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The 182RG is a decently efficient aircraft and generally the only ones I see that can go as fast on the same or less fuel are a lot smaller, or have a lot lower load rating. I know my friends 182RG is rated such that he can fly with 88 gallons and 4 people plus their baggage, which is like a really huge load amount for small aircraft!
Ahha! The right question has been asked! You are 100% correct on the efficiency and payload capabilities of the 182RG. you can really load it up. The one we flew holds 80 gallons of gas. That is over 500 pounds of fuel. It cruises at 150 knots burning about 15 gallons an hour. So you are doing 170 miles per hour and getting 11.5mpg "in dead air". I'm 170 pounds, my dad is 220 pounds and the guy we flew back is about 215 pounds. We had roughly 70 pounds of luggage. With fuel and people, we had about 1200 pounds in the aircraft.
The plane I fly is a bunch smaller. It is a Diamond Star with a 360 cubic inch motor. It only hauls 40 gallons of gas. It has 4 seats, but I don't think we would have gotten off the ground with the three of us in the plane. It burns 10 gallons an hour at 145 kts, but I like landing every 3 hours anyway. My wife is about 120 pounds, and our 2 kids total 50 pounds. When we travel we have 2 small suitcases and a couple of small things. The other aspect of the Diamond I like is the all glass cockpit. It has XM Radio and Weather. Great for a small family, but no real load capabilities. It also can't fly into known ice. You hit the nail on the head. Bang for the buck, not much is better than a 182!