Flying the Cessna 172SP

Today I got checked out to rent the Cessna 172SPs of Southern Maine Aviation.

The SP is basically a bigger, newer version of the venerable Skyhawk C172 which is, I believe, the best selling airplane ever.

The first thing everyone asks me when I tell them I'm flying the SP is, is it one of the G1000 versions. Sadly no. The ones SoMeAv have are both nicely equipped steam-gauge panels.

The purpose of today's checkout is actually pretty simple. I'm already checked out to rent the FBOs 172M, so today is just to familiarize me with the special aspects of the 180hp fuel injected engine.

Doing preflight the first notable difference I find is that there are 13 -- count 'em, 13! -- fuel sampling ports. Apparently the fuel system has some interesting ups and downs, necessitating the multiple sample points.

There are five drain point under each wing, and three more under the engine. Unusual to me, but no real problem once I've figured out where all of them are. One tip: Make sure you're using the largest sampling cup available.

The other notable difference is in the priming procedure. Instead of using a manual pump plunger to squirt gas into the engine to prime it, in the SP you run the fuel pump at full rich until you see the fuel flow gauge jump, then full lean and pump off.

In flight the plane was very comfortable. On rotation the yoke was a little heavy, even with trim set to takeoff position. But adding a bit more trim balanced that out just fine.

Because the engine is fuel injected, there is no carburetor. No carb means no carb-heat. Every time I reduced power on downwind it seemed wrong to go below the green arc and not pull on carb-heat.

I felt very comfortable flying the plane. I managed to nail the airspeeds and the altitude assignments.

After one landing the CFI said, "OK I'm satisfied. We can taxi in, unless you'd like to try one more time around."

I was having fun, so I said one more time.

We took off, flew around, and did another landing. That was it, we taxied in, and shut down.

So now I'm checked out to fly all three of Southern Maine Aviation's 172. I'm looking forward to doing some of that soon.