail. He then added cowling vents for additional engine cooling. One of the best additions he made was the stowable tail handles for ground handling. “What a life saver!”

After flying N185SS for about a year, Bryan decided it was time to address the fact it flew slightly off-kilter. An engineer at Cessna talked him through the process of determining whether the issue was a bent airframe or improper rigging, then sent him information about the initial factory rigging and how to fine-tune it. Bryan followed the procedures to the letter and cor­rected the problem, thankful the airframe was undamaged.

Some additional changes improved the Skywagon experience for the pilot and passengers. Bryan added Rosen visors and Door Stewards. He upgraded the windshield and glareshield cover, then replaced the side windows with dark, tinted glass to help keep the heat out. Finally, the fairly nice leather interior gave way to a much nicer King Ranch-style leather interior.

Bryan also added vortex generators, gap seals and strut fair­ings. While “more than a few armchair experts will say that the already-installed Horton STOL kit is incompatible with flap gap seals since you lose about 20% of the flaps effectiveness with gap seals,” Bryan stands by his decision to use both. He contends a plane should be modified to meet the needs of the current owner and its mission.

N185SS is flying from ranch to ranch in flat, wide-open coun­try with plenty of high winds and high-density altitude. The vortex generators “make the Horton-equipped Cessna wing rock solid as it approaches stall – something it definitely didn’t have before!” Unlike the Alaskan bush pilot, hauling fisherman and equipment into the wilds, Bryan doesn’t need every ounce of STOL performance he can get. He just needs a fast aircraft to get him in and out of two large family ranches. Since he has plenty of room for landings, he has no need to approach them at just above stall. The flap gap seals and strut fairings recapture the penalty imposed by the vortex generators and fat tires. “On longer runs, it’s nice to know its going to run a solid 143 knots. That’s 165 mph!”

Bryan discovered the Alaskan Bush Tires weren’t wearing very well with all the time he spent landing and taxiing on pave­ment in the Texas heat. So, he added a 10″ Alaskan tailwheel and replaced his initial fat tires with AirHawk treaded 29″ tires.

“They wear like iron on Dallas runways and still give me enough tire to cross cattle ruts, sprinkler pivot ruts and semi-truck worn turn-rows on the ranch.

To date, Bryan has been able to find almost all the parts he’s needed through Aircraft Spruce and McFarlane.

The next big adventure in the works is a Fat Tire Cowboy outing to Mount Rushmore this fall. If you happen to be in the area, you might just see the cowboys flying by as you admire this monument to some of our nation’s great leaders.