AOPA’s 1958 Cessna 182 sweepstakes airplane—painted white, turquoise, and black to pay homage to the airplane that graced the cover of the very first issue of The AOPA Pilot magazine in March 1958—will be the twenty-seventh airplane we’ve given away since 1993.
Over the past year, we’ve brought a bare-bones, bare-aluminum 1958 Cessna 182 into the modern age with a mid-century character resto-mod. And now, the AOPA Sweepstakes restoration is nearing its final stages.
While many rang in the New Year with their loved ones, champagne in hand and feet firmly planted on the ground, AOPA Editor at Large Dave Hirschman and I ferried the AOPA Sweepstakes 1958 Cessna 182 Skylane across the country, from San Martin, California, to Frederick, Maryland.
The Cessna 182 is a great platform straight out of the factory. It does everything it was built to do very well, and most aircraft enthusiasts agree that 182s are the perfect cross-country flier and workhorse.
One of the most fun parts of the AOPA Sweepstakes project is flying the airplane around, showing it off, and showing you, future winner, what it can do.
After making the 1,523-mile trek from Arizona to Wisconsin to make its EAA AirVenture debut, the AOPA Sweepstakes Cessna 182 made the long flight back to California and settled comfortably into a T-hangar at the San Martin Airport (E16).
They say it’s what’s inside that counts, and that absolutely rings true for the AOPA Sweeps Cessna 182. Over the past several months the 182 has undergone a complete interior restoration, including a brand-new, redesigned all-Garmin avionics panel.
As joint managers of the 2024–25 AOPA Sweepstakes project, Niki Britton and Alicia Herron have different strengths that make them a perfect team. Britton has expertise from owning her family Cessna 182 and is the primary manager of the restoration. As a CFII with 1,800 hours and a fair amount of ferrying, Herron uses her unique flying experiences in this project. Ferrying the Sweeps 182 from its Arizona hangar to EAA AirVenture, Herron was in the right seat for the trip and Britton in the left. Here are their stories.
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