Type Rating Knowledge — Cessna 172S NAV III
Landing gear, ground control and brakes
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Ten degrees from the pedals, thirty with a brake
Ground steering comes from the rudder pedals: left pedal to steer left, right pedal to steer right. Pressing a pedal works a spring loaded STEERING BUNGEE connected between the rudder bars and the nose gear, which turns the nosewheel through an arc of approximately 10° each side of centre. That is all the pedals alone will give you. Applying left or right brake increases the turn to up to 30° each side of centre — so on a 172S, a tight taxi turn is a braking manoeuvre, not a steering one. The bungee is worth noticing for a second reason: it is a spring, so nosewheel steering is soft and slightly indirect by design, rather than the rigid linkage a nosewheel-steering tiller would give.
- RUDDER PEDALS — Rudder/brake pedals, pilot and copilot sets interconnected — rudder, nosewheel steering and brakes all come from here.
- STEERING BUNGEE — Spring loaded steering bungee between the rudder bars and the nose gear — turns the nosewheel roughly 10° each side of centre.
- L MASTER CYL — Left brake master cylinder, attached to the pilot-side left rudder pedal — pressed at the top of the pedal, not the whole travel.
- R MASTER CYL — Right brake master cylinder, attached to the right rudder pedal.
- PARKING BRAKE — Parking brake handle under the left side of the instrument panel — set the brakes with the pedals first, then pull the handle aft and rotate it 90° down.
- NOSE GEAR — Steerable nosewheel on an air/oil shock strut. Never turn it more than 30° either side of centre under tow — structural damage to the nose gear can result.
- L BRAKE LINE — Hydraulic line from the left master cylinder to the left main wheel brake.
- R BRAKE LINE — Hydraulic line from the right master cylinder to the right main wheel brake.
- L DISC BRAKE — Single-disc hydraulically actuated brake, inboard of the left main wheel, on a tubular spring steel main gear strut.
- R DISC BRAKE — Single-disc hydraulically actuated brake, inboard of the right main wheel.