rtbayne01072
New member
Two days ago I was finally able to go up for another lesson after a month. Thanks to mother nature and my work schedule I had to cancel the last two. My instructor told me a few days before that the 152 I typically trained in was down for maintenance, and offered to take the 172 instead. So with the threat of bad weather the next week I opted to rent the 172. I figured there would be some differences by boy I was shocked when we took off... here are some of the biggest things i noticed during my hour lesson.
1. torque effect- I hit full power on take off and If it wasn't for my instructor then we would have been way off to the left and into the grass in the grass. I somewhat felt the torque effect in the 152 but not near as much as in the 172.
2. Everything seemed to happen so fast- I guess this comes with the territory when flying a bigger and fast plane. While flying traffic pattern and doing touch and goes the time from one end of the down leg to base-to final seem like nothing. I felt very rushed to get set up for final at times.
3. Couldn't flare to save my life.- For whatever reason I couldn't flare on my landings to save my life. :mad2:. I would balloon because I'd try to force the plane to the ground or wouldn't hold the nose off long enough and hit hard. I had just gotten it down in the 152. My only good land was the last one and this was after my instructor told me to trim the nose up some. Also final speed was around 75 to 80 kts. Is that a little fast?
The rest of the lesson was rather uneventful we just departed to the North and did some emergency procedures (power on stalls power off stalls, emergency approach etc.). The one thing that did freak me out a bit was when my instructor did a spin after power on stall :yikes:. All this to say It was frustrating at times but I enjoyed getting to take up a 172 for the day. I'll probably stick to the 152 when it get out of maintenance but still think I need to build some more confidence before taking up the 172 again.
1. torque effect- I hit full power on take off and If it wasn't for my instructor then we would have been way off to the left and into the grass in the grass. I somewhat felt the torque effect in the 152 but not near as much as in the 172.
2. Everything seemed to happen so fast- I guess this comes with the territory when flying a bigger and fast plane. While flying traffic pattern and doing touch and goes the time from one end of the down leg to base-to final seem like nothing. I felt very rushed to get set up for final at times.
3. Couldn't flare to save my life.- For whatever reason I couldn't flare on my landings to save my life. :mad2:. I would balloon because I'd try to force the plane to the ground or wouldn't hold the nose off long enough and hit hard. I had just gotten it down in the 152. My only good land was the last one and this was after my instructor told me to trim the nose up some. Also final speed was around 75 to 80 kts. Is that a little fast?
The rest of the lesson was rather uneventful we just departed to the North and did some emergency procedures (power on stalls power off stalls, emergency approach etc.). The one thing that did freak me out a bit was when my instructor did a spin after power on stall :yikes:. All this to say It was frustrating at times but I enjoyed getting to take up a 172 for the day. I'll probably stick to the 152 when it get out of maintenance but still think I need to build some more confidence before taking up the 172 again.
