Jonathan Goodish wrote:

Agree, but in this debate there is one very significant difference: the
extra 20hp.

Numerous older skyhawks have been converted to 180hp. I just helped my club
buy one, and there were plenty on the market (although they were the
minority, admittedly).

Most still had fixed pitch props, but I did find one example that had been
upgraded to a constant speed prop. Amusingly, while I'd never heard of
that done before on a 172, the owner of that plane had never heard of a
180hp upgrade w/o the constant speed prop.

This aviation stuff is fun.

- Andrew