Mixed Thoughts About Resuming Training in a C172...

Ghost, I'm not an expert on training psychology but if you can get training at a reasonable price and location, do it. There are pluses and minuses in high wing and low wing airplanes. The important thing is that you recognize it and modify your awareness while flying either one. I was lucky enough to fly both high and low wing when I was learning and I realize that the traffic situation is different than it was 60 years ago but not so different that one has to be less or more vigilant. Get your training and learn to adjust.
Good luck.
Switches

 

Ghost,

Congratulations on resuming your flight training.

As far as whether a 172 or a Warrior is the better training aircraft, the short answer is both are just as good as training and rental aircraft. Certainly for the early stages and for east coast flying. It really all boils down to preference and cost.

I'll add my perspective of some of the points each has to offer and some of my thoughts on the deficiencies of these airplanes.

The most visable characteristic is the visability and this is where i think the 172 has the advantage. The issue of blanking downward visability in a turn vs. the added downward visability in a turn of the Warrior is simply a matter of preference and not of training. I pick the 172 in this regard because of the larger windscreen in both the vertical as well as the horizontal directions along with the rear window for an occasional peek over the shoulder.

I have found that the Warrior (along with it's sibling the Archer) being a low wing airplane and having less wing area than the 172 (and it's stablemate the 182) tends to be more of a stable aircraft in flight due to its higher wing loading. The result of this is a less fatiguing flight particularly in turbulence. It also makes for firmer landing and ground stability as the wing unloads more quickly. Float is about the same where the piper has a more pronounced ground effect due to the wing's proximity to the ground but the larger wing area of the cessna will cause the same effect with the wing higher off the ground.

I mentioned stability. Since the 172 has a longer arm from it's CG to the runner, it tends to yaw more than the shorter coupled Warrior. This makes it more fatiguing as I mentioned and may be a bit more uncomfortable to the rear seat passengers who are further behind the CG than in the piper. The advantage is that it teaches good rudder technique so as not to undercontrol or overcontrol. The Warrior requires far less rudder to center the ball and a student may not develop good rudder technique as a result.

On landing, Cessnas usually have a pronounced nosewheel shimmy as a consequence of their design which is annoying and tends to wear the nosewheel tire. Also because it's CG is higher vertically it will rock back and forth after landing. The Warrior usually has no nosewheel shimmy (unless something is really wrong with the nosewheel rigging) and because of the lower vertical CG is very solid on the ground.

In pitch, it is interesting to note that 172's sue a horizontak stabilizer and an elevator vs. the Warrior's all flying stabilator. The stabilator approach is way more efficient.... think Grumman F-14 and Lockheed F-16!

Fuel management is a little more involved in the Warrior as you have to manage tank selection for balance and fuel consumption and you have to learn how to use the boost pump when taking off, landing, and switching tanks. These are good skills for the student to acquire. The 172's gravity feed system makes fuel management unnecessary other than tracking overall consumption. Both aircraft have essentially the same engine so consumption should be equal. For some reason due to the design of the induction system, the 172 tends to acquire carb ice moreso than the Warrior. it is an observation I've made from my time in both aircraft. (note: I learned how to fly back on the east coast at Repulsive Airport on Long Island in the mid '70's in both a 172 and a Cherokee 140.

Now for the mundane stuff. It is easier to sump the 172 tanks standing up vs. crawling under the wing of the Warrior... in the snow! ) But it is easier to check the fuel in the piper and fuel it up at the end of your flight. No ladders or awkward strut climbing necessary. Also, unless you're a short ****, like me, sooner or later you will acquire the diamond shaped indentations in your forehead from walking into the trailing edge of the wing by forgetting to duck. (I don't seem to have that problem)

Speed-wise I think the Warrior has the edge, but only by a couple of knots. Please correct me if I'm wrong here.

That's it in a couple of nutshells. Have a great time training and keep all of us updated on your progress.

Planeflyr.

 

Vik:

I did my primary training in a highwing Cessna 152, transitioned to a rental Piper Warrior and now own a Piper Archer (with IFR avionics). I think both planes have their good points. The one point I would make is pick either the Cessna or the Piper and stick with it. No need to switch back and forth.

 

Vik -

I had a similar situation when I was going through my training phase. The flight school had a bunch of C152/C172's versus just 2 Pipers. I also preferred the Piper look/configuration and ended up sticking with that rather than the Cessna's. In my particular case, the availability of the Pipers was not a big factor as the flight school allowed booking of the planes several weeks in advance and the planes were well-maintained with very little downtime. It's even arguable that most people went with the Cessnas so there was proportionately better availability of the Pipers. I'd ask the flight school to take a look at the booking log just to get a feel for availability and that might sway you one way or the other.

Beyond the availability, I don't know if I would put a lot of weight on the one versus the other as long as you can stick with one to complete your training. You're not buying the plane so you won't be stuck with your choice after you get your PPL. You could even make the case that spending some time with the other configuration from what you would likely stay with long-term or buy would give you more experience. After training on Pipers, I spent some time getting checked out on a C182 & C210 to get my high-performance rating. That also gave me a period of continuous time in the Cessnas, enough that I felt that I could make some choices between a high and low wing when I got around to buying a plane. As it turned out, that was useful experience as when I went to get my instrument rating, my plane (a Mooney) had some engine downtime just before my check flight and I ended up doing my check flight in a C172 and it felt very comfortable.