Today Carl checked me out in Aeroflite’s 1970 Cessna Skyhawk. On my second training flight, we flew the Cessna 150, the little brother of the Skyhawk. The Cessna Skyhawk has been in production since the early 50’s and remains a popular aircraft today. The four-place Cessna is powered by a 150 horsepower engine — at least our model is — the engines vary depending on the model and year.
Preflighting the Cessna differs from the Warrior only in the sense that you are dealing with a high-wing aircraft. Using a tube, you can check the fuel level in each tank from a ladder. Cessna uses a more traditional static vent in the fuselage rather than Piper’s under-wing fin design.
Cessnas use a conventional horizontal stabilizer and elevator rather than Piper’s stabilator design, which I think results in heavier elevator feel, especially during landing. I found myself trimming the Skyhawk on final, something I usually don’t do in the Warrior. On take-off, the Skyhawk’s yoke will push-back on you if you try to hold the nose down during the take-off roll. With that said, the actual take-off is easy. The Skyhawk feels slightly more stable on the runway at speed than the Warrior does, resulting in a less over-controlled take-off on my first roll.
During the climb, without my knowledge, the throttle worked it’s way back to 2250 rpm. Carl quickly found the problem when I asked, and mentioned the throttle friction on the Skyhawk is a common adjustment, whereas on the Warrior, we’ve never touched it.
General flight characteristics of the Skyhawk are smooth, and the aircraft feels as if it’s rudder and ailerons are less-effective than those on the Warrior, but this doesn’t result in difficulty, rather just a slight sluggishness if you’re used to the Piper.
Our Skyhawk is equipped with drooping wingtips, which result in an extremely gentle stall characteristic, the airspeed indicator can practically go to zero without the nose snapping down abruptly.
Landing the Skyhawk was rather easy, although I personally prefer the manually-operated flaps on the Warrior to holding the electric flap switch on the Cessna. Although flap travel is quick and hardly difficult, it seems to be one more thing to take your attention off flying the airplane.
If you’re used to a low-wing, the first change you’ll notice is the lack of the ability to see the runway as you’re setting up for landing. With practice, this is hardly a big deal, but it will catch you off-guard the first few times around the traffic pattern.
Logbook
Aircraft: N7573G (C172)
Dual: 0.9
PIC: 0.9