New Cessna seating configuration...What?

[minitour]

I think if you really want 27 less pounds, don't lug around five hours of gas.

:yeahthat:

Fuel for the mission. Teach the students how to do proper preflight performance planning including fuel burn. Land with 45 minutes + alternate if needed in the tanks. There's no need to top off every flight.

-mini

 

[drunkenbeagle]

So, they finally reduced the useful load of the 172 so much with all the extra gadgets and gizmos, that they decided to take a seat out.

Thoughts?

There's a 172P Skyhawk II down at my local FBO with a bigger useful load than the 182 G1000 they have. Seriously, I had 4 of us, full fuel, and was still 14lbs under.

The payload is far more useful to me than the fancy glass.

 

[nosehair]

I never had much luck with the "second student" thing, but I didn't try it too much since, at 150lbs, I was the designated Chickenhawk instructor. From what I remember, though, on the rare occasion I tried it, the second student either interrupted the lesson, which isn't fair to the primary student, or didn't learn much because he/she was a decent person and didn't want to interrupt with questions.

Your experience, which probably was 'random', and not part of a planned program, is probably what most people here have experienced, judging from most of the responses.

To me, this is finally the dream training airplane that I have wanted for so long. Well, not exactly the 'dream' airplane, but it does present the basic training airplane that I would have, if I could.

Since my old Army F/W instructing days in the 60's, where we had students in multiples of 2's, I have found that it is a great advantage for the instructor and the student(s) to do a 'program' in pairs. Right away, you can see the advantage in instrument flying. The student in the back seat acts as copilot as far as looking stuff up, etc. He has to keep up and thereby learns. Each flight is a student/swap. This is the best way to go even without the CRM angle, just for basic introduction stuff. Each student gets to see it done by someone else. It more than doubles the learning curve.

It also works well with pre-solo and basic x/c and checkride prep, most everything, provided each student is involved. This makes them better instructors. Learning to watch, prompt, critique, as they go.

 

[ready2fly]

I never had much luck with the "second student" thing, but I didn't try it too much since, at 150lbs, I was the designated Chickenhawk instructor.

Interestingly enough, I weighed about 210-215 when I was instructing and was ALSO the designated Traumahawk instructor for a while. (presuming you're talking about the Tommy-hawk). We never, ever had max fuel though. Only 1/2.