Information in English below

Almennur fróðleikur um Cessna 180 flugvélar:

Cessna C-180 var þróuð út frá fyrr vél frá Cessna, það er að segja C-170B. Segja má að notaður hafi verið vængur af C-170B, settur á hann lengri skrokkur með stærri stélflötum sem voru kantaðir í stað rúnaðra á C-170. Einnig var í nýju vélinn mun stærri hreyfill, eða 225 hestöfl í stað 145 hestafla í C-170B.

Nýja flugvélin flaug í fyrsta skipti árið 1952 og var sett í sölu árið 1953. Árið 1956 var farið að framleiða flugvél sem var alveg eins og C-180 nema hafði nefhjól. Þessi nefhjólsflugvél varð C-182 Skylane, sem er í framleiðslu enn þann dag í dag. Þó byrjað væri að framleiða nefhjóls útgáfu, hélt C-180 áfram í framleiðslu. Árið 1960 kom svo fram á sjónarsviðið enn aflmeiri útgáfa af vélinn og fékk hún heitið C-185 Skywagon.

Cessna C-180 var í framleiðslu allt til ársins 1981 og voru framleidd samtals um það bil 6200 eintök.Það verður að teljast nokkuð sérstakt að á tímabili voru í framleiðslu hjá Cessna þrjár vélar sem allar voru mjög skyldar, og segir það mikið um vinsældir C-180 að hvorugt nýja afbrigðið af henni velti henni úr sessi í framleiðslu.

Það hefur alla tíð verið litið á C-180 sem vinnuþjark, og eru þær enn þann dag í dag mjög vinsælar þar sem aðstæður eru erfiðar og bera þarf þungan farm. Þannig er vélar af þessari tegund mikið notaðar í Alaska, á flotum, hjólum og skíðum, auk þess sem þær eru mjög vinsælar í Afríku.

Alls hafa tíu Cessna 180 vélar verið skráðar á Íslandi og var TF-HIS fyrst.

     Information in English:

The history of TF-HIS:

TF-HIS is one of the most historically significant aircraft in Iceland. It was built in 1953 and imported to Iceland in 1954, being registered on the 24th of March to Flugthjonustan, a company run by Mr. Bjorn Palsson a noted ambulance pilot in Iceland. This was to be his third ambulance aircraft, the first one was a KZ-III registered TF-KZA and the second was an Auster Mk. V registered TF-LBP. Mr. Palsson was sponsored by Hid Islenzka Steinolíufélag (Icelandic petroleum company) to buy the aircraft, hence it´s registration HIS!

When the aircraft arrived in Iceland, it was the first specialized ambulance aircraft in the country complete with a stretcher for one patient. It was immediately put to use as an ambulance plane and flew on an average about 150 missions a year in that role and landed at hundreds of airfields and improvised landing grounds during it 20 years service in that role. During the winter months, the aircraft was equipped with skis to operate safely without the need for a clear runway. TF-HIS and Mr. Bjorn Palsson didn´t only do ambulance flights in Iceland, they did venture over to Greenland a few times, and it is indeed safe to say that Mr. Palsson and TF-HIS did their most famous ambulance flight to Greenland.  On the 9th of May 1953 the U.S Air Force Station Keflavik received a request from Danish authorities to do an ambulance flight to Scoresby Sund, Greenland. They didn´t have the right aircraft to undertake the flight, as there was no airport there at the time, the Sund was frozen over and everything deep in snow, so they contacted Mr. Palsson. He agreed to do the flight and left Reykjavik in the afternoon, with the cabin crammed with jerry cans of fuel and TF-HIS wearing skis.  He first landed at Isafjordur, in the north west of Iceland, to fill up the tanks from the jerry cans he had on board. Then he took of and headed due north for Scoresby Sund and once over sea was met with a search and rescue aircraft from the U.S. Station in Keflavik that was to provide navigational aid, communication with ATC and last but not least, note where TF-HIS met her end, should the worst come to the worst!  Mr. Palsson managed to land on the snow but before he could take off again, the search and rescue aircraft had had to airdrop more jerry cans of fuel for him to be able to get back to Iceland. When he had refuelled the aircraft, Mr. Palsson took his patients on board, a woman having a problem during labour and a sick boy and his mother, and took off for Iceland. He landed in foul weather in Reykjavik at 1 am in the morning, after a direct flight from Scoresby Sund. This flight caught the imagination of the press, and was widely reported. Mr. Palsson did in due course receive a special Citation from the Danish King for his bravery on that day.

In 1960, Flugthjonustan got an aircraft better suited for ambulance fights, in the form of a Beech Twin Bonanza TF-VOR, and after that TF-HIS was mainly used for flights that didn´t suit TF-VOR because of the condition at the landing site.
Mr. Bjorn Palsson was sadly killed on the 26th of March 1973 when TF-VOR succumbed to severe iceing while flying over Iceland. He was at the time a passenger in the aircraft. After Mr. Palsson´s death, his son, Sveinn Bjornsson became the owner of the aircraft. In 1999 he sold the aircraft to Thytur Flying Club where it is now being restored to factory fresh finish.
Note: This aircraft is not always based at Tungubakkar. 

A brief history of Cessna 180 aircraft:

The Cessna C-180 was developed from an earlier Cessna product, i.e. the Cessna C-170B. Basically Cessna used the wings of a C-170B with a longer, stronger fuselage with bigger angled tail feathers. The engine in the C-180 was also considerably bigger than the earlier aircraft, 225 hp versus 145 hp for the C-170B.

The new model was test flown in 1952 and was placed into production in 1953. In 1956, a new variant was introduced, the C-182 Skylane, which was basically a C-180 with a nosewheel landing gear. The C-182 is still in production today. Even though a nosewheeled version was by now in production, the production of the conventional geared C-180 continued. In 1960, a more powerful version of the C-180 appeared in the form of the C-185 Skywagon.

The C-180 was produced until 1981 with a total of an approximately 6200 examples built. It says a lot for the popularity of the C-180, that for some considerable time it´s two younger siblings were produced by it´s side without affection the production of the original C-180.

The C-180 is universally considered as a workhorse and are still very popular where conditions demand a high performance and a high payload. These aircraft are for example very popular in Alaska, flying on wheels, skies or floats, and in Africa.

Ten Cessna 180 aircraft have been registered in Iceland with TH-HIS being the first.