Last time i flew, I rented a 172 SP; first time in one of those, and I simply ignored the extra goodies and flew it like the somewhat heavier 172 that it simply is. I had no troubel with it, and was left with a newfound respect for what I"d pooh-poohed as "just a tarted-up Skyhawk".
Found out afterward that I should've had a checkout ride with an instructor first... hey, nobody told me that!

So I flew with Marty early this morning; I've spoken to him a few times, and since he's often said "If it's 800 feet, I'm flyin' !" I figured I'd better show up, because he would not cancel on me. At the very least we could do a ground session on the SP systems and accesories.
He did in fact show up, advised me to study the King GPS and 2-axis AP on my own, and told me to go preflight the plane. He reminded me that there are 13(!) fuel sampling drains; five on each wing and three on the belly. I, uh, hadn't noticed that last time... nothing about that in the manual, and it's a damn good thing there was no water anywhere in there that time.

Having flown it before, I was ready for the feel of it, but realized early on that my seat was too low. I fixed it later, after a couple of landings... had to get out, because the crank wouldn't budge with my weight in the seat. Yep, it's still a 172.

The rain slacked off during startup, and the sky was lovely from the pattern: some lines of low cumulonimbus wannabes to the north and SW, and a silvery overcast layer above. Vis was better than 6 miles in most directions. The wind was dead calm, and the air was like butter. Nice.

Marty let me make one landing my usual way, then had me do with the power completely out from abeam the numbers. Been awhile since I flew all the way to the runway with the prop just  windmilling, and on the first one I had to sneak some power back in because I didn't keep it close enough to the runway.
Better on the next, then he had me climb west to 2500 feet, where he had me execute some 45-degree 360s and a few stalls. fun, especially in a fresh airplane with a strong engine.
And slow flight: 90-degree turns at 40 knots... I always enjoy that and I'm pretty good at it... this plane was very cooperative during those maneuvers. The still air didn't hurt, either.

  On the way back, he asked me to pretend we were going to divert to Solberg via the VOR. I knew exactly what to do, but for some odd reason, the Morse ID was wrong. Aha- wrong freq; off by one digit.
Fixed that, and still getting another VOR's Morse. Hmmmm...

"Don't land until you figure out what's wrong", he said as I approached midfield downwind. I extended my downwind, and looked again. For the love of- I was fiddling with Nav 2, because it's over on the right by itself; Nav 1 is right under the main stack. Duh... hello, my name is Stupid
... and I also forgot to switch the transponder to "Alt" on my first circuit... hello...


Quickly identified the radial I was on, rolled out on a heading to fly direct, and as luck would have it, I was all set to ease over onto an extended final for 25 at 47N. Fortunately there was no other traffic in the area... had there been, I would've cleared the area altogether while playing with the Nav receiver.

Tended to drop it a bit too firmly on each landing, but at least I didn't fly it on, which is a bad habit I've developed since my long hiatus. Got the stall horn going each time as it settled.

It was an excellent and much-needed review, which was a bonus to me, not a hindrance. I'm glad I left my ego and my nearly 200 hrs in 172s behind me... I think the fuel-drain thing humbled me somewhat.
But he said "That was okay.." which built up my confidence. I was a bit sloppy, but I was aware of it at the time. I was very relaxed, too- no worries about the visibility or the damp runway; I've flown in this sort of wx many times before.

I got signed off for future rentals of this plushy Skyhawk , and I'll be taking her on a little jaunt somewhere next weekend.

That's great for you, Sean!!

   Now I should feel even safer when I go up with you someday, Right!! 

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Maybe next time... even if I flog it, I doubt I'd make it halfway to your base and back in 3 hrs, startup to parked back home at 47N... and the damn days are getting shorter (I'm not night current), so I can't really extend the block.
Another reason to join a club: less scheduling hassles.
wait a minute: if you're in the UP and I'm in central NJ, and you fly ENE and I fly WSW... "the middle" will be somewhere in Mongolia, I think.

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Ah, yes, I was confused-ed. The "Mongolia" reference was off the top of my head.... thinking about it, if we each held our course, we wouldn't meet up at all.

But still, I've only got a 3-hour block this time, so it ain't gonna happen. But you've given me an excellent idea for a future trip this fall...maybe I can get one or two local SimVers to come along and we'll have a mini SimV fly-in somewhere in Pennsylvania. Might even be able to get Marco out there with the Cherokee.

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*giggles*

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To a 16-year-old.. the world is one giant sex joke.

The SP are nice little planes, and after doing almost all of my training in them (either with steam gauges or G-1000), I feel reluctant to fly with anything under 180hp.

I like the cupholders!

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I've been in the depths of hell...uh I mean work and school.
The seat belts are also improved.
Speaking of improvements there have been lots of relatively unseen improvements in safety.  I was working out at the airport when a guy from Cessna asked me to show him some old cessna 172's.  He was taking pictures of the bottom of the seats, and apparently they will use the pictures to improve safety. 
Airbags are another thing that have come into use in small planes