Cessna 172S Type Rating Knowledge

A free systems course for the Cessna 172S NAV III, the aeroplane most flight sim pilots learn on. One system at a time, to the depth a checkride oral would go.

Each module is a short interactive lesson: you answer questions by tapping the diagrams, and every wrong answer explains the trap. Each module also has a reference page you can read any time.

Free, with no account. A free account keeps your progress across devices; Premium issues the course certificate. Practise the panel itself in the G1000 trainer.

Modules

• Module 1

  Airframe and flight controls

  What the Cessna 172S is made of and how it is flown: the semimonocoque fuselage and strut-braced wings that hold the fuel, the cable-operated primary controls and their certificated travels, the manual elevator trim, and the one flying control on the aeroplane that stops working when a circuit breaker opens.

• Module 2

  Landing gear, ground control and brakes

  How a Cessna 172S is steered, stopped and moved on the ground: the spring bungee that gives the nosewheel its 10 degrees, the extra 20 that only differential braking can buy, the spring steel and air/oil struts that absorb the landing, and what to do when one brake goes soft.

• Module 3

  Engine

  The Lycoming IO-360-L2A as installed in the Cessna 172S: 180 horsepower at 2700 RPM, fuel injected, air cooled and wet sump. Its controls, the G1000 engine indications and the limits behind their coloured bands, the oil circuit and the bypass valve that keeps oil flowing when the filter blocks, and the alternate air door that costs you ten percent of your power.

• Module 4

  Propeller

  A two-bladed, fixed-pitch, one-piece forged aluminium McCauley, 76 inches across — and everything that follows from those five words: no propeller control in the cockpit, a tachometer that reads propeller speed as well as engine speed, a static RPM band that is a certificated limit, and a blade on which a nick is a structural finding.

• Module 5

  Fuel system

  Fifty-six gallons in two integral wing tanks, fifty-three of them usable, fed downhill to a reservoir and then pumped to the injection system. The selector positions and what each one is approved for, why the fuel gauges stop moving above 24 gallons, the auxiliary pump that will fly the aeroplane at maximum continuous power on its own, and the thirty-second limit that keeps a tank outlet covered.

• Module 6

  Electrical system

  The C172S NAV III 28-volt electrical system: the alternator, main and standby batteries, the bus structure that keeps essential equipment powered when things fail, the switches that control it, and the annunciations that tell you it is failing.

• Module 7

  Lighting systems

  Where every light is, which bus its breaker is on, and the two places the wiring surprises you — the map light that will not work until the NAV switch is on, and the one overhead switch that operates the rear dome light and the under-wing courtesy lights together.

• Module 8

  Cabin heating, ventilating and defrosting

  Two push-pull knobs, one manifold, and a heating system whose only separation from the exhaust gas is the wall of the muffler — which is why the cabin environment module and the carbon monoxide detector are the same subject.

• Module 9

  Pitot-static system and flight instruments

  One pitot head, one static port, one alternate source — and then two computers that turn them into six indications. Learn which box feeds which needle and a failure stops being a puzzle: air data and attitude fail in two clean, separate halves.

• Module 10

  Vacuum system, standby instruments and stall warning

  The glass 172 did not delete its vacuum pump — it narrowed the pump’s job to one instrument, the standby attitude indicator. Alongside it sits the only warning system on the aeroplane that needs no electricity at all.

• Module 11

  Avionics — G1000 and the GFC 700 AFCS

  Not a button course. Which line replaceable unit each function lives in, because that is what decides what a failure takes with it — and the two warnings the POH prints twice: the fans that stop on standby battery power, and the autopilot that drops to wings-level with no aural alert.

• Module 12

  Cabin, safety and emergency equipment

  The seats, restraints, doors and baggage areas — including the one-inch belt check that is a go/no-go decision — and then the three pieces of emergency equipment: the ELT, the Halon extinguisher that empties in eight seconds, and the CO detector that shares a subject with the cabin heating system.

Type Rating Knowledge is study material for flight simulation. The Cessna 172 is flown on a class rating, as no type rating exists for it, and nothing here counts towards any licence, rating or loggable flight time.