Pilot Brad's Flying Blog

Remember a few days ago when I told you that the Piper Warrior I am scheduled to fly was damaged?  Well, I’ve been thinking about the situation for a few days and I’ve come to the decision that I am going to make a change in aircraft to the Cessna 172R.  I sort of consider myself a low-wing kinda guy, so this decision came with some reluctance on my part. 

Back to the Warrior for a minute; It turns out that the damage was relatively minor, and they are currently working on the repairs.  The problem is that they are estimating the repairs will take two weeks, which as I said is just an estimate.  With repairs such as this, two weeks can quickly grow to three, then to four and so on, and I am not sure I want to fly the older Warrior in the meantime.  It’s not that I dislike the older Warrior as an airplane, I just think its instrumentation is a bit worn out and outdated for IFR work.

So why change to the Cessna 172?  Well, it has more to do with the aircraft availability and scheduling flexibility than it does with the anything directly related to the Cessna or Warrior.  Let me elaborate.   As I mentioned in an earlier post, the flight school has two Warriors, one newer and one older, and all my lessons from this point forward are scheduled in the newer well equipped one.  Practically speaking, they really have only one Warrior as far as I am concerned.  This means that any time it has a mechanical issue or gets damaged, as it did this past weekend, I am without an airplane to fly.  With the goal of flying twice a week for the next few months, this plan is highly dependent on the health and availability of that Warrior and I am not sure if that dependency is such a good idea.

I was in this same situation when I got my private ticket, the aircraft I was flying was very cool and modern and it was the only one the flight school had.  My lessons often got cancelled due to maintenance downtime often related to the school’s inability to quickly get replacement parts.  On a few occasions I wasn’t able to fly for a few weeks, which only served to frustrate me.  I promised myself then that I would never let myself get into that situation again. 

Enter the Cessna 172R.  The flight school has three identically equipped late-model C172Rs out of a total of eight; four N/P models, three Rs, and one SP.  With three identical aircraft, I will not be dependent on the health of any one, and I will have a greater opportunity to schedule lessons at a times that fit my lifestyle.  With only one Warrior, I was at the mercy of its flying status and the schedule;  If it was available at 10am, I flew at 10am or I didn’t fly at all.  The C172Rs are very nicely equipped and seem to be considered the standard in IFR training aircraft these days.  They’re not sexy (no hate mail please), but when you are under the hood, does it really matter?  You can’t see what you are flying anyway.   In addition, being newer the Rs are a priced a few bucks higher than the school’s N or P models, and that tends to keep the primary students out of them (the Rs), which in turn helps with availability.

So there you have it; I spent an hour or so tonight moving all my scheduled lessons over to the 172, so I guess that makes me a Cessna pilot (again).  I think this is a wise decision that removes any dependencies that might prevent me from moving forward.  Besides, I am still checked out in the Warrior and I can always take it out for a spin to get my low-wing fix.