C177RG (1971)

Newps,

I had a C177A for a while. Hated that damn stab. It doesn't handle
more crosswind than a 172 or 182 but still that is a lot.

Respectfully disagree, Cardinal's have been demonstrated to handle 30
knots at 90 degrees. I owned a B model for a lot of years and put
about 1,050 hours on it and made some crosswind landings that had me
very thankful for the control effectiveness. Don't know why you
"hated the stab" it's just a pitch control that remained effective
when slow, which fooled some pilots who weren't ready for controls
that were responsive.


It was a big cabin in all respects expect the most important. It had no
headroom. I'm 6'1" and the top of my head hit the overhead. Not just
scraped it occasionally but so much that I had to conciously scooch down
to minimize it as best I could.

Did you not have vertically adjustable seats? I'm 6'4", my brother is
6'5" and both did fine in my B model. Just had to crank the seats
down.

All Cessna singles are the same, but the cardinal is a little worse.
The FG nosewheels are a joke. The difference with the early Cardinals
is that their wing is such that it will not fly away from a bounced
landing. You will be stuck there in essentially a stall, wings level,
descending at about 4-500 fpm.

Actually all Cessna singles are not the same, and they have
qualitative differences in handling even among the lines, for example
on the 172 with the numerous changes over the years that affected
pitch forces. The '50s era versions are very different from those of
the late '70s. The Cardinal had significantly differnent handling
than the 172/175/182/185 that had come before. The Cardinal will
indeed fly away from a bounced landing, done it many times in the no
letter, A, B and RG. The airplane climbs all the way to the stall,
even with full flaps on a hot day. If it doesn't, the engine either
isn't making power or the pilot is trying get speed by descending.

One weak link to the gear is that stupid magnet setup on the nosegear.
A little 1/2" by 1" magnet sensor on one end and a magnet on the other.
The two parts are over $600 when a kitchen magnet would be a 1000%
better design.

Haven't looked at that particular part.



Use the first "notch" of flaps for takeoff, trim it as indicated, and
it will reward you with some of the most lovely takeoffs imaginable,
it just flies off. In a crosswind, use the ailerons and it tracks
perfectly. On landing always use full flaps, especially in
crosswinds, get the nose up, use your croswind technique and you can
put it on one main gear and hold it there an amazingly long time
before the dowwind gear comes down and then the nose comes down.


In crosswinds I preferred no flaps or 10 degrees.

If it works, stick with it.


Make sure you get a good checkout because it does not fly like other
Cessna singles, it's more responsive and you may find yourself
thinking ill of the others when you find what the Cardinal can do.

Yes, even though the performance is the same as a 172 it is different.

The no letter was very close to the 172 in performance (they put the
172 back in production in '68 after taking it out of production and,
in doing so, they changed the 172 from 145 hp to 150, as was the
Cardinal. I and some others did some side-by-side comparisons over
the years. The 150 hp Cardinal would outclimb the 172 by about 10 fpm
with each at best rate (the 177's best rate of climb speed was faster
by about 10 mph, if I recall correctly, and a lot of pilots tried to
climb it using 172 speeds, which didn't work and adversely affected
the rate of climb), and in cruise the 150 hp Cardinal was from 2-5 mph
faster than the 172, barely noticable. The A and B would outrun a 172
all the way around. Don't know how they compared to the 180 hp 172s.
Probably pretty close.



It is one of the finest single engine airplanes ever built. It got a
bad rep from pilots making excuses for their own ineptitude. It will
cruise about 140 knots all day long, with delightful handling,
excellent visibility and passenger comfort.

I did love the ailerons, very fast. But it will be a hell of a lot
cheaper to own a 182 than a 177RG and the speeds are the same.

Yeah, 182 will carry more, as well and speeds are really close. That
gets to be a personal preference thing. Very different airplanes from
a design and use perspective.

All the best,
Rick

Thanks Rick and others for the replies...

Hilton