The Glass Cockpit
Cessna 172S Skyhawk · Garmin G1000
The glass-cockpit aeroplane in the fleet, and the one advanced avionics, instrument and commercial training is flown in. You meet an integrated flight deck here, at a school, rather than for the first time in a job that assumes you already know it.
Specification
The aircraft, as it is registered and as it is billed.
| Cessna 172S Skyhawk | |
|---|---|
| Model | Cessna 172S Skyhawk |
| Engine | Lycoming IO-360, 180 hp |
| Seats | 4, including the pilot |
| Avionics | Garmin G1000 integrated flight deck. Used for advanced avionics, instrument and commercial training. |
| In the fleet | One of four: Cessna 150, Cessna 172N IFR, this aircraft, and a Piper PA-44 Seminole. |
| Rate | $110 an hour, all in — the aircraft and your instructor together, with fuel and oil included. |
| Ownership | Owned by DIVA Flight School Sacramento LLC. |
Wet means fuel and oil are included in the hourly rate rather than billed afterwards, and Hobbs hour means the clock runs while the engine does. Both are worth knowing when comparing a published rate against another school’s.
The full cost breakdownWhat It Is Used For
Discovery flights, private pilot training, instrument training, commercial and CFI training, and cross-country flying.
That is the whole list, and it is the point: the aeroplane you take a discovery flight in is the one you sit your private checkride in, and the one you fly your first instrument approach in. Multi-engine training is flown with operators that have a twin — ask us and we will point you to one.
Private pilot training
Garmin G1000
Where You Meet Glass
An integrated flight deck replaces the individual instruments with two large displays, and learning it properly takes deliberate training rather than an afternoon. Doing that here means an employer is not the first party to discover how comfortable you are with it. Weekend slots go first, so regular students hold a repeating booking.
Cessna 172S Skyhawk · Lycoming IO-360, 180 hp · four seats · Garmin G1000
Avionics
The Garmin G1000 — two large displays in place of the individual instruments, with navigation, engine data and traffic on the same glass.
The order across the fleet is deliberate. You learn to fly on traditional instruments in the Cessna 150 and the 172N, which is what most examiners want to see and what leaves you able to fly the aeroplane when a screen goes dark. You come to this aircraft afterwards, to learn the glass properly rather than to hide behind it.
That is worth doing at a school rather than on the job. A G1000 rewards a pilot who has been taught its logic and punishes one who has only been shown the buttons, and the difference shows up on the day the weather is marginal.
Instrument ratingMaintenance
The aircraft is maintained under the applicable FAA requirements, goes through 100-hour and annual inspections, and is not dispatched with an unresolved condition affecting airworthiness.
The decision to release it belongs to the authorised mechanic and to the pilot in command. Neither of those decisions is ours to overrule on the day, which is the arrangement you want in a training aircraft.
Weight And Seats
- 4 seats, 3 guests
- On a discovery flight
- The instructor occupies one of the four, so up to three guests fly together on the $300 option.
- 250 lb per guest
- For an online request
- A working guideline for the booking form, not a limit set by the aircraft.
- 450 lb for the group
- For an online request
- The same: a guideline that lets us take a request without a calculation in front of us.
- The final call
- On the day
- The pilot in command decides, after a weight-and-balance calculation that accounts for fuel, baggage and temperature. Meeting the guideline is not a guarantee of a seat.
From The Flight Line
The school as it flies — straight from its Instagram.
The Aircraft You Would Actually Fly
Ready To Fly?
A discovery flight is $200 for one passenger and $300 for two or three, in this aircraft, with an instructor beside you. Nothing is signed on the day.