Cessna A188B AGwagon / AGtruck

The Cessna 188 is a purpose-built single-seat agricultural airplane produced by Cessna from 1966 to 1983 (with final deliveries trickling out of Wichita in 1985 as the last light-single lines were shut down). Cessna designed the 188 from a clean sheet to compete with the Piper PA-25 Pawnee / PA-36 Pawnee Brave in the crop-dusting and aerial-application market, leveraging Cessna 180/185 tailwheel DNA but with a low wing, a chemical hopper between the engine and the pilot (acting as a crash barrier), and a high-visibility rear cockpit. A total of 3,976 airframes were built across four variants: 53 AGpickups, 1,589 AGwagons, 1,949 AGtrucks, and 385 AGhuskys. The 188 was the backbone of U.S. and Australian small-field ag work in the 1970s and early 1980s, and a meaningful fleet (several hundred) is still actively flying ag in 2026, though the heavier, more powerful Air Tractor (AT-301 through AT-802F Fire Boss) AT-402/502 has largely displaced the 188 in commercial operations. Today most 188s on the civil register are owned either by small owner-operator ag outfits or by private pilots who have converted them to non-ag utility haulers.

No performance figures are stored on this page — see "Category & Scope" above and the frontmatter's validator_exempt entries. Book cruise, stall speeds and runway distances quoted for "the AGwagon" or "the AGtruck" elsewhere are not verified against a primary document this session and should not be assumed accurate for this specific certificated configuration. What IS certificate-sourced: the airplane's base structural limits (Vne 158 kt / Vno 126 kt / Va 103 kt IAS, majority block) and the additional 105-knot ceiling the Restricted Category imposes specifically during ag dispensing — a real, separate number from Vne/Vno that a working pilot flies to, not the airframe's outer limit.

Weight and cargo figures on this page describe the RESTRICTED category configuration (4,200 lb) only. Useful load at that weight is carried at 1,986 lb (empty weight 2,214 lb) — both unverified against a primary document this session, but arithmetically self-consistent — see validator_exempt. The certificate's own "Maximum Cargo" figure for a standard (non-"T"-suffix) hopper is 1,670 lb; "T"-suffixed serials carry an 1,800 lb hopper instead (per TCDS NOTE 5). No range or endurance figure is stored this session — the mission is short working loops from a strip adjacent to the field, with the hopper rather than the fuel tanks governing most flights, and any "how far can it fly" figure needs a burn rate this page does not have a sourced value for.

• Cargo Hauling (9): A hopper-based airframe built around carrying chemical, not people — see Cargo Hauling. Non-ag haul missions require a Normal-category conversion (3,300 lb, not this page's 4,200 lb figure).
• Surveying (4): Possible as a single-seat low-altitude platform if the hopper bay is converted, but cost-inefficient versus a Cessna 172 or experimental.
• Flight Training (1): Single-seat, Restricted category, heavy tailwheel — disqualified.
• Cross-Country / Business (1): Single seat, no IFR. No range figure is stored this session; historically quoted numbers are not repeated here uncited.
• Aerobatics (1): Not certificated for it, heavy, low-Vne airframe.
• Local Fun (2): A small cult of ex-ag owners fly de-restricted 188s for fun — a niche taste.
• Backcountry (2): Low wing and narrow-track tailwheel make it a poor off-airport choice versus a Super Cub or 185.

Ag 188s are famously spartan. Typical working panel: airspeed, altimeter, tachometer, cylinder head and oil temps, fuel pressure, magnetic compass, a single comm radio, and a dedicated ag-guidance GPS for swath tracking (Satloc, Hemisphere AG, or AgNav — not IFR navigators). Most 188s have no vacuum system and no attitude indicator. Conversion panels on de-restricted 188s sometimes add a basic comm/ADS-B stack; glass-panel upgrades are effectively unheard of.

Per runbook rule 32, absence from TCDS A9CE is not evidence any of the following do not exist — a Supplemental Type Certificate is by construction never listed on the base data sheet:

• Spray boom / atomizer conversions (Transland, CP Products, Micronair): standard ag equipment.
• Dry spreader (Transland, Swathmaster): converts liquid ag to granular.
• Gross weight increase STCs: several shops market a 4,400 lb MGW for AGtrucks, matching the AGhusky's certificated tier — this would be a further, STC-based restricted-weight increase beyond this page's stored 4,200 lb TCDS figure, not a correction to it.
• Ferry tank / non-ag conversion: replaces the hopper with an auxiliary fuel tank or cargo pod for bush work.

None of these was independently confirmed via drs.ts search-stc this session — flagged as trade knowledge, not verified against a primary FAA record, consistent with the caution this task asked for on unverified figures.

• Parts availability: good — Textron still supports the 188 through its single-engine parts channel; ag-specific hardware (hoppers, spray booms) is supported by Transland and similar specialty shops.
• Mechanic familiarity: specialist — a general A&P can do an annual, but ag-experienced shops are where most serious 188 structural and corrosion work happens.
• Engine overhaul: $48,000 per reference/engine-overhaul-pricing.md (IO-520 family). TBO 1,700 hr (unverified this session, see validator_exempt).

• Engine: a fresh IO-520-D overhaul (this page's sourced $48,000 figure) materially moves hull value in either direction.
• Corrosion history: a hangared, well-washed 188 with a documented wash-down routine commands a real premium over a tied-down hull.
• Restricted vs. Normal-category conversion: aircraft still on Restricted category for ag use have a narrower buyer pool but are the only ones usable for commercial spraying at this page's stored 4,200 lb weight — a Normal-category conversion caps out at 3,300 lb.
• Airframe total time: ag airframes commonly see very high hours; spar and fitting condition matters more than raw total time.

Price figures below are carried from the prior (uncited) page — see validator_exempt. They were not previously attached to a different model's data the way the Caravan page's were, but they are not independently re-verified this session either.

• AD 2011-10-09 (repetitive): seat rail and seat lock inspection — applies across Cessna 100/200 series including the 188.
• Continental cylinder ADs: cylinder AD cycles affect IO-520/TSIO-520 powered 188s; budget for cylinder work as a routine item in ag use.
• Wing attach fittings and spar carry-through: not a formal AD but a well-known inspection point — ag 188s see repeated high-G pull-ups that fatigue the wing root. An eddy-current inspection at pre-buy is effectively mandatory.
• Corrosion from chemicals: the defining 188 problem. Fertilizer and pesticide residue attacks the lower fuselage, spar caps and control cables. Lift every inspection panel.
• Hopper gate and door seals: leak chemicals into the cockpit area.
• Engine time abuse: ag engines are run hard — full power on takeoff, chopped on pull-ups, quick descents. Expect cylinder work well before TBO.

Pre-buy red flags: unknown wash-down history, un-inspected wing attach fittings, hopper/gate corrosion, incomplete Cessna service-bulletin compliance.

The 188 lives in a specialized ag insurance pool — commercial ag use, private non-ag conversions, and Restricted-category endorsements each carry different underwriting. Figures on this page are carried from the prior pass and not independently re-verified this session.