172 "M"

Tonight I got checked out to rent at the San Jose GA airport (Reid Hillview, KRHV). They speciallize in tail draggers, but they do have single Cessna in the fleet; a Cessna 172M.

The "M" is apparently just before Cessna standardized the panel; it shows MPH instead of knots. A few other things are clearly less refined than I'm used too; the fuel and engine data are all on the far right, pretty much invisible at night without a flashlight; and, the flaps are different. I'm used to moving the flaps to the position I want, and the electric motors move things into place. On the "M", instead, you basically have an up/down - the more you want, the more you hold it in.

The other fun part of this was that this checkout was at nigth, in unfamiliar airspace, with a new (to me) instruction, in an unfamiliar plane. Fun! :)

In the end, I'm now able to rent 172's from both Sacramento and now San Jose.