The Cessna 172 Skyhawk
The Cessna 172 Skyhawk piston is the most popular single-engine aircraft ever built and has achieved a reputation for being the ultimate training aircraft.
With simplistic flight characteristics, great visibility and a sophisticated glass cockpit outfitted with GARMIN G1000 avionics, the Cessna Skyhawk piston boasts a slow landing speed and a lenient stall. These characteristics make it a flight training favorite ideally suited for student pilots and it’s perfectly designed to help you soar.
Given its simplicity, can a fighter pilot fly a Cessna 172 without training?
Fighter pilots and Cessna 172
‘After two tours in the Navy flying both F-4 and F-14s among other aircraft, and over 3,000 flight hours with an ATP, I decided one day to get checked out in a Cessna 172 which I had never flown,’ former US Navy fighter pilot John Chesire says on Quora.
‘It was totally foreign to me. However, after turns, stalls, and touch and goes, my instructor said he would “sign me off” but that I really “needed a lot more practice and training.”
‘I could not have agreed more! I was way out of my element. That was the first and last time I ever tried learning how to fly a 172.’
Chesire concludes;
‘TL;DR – So yes, I could fly it without any training, but not very well and not near to standards I was accustomed to.’
Extremely dangerous
David Tussey, former US Navy A-7 Corsair II pilot, recalls on Quora;
‘Possibly, but it would be extremely dangerous and very poor judgment.
‘Military pilots know that the key to safe flying is proficiency, knowledge of your aircraft’s systems, and training…lots of training, lots of practice.
‘I have ~4000 hrs, all jet, but I would not step inside a Cessna 172 without a training curriculum and an instructor pilot to teach me how to fly that airplane. It’s a very different aircraft from the jets I flew, and despite being much lower performance, the 172 is perfectly capable of killing you when it impacts the ground.’
William Vaughn, Cessna 172 instructor, explains on Quora;
‘Well, as an instructor pilot at Boeing Field in Seattle I was scheduled with a “student “who was due for a two-year biennial flight review in a Cessna 172. Some student. He was an USAF Captain who flew F-16s in Asia, but had been grounded for a few years (sort of) “flying” Predator drones in Afghanistan. Though he should have been a bit rusty, not this dude. Since the slowest airplane he’d ever actually flown was the supersonic T-38 Talon, he tended at first to roar down short final approach flying at the T-38’s 170 knots approach speed. (Note: The Cessna redline never exceed airspeed is 158 knots and normal approach airspeed with full flaps is ~75–85 knots.) So, the answer is yes, some initial or recurrent training is prudent.’
Photo by U.S. Air Force and Civil Air Patrol
