planeandpilotmag.com 43A
most interesting experimental aviation
movement is taking place in the backcoun-
try aviation community, a segment where
few outside observers, myself included,
would’ve expected it to happen. Projects
like Mike Patey’s Draco, a turboprop-powered dragonfly
of a Wilga conversion that captured the imagination of
the aviation world when it burst onto the scene two years
ago, was an instant-winner of short takeoff and landing
contests, as well as hearts and minds. Draco didn’t hap-
pen in isolation, however, but as part of a community
of likeminded bush plane flyers who bond over gravel
bars, near-hovering landing and outrageous hardware.
Among a number of excellent design adventures tak-
ing place among this group, one really got my attention
recently: the reconfiguring of a vintage Cessna 175 into
something entirely different. I say “Skylark” in hindsight,
but when I first spotted it on my friend’s Facebook page,
my reaction upon seeing the post below the photo was,
“Wait a minute, that’s not a Skylark?” And I was not alone
in that reaction. No one saw it and said, “175!”
The machine is a collaborative creation between the
aptly named airplane restorer Kyle Bushman and the
plane’s owner, Jeff Whiteley. And it truly is like no Skylark
that I, or anyone else, for that matter, had ever seen before.A project turns
a 1958 Cessna
nosegear plane
into an incredible
backcountry machine.
WORLD’S
COOLEST CESSNA
175 SKYLARK:
It Has Slats!
BY ISABEL GOYER
WITH KYLE BUSHMAN