Search Results for: Cessna 172

Well state right up front that flying IFR these days without even a portable GPS is just foolish. No matter how good your VOR skills might be, if you get that kind of situational awareness and backup in a used GPS for the cost of two tanks of avgas in a Cessna 172, why wouldnt you fly with one?That said, neither our GPS-and-WAAS satellite constellation, nor a $16,000 IFR-GPS navigator, is bulletproof. And even when you happily supplement your /U or /A status with a portable GPS, batteries die, screens fail and sometimes its easier to employ a few knob-twisting tricks rather than struggle to input the name of an unanticipated fix while trying to keep it all upright in turbulence. So (maybe for the last time in the run of this magazine) here are some of those VOR tips and techniques you may have forgotten. You never know when they might come in handy.

Am I ready for this flight? Thats the question I found myself asking when I decided to resume flying in a rental aircraft after a six-month lapse. This was after selling the V35B Bonanza Id owned for eight years. Since I was due for a flight review anyway, I engaged an instructor and got checked out to fly a Cessna 172 from a local flight school. I was comfortable flying the Skyhawk after only an hour and three landings, despite not having flown in six months. That certainly wouldnt be the case for all the aircraft Im rated in: The last time I flew a jet was more than seven years ago.

We looked at details of the five accidents summarized above for this article. There are others we could have chosen, with different lessons. One thing that jumped out at us: Simple singles werent well-represented. Is that because a simple single, say, a Cessna 172, is more maneuverable and better suited to completing a circling approach than an Aerostar? Possibly. But its also possible pilots dont fly simple singles into conditions low enough to require circling as often as they do other airplanes.

In 1984, I sold the 1975 Cessna 172 I had operated for nine years and acquired a 1978 Mooney 201. I immediately put the airplane to work on a multi-stop trip around the country, quickly discovering how efficient it was. On the last leg of that trip, from St. Petersburg, Fla. (KSPG) to Mansfield, Mass. (1B9), I flew the 1029 nm nonstop in 6.7 hours using 52.4 gallons of fuel. That’s an average of 154…

Ive got a Cessna 172 rolling out on the runway, an American Eagle Embraer 145 on two-mile final, a Beechcraft Bonanza in the downwind with a pair of V-22 Osprey tiltrotors inbound to follow, a Lifeflight medical helicopter departing a hospital next door, and a pair of Navy T-45 Goshawk jet trainers calling me, ready at the hold short line.

The overcast was holding steady at 900 feet. Morning visibility wasnt faring much better, showing two miles. The airport was IFR and the beacon was lit. The temperature and dew point were dancing in lock-step. [IMGCAP(1)] I was working Ground and Clearance. A deep voice rumbled through my headset. Clearance, N4173A, requesting Special VFR. Im just trying to jump back over to Hewitt under that cloud deck. Im a Cessna 172 and I got information Mike. …

Many years ago as a newly minted instrument pilot, I was flying an old Cessna 172. When I checked in with approach, after the usual exchange, the controller asked me if this was a training flight.

I am a newly certified private pilot with 100 hours in a Cessna 172 Skyhawk. My Learning Experience took place March 3, 2013, on a relatively short flight from New Hudson, Mich., to Flushing, also in Michigan. Looking back, I should have immediately recognized the telltale signs of an electrical problem, but didn’t. The first sign of trouble came shortly after takeoff when the number 2 comm radio failed. I copied the frequencies down and transferred them to the number 1 radio, then turned it off.

No airplane is perfect for every mission. Designers make compromises in the hope of producing an airplane that will find enough buyers to be a marketing success. But buyers have proven they sometimes want what manufacturers won’t provide, so we have a lively market in aftermarket mods. One popular mod is for more powerful engines in airframes like the Cessna 172. The results include better climb, a little faster cruise and, unfortunately, higher fuel burn. All aftermarket modifications to an airplane come with drawbacks. They can be as simple as a bit of added weight and a logbook entry or complicated enough to require a lengthy supplement to the paperwork. The more we alter the airplane’s original performance, the more we need to understand the mod’s impact on the airplane’s other characteristics.

At about 1158 Mountain time, the airplane was substantially damaged when it veered off the runway and struck an unoccupied, parked Cessna 172 during an attempted go-around. The private pilot/owner, two passengers and two dogs on board were not injured; no persons on the ground were injured. Visual conditions prevailed.