You know you're a Southern pilot when...

TangoWhiskey

TangoWhiskey

Touchdown! Greaser!
Joined
Feb 23, 2005
Messages
14,210
Location
Midlothian, TX
Display Name
3Green
Home Airfield
KJWY - Mid-Way Regional
... you've been flying Cessna's for years and never realized that those little "knobby things" up on the glareshield actually are HANDLES that slide back and forth to adjust little sliding doors that control how much air flows through the defrost vents.

cessna-full-cockpit.jpg


Yeah, just stumbled onto that while cleaning the inside windshield earlier this week... came home and read through the 'climate control' section of the POH to see "how did I miss that all these years", and it's not listed or described in the POH. And I've not needed to use defrost down here in Texas!! Apparently the vents were always wide open when I needed it in Washington state during my primary training.

Anything you've "stumbled across" on your plane that you didn't know despite years of flying it and thinking you knew it "well"?
 
:rofl::rofl:

The real challenge is trying to hold your breath like a Navy SEAL on those frosty, humid mornings when you and your CFII are getting set, talking about the flight, etc. before engine start. Wait too long and chat too much, and you have an icing situation on the inside of the windshield.

Using 0.1 on the hobbs is worth it if you can taxi when you want to taxi, as opposed to when the defrost chooses to begin to work on an iced-up windshield.
 
TangoWhiskey said:
Anything you've "stumbled across" on your plane that you didn't know despite years of flying it and thinking you knew it "well"?
Click to expand...

Believe it or not... I didn't know that the rear seats on a Cessna 172SP recline.
Found this out on a flight to Lakeland (Sun-N-Fun) when I looked back and found my passenger in the back seat sleeping in the reclined position.
 
TangoWhiskey said:
... you've been flying Cessna's for years and never realized that those little "knobby things" up on the glareshield actually are HANDLES that slide back and forth to adjust little sliding doors that control how much air flows through the defrost vents.

cessna-full-cockpit.jpg


Yeah, just stumbled onto that while cleaning the inside windshield earlier this week... came home and read through the 'climate control' section of the POH to see "how did I miss that all these years", and it's not listed or described in the POH. And I've not needed to use defrost down here in Texas!! Apparently the vents were always wide open when I needed it in Washington state during my primary training.

Anything you've "stumbled across" on your plane that you didn't know despite years of flying it and thinking you knew it "well"?
Click to expand...

I found out it does not have a cigarette lighter so I can't charge my phone.

I found out the seat adjustments on the passenger / copilot side are not the same as the ones on the pilot side.

I found out the pilot seat goes a bit further back than the passenger seat.

I saw (not sure how I missed this) the "mph" conversion from knots on the airspeed indicator.

I found out there is a dimmer knob for night time lighting.
 
I'm going to have to look at that the next time I'm at the airport. I've never noticed them before. But, they're probably wide open, this being the Pacific Northwe(s)t. :D
 
kimberlyanne546 said:
I found out there is a dimmer knob for night time lighting.
Click to expand...

Good to turn those all the way down/off when it's not night time. Bulbs last a lot longer. Keeps your rental rate lower... well, by a tiny amount anyway... :)

So... let me think... what would be some other fun ones you probably haven't seen yet...

What year is the Skyhawk you're flying? Have you found the switch for the outside lights for loading passengers in the dark yet? ...

Trying to remember if Skyhawks had those...
 
I just recently found out that the sink water in the lav has a heater you can turn on.
 
denverpilot said:
Good to turn those all the way down/off when it's not night time. Bulbs last a lot longer. Keeps your rental rate lower... well, by a tiny amount anyway... :)

So... let me think... what would be some other fun ones you probably haven't seen yet...

What year is the Skyhawk you're flying? Have you found the switch for the outside lights for loading passengers in the dark yet? ...

Trying to remember if Skyhawks had those...
Click to expand...

I fly (I think) a 1980 Cessna 172 Skyhawk II (the one with the digital tach display screen with tiny green yellow red lights that calculates the magneto drop differences) but I'm scheduled for a checkout in a 1980-something 180hp conversion 172N at a "new" flight school in Petaluma soon. As much as I love my 152, more and more I "need" the 172 (tall people, fat people, speed, W&B, distance, luggage, etc)

Kimberly
 
kimberlyanne546 said:
I found out there is a dimmer knob for night time lighting.
Click to expand...

The one I "discovered" during my instrument training, which was all done at night, is the "hidden" dimmer knob under the yoke in the newer 172's, which illuminates the yoke-mounted map light for your lap / kneeboard.

C172S POH said:
Pilot's chart (map) lighting is accomplished by use of a rheostat and a light assembly, both found on the lower surface of the pilot's control wheel. The light provides downward illumination from the bottom of the control wheel to the pilot's lap area. To operate the light, first turn the NAV light switch ON, and then adjust the map light intensity using the knurled rheostat knob. Rotating the dimmer clockwise (when facing up) increases light intensity, and rotating the dimmer counterclockwise decreases light intensity.
Click to expand...

P.S.--There is small white printing on the face of the yoke pointing to where the rheostat is, so I should have seen this before I "accidentally" felt the knob one time...
 
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denverpilot said:
What year is the Skyhawk you're flying? Have you found the switch for the outside lights for loading passengers in the dark yet? ...

Trying to remember if Skyhawks had those...
Click to expand...

The newer ones do... and it's not "obvious" where it is, either.

They're called "courtesy" lights, and iluminuate the location under the wing. The rear dome light is also controlled by the same switch--which is an push button on the overhead center console. The rheostat for dimming the front flood lights is also up there.

Somebody had "left" these courtesy lights on on a recent night flight, and I found them "on" when I took the plane. I departed during the day, so they only became apparent in flight, after dark... Took me a few minutes sitting there scratching my head to remember where the control switch was, as I don't use them that often, but it sure was distracting having those lights on outside! I wonder what that looked like from the ground... probably prompted a UFO report.
 
Ghery said:
I'm going to have to look at that the next time I'm at the airport. I've never noticed them before. But, they're probably wide open, this being the Pacific Northwe(s)t. :D
Click to expand...

Glad I'm not the only one that didn't know they slide back and forth! :yikes:

In any case, that could be critical knowledge!! Imagine you need defrost (inadvertent icing or something) and crank up the cabin/defrost heat, turn the defrost knob clockwise to full ON, and it's just not melting fast enough. Would be a shame if the "problem" was that those little knobby things are pushed closer together and simply opening them up more could make the difference, and one didn't know that!
 
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About my dimmer: I wear an LED red headlamp so that is why I didn't know it was there. It barely lights up anything and my headlamp has an adjustable angle which points directly at my instruments.
 
flav8r said:
Believe it or not... I didn't know that the rear seats on a Cessna 172SP recline.
Found this out on a flight to Lakeland (Sun-N-Fun) when I looked back and found my passenger in the back seat sleeping in the reclined position.
Click to expand...

Wait, what? I fly a 172SP, and I didn't know that - of course, I've never even BEEN in the back seat...
 
airguy said:
Wait, what? I fly a 172SP, and I didn't know that - of course, I've never even BEEN in the back seat...
Click to expand...

Me either but when I tried all the "bells and whistles" after my checkout in the 172 I accidentally cranked the wrong crank on the pilot seat. I was trying to move it forward but instead it reclined. There are too many knobs and cranks on my seat. Why would a pilot want to recline???
 
That sliding pilot seat needs a stop block - big time needs it!

OK, you want to find hidden treasures come on up to my place... 1957 Apache with 55 years of 'improvements'... Even after flying it for 30 years and owning it for 12 years, I still find a nugget now and then...
Hey, I finally found the fuse for the Hobbs meter - it is out in the nose just behind the landing light housing, taped up underneath a strut and then the wire wanders back to the battery... The other end of the wire takes a circuitous route back into the cabin to the air pressure switch for the gear horn and finally ends up at the Hobbs... I would shorten and clean up the wire run - but then I would have a new W&B done...

denny-o
 
kimberlyanne546 said:
[snip] As much as I love my 152, more and more I "need" the 172 (tall people, fat people, speed, W&B, distance, luggage, etc)

Kimberly
Click to expand...

And so the upgrade path begins...:wink2:

John
 
Maybe the pilot seat reclines because the person in the right seat could fly for a while and let the left seated rest before coming into their destination......? Sometimes on cross countries when I get tired Kevin takes over for me and then I take it back when we are coming into chatty airspace.
 
on the 182RG I think the courtesy light is on the rear doorpost, passenger side. took us forever to find that damn switch.
 
TangoWhiskey said:
Sinks, lavs... how nice!!
Click to expand...
Yes they are!

There were many passenger convenience items which we discovered or figured out how to operate a ways after the fact. It's not something they teach you in school. After all, the sim only replicates the cockpit, not the rest of the airplane. I should have asked them about all these things at delivery but I had no idea what I was doing and my main focus was on being able to fly the airplane safely. Next time I will have a better idea but I don't really expect that there will be a next time.
 
A rumor is floating around that the FAA will soon require the manufacturers to publish a book that must be carried in airplanes that will include references to installed equipment. The title for the book hasn't been formally announced, but the coded references are POH and AFM.

TangoWhiskey said:
The newer ones do... and it's not "obvious" where it is, either.

They're called "courtesy" lights, and iluminuate the location under the wing. The rear dome light is also controlled by the same switch--which is an push button on the overhead center console. The rheostat for dimming the front flood lights is also up there.

Somebody had "left" these courtesy lights on on a recent night flight, and I found them "on" when I took the plane. I departed during the day, so they only became apparent in flight, after dark... Took me a few minutes sitting there scratching my head to remember where the control switch was, as I don't use them that often, but it sure was distracting having those lights on outside! I wonder what that looked like from the ground... probably prompted a UFO report.
Click to expand...
 
tonycondon said:
on the 182RG I think the courtesy light is on the rear doorpost, passenger side. took us forever to find that damn switch.
Click to expand...

On the 182N, it's on the rear post on the pilot's side, where the pilot will NEVER see it until a passenger asks, "Hey, what does this switch here do?" :rofl:

It also only lights up lights in the cabin, but they're big and bright and throw plenty of light outside the airplane. No under-wing lights like some of the newer birds.
 
ron22 said:
Fixed that for you
Click to expand...

Thanks, but perhaps they are average for this day and age. I could stand to lose a few myself so I should not be one to talk.

Above average, I like that. I usually just tell them we have to take the 172 for more legroom or something.
 
wabower said:
A rumor is floating around that the FAA will soon require the manufacturers to publish a book that must be carried in airplanes that will include references to installed equipment. The title for the book hasn't been formally announced, but the coded references are POH and AFM.
Click to expand...
"REAL" pilots don't read no stinkin' POH.

And judging by the way people drive their cars, owners manuals are optional equipment too.
 
You can also use the "Red Knob" to "Lean" the engine while actually in flight.
 
tonycondon said:
on the 182RG I think the courtesy light is on the rear doorpost, passenger side. took us forever to find that damn switch.
Click to expand...

Yep! That's the one I was thinking of. It's also on the left rear seater's doorpost in the 182P (our bird).

If a passenger in the back plays with it and leaves it on, the next time you do a preflight you have to remember where it is to turn the underwing lights off. ;)
 
silver-eagle said:
"REAL" pilots don't read no stinkin' POH.

And judging by the way people drive their cars, owners manuals are optional equipment too.
Click to expand...

Heck, the owners manual on our 2006 Jeep Commander is much larger and contains far more information than the POH on a C-182P. :D

denverpilot said:
Yep! That's the one I was thinking of. It's also on the left rear seater's doorpost in the 182P (our bird).

If a passenger in the back plays with it and leaves it on, the next time you do a preflight you have to remember where it is to turn the underwing lights off. ;)
Click to expand...

Thanks for reminding me where that darned switch is hidden. Not exactly where a pilot would look for it. And, yes, I have pictures taken from inside the plane that clearly show that those external lights were on. :D
 
Heh. I have a very nice Pilot's Operating Pamphlet. Heh.

I've seen religious handouts bigger than my PoH. Kinda proves the tomes delivered with the newer models -- which have to stay with a particular aircraft, mine doesn't -- really aren't making any significant difference in anything, certainly not safety.
 
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