houstondan wrote:
my first airplane. cessna 172C.

Congratulations, that's a great plane. Some friends of mine have one
in a two-way partnership, I tried to buy in with them but they were
happy with their partnership the way it was and didn't want to take on
a third. So I am jealous of you.

why a 172-c?? well, a couple of reasons. mechanical flaps (you pull a
rod that's laying on the floor)

Yup, that's definitely a big plus.

and the 6 cylinder engine which,
although it is 5-15 hp light of later models, is smooth music compared
to the banging of the 4s.

Yes, that engine is sweet and you won't miss the missing hp. (You
might regret the extra cylinders at OH time though). The engine may be
less powerful than a modern 172, but the plane is also lighter. I flew
a 172C loaded just about to gross on a warm day out of a 2100 foot
elevation airport and I thought the climb up to 7500 was kinda slow.
Then a couple of months later I flew out of the same airport in a 160hp
Warrior that was more lightly loaded, and its climb was nearly
identical.

I did a lot of research on this engine and one thing I learned was that
it definitely is much happier on mogas (assuming you can get good clean
mogas for it) so you should make an effort there.

it is slow by most standards but i think i see
15/mpg which ain't that bad considering the advantage you get over cars
on "direct route". i'm retired; i've got lots of time.

When it's your own plane you aren't paying an hourly rental, so an
extra 30-45 minutes on a flight doesn't bother you as much. IMO.

i can see that i'm going to be needing a lot of money for gas.

The 172C that I flew and tried to buy into had a fuel flow meter, and
we were getting about 7 gph in leaned cruise. Ok, so it's kinda slow
(I think 100kts) but like you said, reasonably efficient.

Enjoy your bird!