Cessna 172 Skyhawk | Behind the Wings on PBS

I'm massive reshef and this is behind the wings and bytes that is a Cessna 172 Skyhawk okay all goofiness decide because we always have to have some of that in an episode of behind the wings I'm actually standing in front of our Boeing Blue Sky aviation gallery which is actually phase one of wings over the Rockies much larger exploration of flight campus here on centennial Airport that's pretty exciting speaking of flying this episode is not about blue sky it's about that little guy the Cessna 172 Skyhawk and that baby looks like she needs a pilot luckily you got me okay I'm not a pilot but I know where to find one this program was made possible by wings over the Rockies educating and inspiring people of all ages about aviation and space endeavors of the past present and future now I say this a lot but how cool is this you guys are getting a really inside look at this thing not everyone gets to do that damn boy little faint bamm-bamm in 1911 the aviation bug bit Clyde Cessna hard and he ended up building one of the first mono planes west of the Mississippi he taught himself to fly it less than a decade after the Wright brothers first flight after years of trial and error Cessna moved to Wichita Kansas and started his own company the Cessna Aircraft Company in 1927 over time the Cessna Aircraft Company designed and built hundreds of thousands of aircraft for commercial general and military aviation but none more popular than the little 172 the first Cessna 172 went on sale in 1956 and the Cessna Aircraft Company continued to refine the design since its first flight in 1955 Cessna has sold more than 44,000 172s making it the single most widely produced aircraft in history let's catch up with a current 172 pilot who can show us this innovation firsthand so we're here with Brooks dickerson who's a student in Metropolitan State University of Denver and you are part of their aerobatic team is that correct yes sir I am so what's it like to be a part of the aerobatic team I mean what are you flying for those guys so the aerobatic team we actually have a team of about 20 members now at school and we go out and fly a series of aerobatic maneuvers in front of three judges sometimes four and then that gets scored against the other schools and we compete in that in that way it's a really neat collegiate program to be a part of it all right so Brooks I know that this thing has got like a wingspan of like 32 feet or something like 36 feet see that's why you're the expert but what is this doohickey so this thing here is something that you actually are gonna see on almost every single airplane that's has ever been produced it's what's called a pitot tube and okay what this does is gives the pilot an accurate indication of airspeed so that's how fast the airplanes movement through the air so with our museum we have mostly military a lot of the pitot tubes are like way out in front so it's kind of odd I guess to see it here but it makes perfect sense I mean you kind of need clean air right you don't need quick clean air and you know I'm something but let's say take the f4 for example you know you got a big old pitot tube right on the front right on the f4 you don't have a prop out front that's polluting the air now when I was messing around earlier I saw something on the wing tip of this thing and I want to show you and I asked you about because it makes no sense to me so here we are in a wildly sophisticated airplane yeah we got a little tiny piece of plexiglass hanging out here what the heck is that thing what that does that indicates that the pilot that our navigation lights are working if they are we should see one red light on our left side and one green light on the right right side okay I got it I got it all right so this guy's the elevator controls the pitch of the aircraft otherwise up and down but what are these little doohickey thingies so these little things here and you can see them that they're also on the ailerons on an all-metal airplane like this these are what's called static wakes what these do is as the airplane moves through the air it causes a static bit build up so similar to if you are walking across carpet and socks all right so what this does is discharges the static back into the air and so it doesn't interfere with your radios or navigation well you know that's probably a good thing because this has not got what they call a steam gauge cockpit correct this thing is like fully glass absolutely let's go check that out sure all right so this does not look like your standard 172 cockpit what is going on with all this glass so what we're looking at here is the state-of-the-art a V Onyx package known as the Garmin g1000 nxi now that's the top-of-the-line most modern avionics that you can equip it as same single-engine airplane here so basically what a glass cockpit does and what the nxi has done it done here is taking all of our steam gate gauges and put them in an easier to read compact format here on this screen here so baby if the pilot no longer has to scan too far around he can scan his instruments right right here now the engine that that's sitting in front of us is a hundred and fifty five horsepower turbo diesel and engine so this airplane is fuelled by jet a which is actually about a dollar and a half cheaper per gallon than okay I can start to see this airplane we're showing about a max speed of about 143 miles an hour so that's 143 miles an hour in a straight line that'll get you to your destination a lot of dashes and driving right let's let's take this baby out you cool with it absolutely I didn't think you'd say no you can't just be in the plane you gotta fly the plane so most of the airplane that you're gonna be portrayed out here today are Cessna 172 they are just good honest point it's amazing oh are you ready okay your your hands off now what we really like to do here's a big fan of not over control they may be air but no you got both hands up here oftentimes you're gonna be real you know living yeah have heavy I'll Holloman control so I really like like to just kind of fly with one two one hand in here your your case you're gonna fly with your right hand so you got your left hand let the throttle here hey you do not have to have a lot of not a lot of a force on it it's what what way what I like to tell folks is everybody's gonna want to continue to to fly your only job CBP pilot is to manipulate it there's a lot of misconceptions ooh you happen to trying to Reno keep your button in the air specifically with the once they're with you especially that is not became that was the idea behind the Cessna 172 is a heed easy easy fly an easy operating code trainer and definitely hit it right off that that a forehead Oh kids this thing is the bus 660 got successful airplane sales lies that manufacturing wise that bet built and there's still flight schools are still operating these today now if you can kind of see this smokey outline of downtown there hey aren't you give it to slight right turn heading right towards downtown - wait wait wait get a nice the circling view of it we just got back from our supercool flight with Brooks Dickerson but now we're here at Centennial Airport we're actually sitting in a 1998 Cessna Skyhawk that belongs to the Aspen Flying Club and we're literally right across the runway from our second location the blue sky gallery but you'll notice I have this fetching young woman Hedy Carlson she runs our teacher flight program Hedy tell us about this kind of old-school sky Hawk I love the old school by the way it is kind of cool it is as you notice that there are analog steam gauges instead of our X TIG 1000 glass cockpit you know if it was good enough for Lindbergh it's got to be good enough for us exactly the engine is also different this has a like homing 180 horsepower engine and it's a normally aspirated gas-powered reciprocating engines so the one we were just in was actually a turbo diesel correct which is great for up here because the turbo thinks it's that you know sea level all the time where is this poor guy it's like yeah so Hedy did you know that Cessna has actually built 44,000 Skyhawks that's amazing it's a huge number and what's even way crazier is the fact that America China any number of European countries are all scrambling for Skyhawks because they desperately need pilots the need is great in fact Boeing estimates that in the next 18 years we're going to need 2 million more aviation personnel that includes pilots air traffic control maintenance flight attendants even and that's a worldwide number that's nots you know it gets me to thinking how is Cessna gonna keep up with demand you know since we are an Air and Space Museum we probably could you know fly there and knock on their door baby I say we take a little trip to Wichita and talk to the people that are actually building these planes and see what kind of information we can get we aren't in Kansas anymore wait oh we are in Kansas anymore specifically we're in Independence Kansas which is home to the independence Community College pirates go pirates great football team but more importantly boom Cessna manufacturing how cool is that and so we're gonna go see where the Cessna Skyhawk is made that is some cool stuff let's go check it out we're inside the production facility and this is polish Chavel who's the GM here as you can see behind us there's a lot going on down on the floor here so you guys produce what so what we build out here is the 1:32 the way to and the 206 single engine highway and then we also build the m2 jet and 208 208 Caravan line all right so this is literally only one building out of five so if GM you have a whole lot going on you're kind of like the Henry Ford of Independence Candace aren't you I guess you could say that that's very cool so why did production move here to independence we were in Wichita why just kind of uproot and bring like one little slice down here well so we started with a single-engine highway aircraft it was originally built in Wichita but in 1986 they did cease production and our chairman at the time Russ Meyer said he would not bring those aircraft back until we had some products liability relief so fortunately for us in 1994 President Clinton signed a general aviation revaluation Act it was a it was an act to help you guys produce more aircraft that obviously we desperately need right so there had been 18 years span in between that time so of course Wichita picked up some other models so at that time they weren't able to produce a single-engine highway so they had to look elsewhere for plants to build those types of aircraft here we are Paula was kind enough to give us a tour of the assembly line where the 172 Skyhawk is being manufactured all of this stuff is assembled by hand there are no robots on the Skyhawk line it's a perfect example of an american-made product you look at everything and realize just how much goes into the production of this plane and how many hours it takes for the finished product to roll out the door as each Skyhawk finishes up in the Assembly Building it moves over to paint let's catch up with Paulette and see the next step in the process so when we bring the aircraft in from the Assembly Building you bring it over to our fan and fill area and they'll wipe this plane down completely to remove all the excess dust debris on this on it and then they'll start to map the aircraft the paper cover the windows to ensure that when we go in to do the crime the sanding it doesn't get inside the aircraft and then from there then we bring it out of the Santa's bill booth and we bring it over into our paint booths over here okay and that's when they receive the first top coat for basically you know I think one of the things that people don't realize is that you know just under a possess the 172 Skyhawk and it's immediately this beautiful thing that you bought there's a whole process of getting it to look like this right back there we were literally putting on top coat and then we were buffing and then hand painting where some of the buffing and taking the paid off so tell us how we got from there to literally beer' to finish off the paint detail after touching up on those rivets we lay out the vinyl graphics on the aircraft and then after that position we move into the engine install so we start installing engine we start installing avionics and then we also install the interior Wow and then obviously hooking everything up making sure everything kind of works I noticed actually this guy's got a light on so we've got battery power to it that kind of thing is there from here you're gonna roll it out and test fly it I say that's right so they'll go on to our flight hangar or we'll start putting everything into service with the engine putting fuel in the aircraft getting it ready for its first flight this is a real plane yes it is I mean we're we've been everywhere but this is the final final destination as it was and we are in the flight building and so what happens here that literally will get this guy out the door into a customer so we just left our paint facility and with that we'll start putting our oil into our engines okay and get our fuel into our wings and then we'll take it outside the hangar here and the doors and run over to the airport and do a compass wing and do our engine runs and then we'll bring it back into the facility and start getting you ready for our pilots so good to get it released for first flight so once the pilot gets a one of a corporate pilot and a Cessna pilot gets this they'll take it up and then they'll squawk it come back and you'll do any little tweaks to that and literally - right onto the customer in the same area right here we'll do our squawks as well and then once that's those are completed and the pilots have bought off on it then we bring in our odar inspectors and they inspect it one last time before we close it all up and it goes to the delivery center that's so I mean you guys are really putting it under the microscope to make sure that it's ready for the customer it goes through several inspections that's probably a good thing well Paula thank you so much you guys have been awesome I mean we've spent literally all day with you and we have seen more than probably 99% of Skyhawk pilots we'll ever see and we thank you for that yeah but I think it's time that we do what we always do and let's go fly right off the assembly line a Cessna 172 Skyhawk that's pretty cool this is even cooler Mindy Linda hi she is gonna be our demo pilot today she is the regional sales director Mindy thank you so much of course I have to be really cool you got a cake gig girl I don't know about cake but it is fun oh my gosh this is so cool so tell us a little bit about how you got this job where did you come from how did you become a pilot I'm from Florida I was originally interested in aerospace medicine got some reading about pilots and how they can't take certain medicines so the more I write about pilots the more interested I wasn't that so I talked to a neighbor who was a delta pilot and he suggested to go on a discovery flight and I loved it so I went through school for it got my rating started flight instructing and then I got picked up by texture daddy man I cannot think of a better job except maybe so earlier we literally went through everything we have seen how these things are built and now we've got one right behind us absolutely I'd love to show you guys let's start right here with the engine so this is the lycoming io 360 it's 180 horsepower normally aspirated so a little bit different than what you saw with the JTA right this takes 100 low lead it goes 124 knots as the max cruise speed at about 9 to 10 gallons per hour okay all right quick not two miles per hour 124 knots equals about 145 miles per hour oh very cool well then let's take this bad boy out let's do it I will say this this is not what I had in mind when I thought of campus yeah it's nice and green it is portions of Rolling Hills so there's a little bit of terrain out here you get to do this for a living I guess to do this for a living I get to take up people like you that are interested in the aircraft tell them all about it show up all about it take applying and hopefully they'll want to buy one this is the most widely produced aircraft trainer we've made like you mentioned before over 44,000 Skyhawks with that many sky hacks out there's so many people out there that are knowledgeable about how to work on them how to fly them so it makes it a really safe aircraft in that aspect too just so there's so much information out there that you could find about the airplane same with avionics the engines are well proven avionics Suites is the lycoming has just been around for a long time especially this bottle it's a really easy stable aircraft to fly it's very forgiving and it could take your first couple of hard landings make sure I will add so this is the new G 1000 and X I you probably notice how quickly it came on as a faster processor better resolution and even identifies what frequency is active so right now you can see us as ki DP Unicom so we got it dependence Unicom active and that really helps so you don't pull up to the runway ready to go and let ground know that you're ready to take off when you're supposed to be on Tower so it can save you some from some embarrassing moments it sounds like you may have done that once or just once only one haha super smart and make flying pretty easy Chris we has a booming map on the right side you can have your flight plan in there get airport weather information we have a radar off board I also notice it has serious exhales Evan yes XM radio and weather so serious provides our weather service that's our onboard weather that we have and it looks just like you would have like on an app on your phone you can see the weather out here by Louisiana and then it has all the same radio stations just like you do in your car and whenever you or air traffic control starts talking it'll automatically mute the radio so that you can listen it it's amazing how much who are automobiles and aircraft are now starting to become I mean almost one at the same yeah and on purpose there's a lot of features and aircrafts that they make kind of like cars so that you feel more comfortable and your family feels comfortable in it too so they can see what's going on and read that you're only 30 minutes from your destination so that everyone's not so at the dark that could easily read to see what's going on so we're just gonna start slow it up all right that was awesome I love flying I really love flying when Mindy is the pilot baby awesome thank you thanks so much this was really great I hate to do this but we're gonna leave you where are you going well we're going back to Wichita which you guys are not gonna want to miss because it is gonna be well worth the trip I'm here with Jay Robert who is the director of operations for Textron aviation East Campus Jay it's nice to have you here so give me a real quick overview of what you do so my responsibility is basically to make sure that the aircraft are built in the assembly lines when we need to build them that's kind of a big job yes it is Wow all right speaking of aircraft can we go see some absolutely let's go whoo it's a big building so it's a little bit different than Independence what's going on here so we've got a lot of manufacturing going on a lot of the king air products we also got the piston products that we'll see down line and then we got the next generation coming with the longitude oh I bet that's kind of cool it's really exciting a lot of new technology a different way of building an aircraft compared to what we've built in the past I bet so how exactly big is this building so a little over 450,000 square feet that we actually have from manufacturing this place literally it's kind of like Independence I mean everybody has been here quite a while they take pride in what they're doing a huge heritage within this business a lot of people have a lot of passion around what they build right from the very beginning there's a lot of generations that pass you know from mother and father down to their kid it even dates back even to grandfather and grandmother of who comes into this business and works so yeah I would say you know with Wichita Kansas being the air capital of the world it's passed on with passion you know it's a very good livelihood for anybody and it's it's carried on throughout the generation if you thought the facility in Independence was impressive this place is enormous like the 172 Skyhawk the aircraft here mostly assembled by hand well except for the citation longitude that's Textron super-secret cell J was telling me that it's built with monolithic structures has bonded metal technology instead of rivets and they even designed it to be uber quiet with new soundproof tech talk about innovation coming out of Cessna I guess they don't call wichita the air capital of the world for nothing this is an aircraft everyone has seen and everyone knows about it's the most widely produced aircraft of all time and we got to see it like no one else has before from flying the 172 Skyhawk over downtown Denver to going on to the production line in Independence Kansas and even seeing what Textron has in store for the future and Wichita we've taken you behind the wings of the Cessna 172 Skyhawk so did you know that I didn't all right that was the only one I swear that alert module hey nice to have you here thank you so much whatever we set you up man that was good

Channel: Wings Over the Rockies Air & Space Museum

Views: 188,609

Rating: 4.8258824 out of 5

Keywords: Cessna 172, Cessna 172 Skyhawk, Skyhawk, Behind the Wings, PBS, Rocky Mountain PBS, Matthew Burchette, Scott Hennelly, Ben Theune, Wings Over the Rockies, Air and Space Museum, Aviation Museum, Cessna history, cessna 172 history, aviation documentary, aerospace, aircraft documentary, Independence Kansas, Textron, Cessna, Textron Aviation, Wichita, aircraft history, aviation, aerospace education, distance learning, flight, STEM, STEM careers, aviation education

Id: gX8NHZHf9SA

Length: 26min 42sec (1602 seconds)

Published: Fri May 17 2019