Welcome Guest. Sign in or Signup

6 Answers

Penny wise pound foolish

Asked by: 4160 views
Commercial Pilot

Hi all, I'm about to start on my commercial. I have two choices for complex aircraft, a basic Cessna 172RG Cutlass, or a Cessna 177RG Cardinal with Aspen avionics. Should I save some $$$ and just fly the 172RG or would it pay in the Future to fly the 177RG with "glass/MFD/Autopilot". Thoughts appreciated................. Chris

Ace Any FAA Written Test!
Actual FAA Questions / Free Lifetime Updates
The best explanations in the business
Fast, efficient study.
Pass Your Checkride With Confidence!
FAA Practical Test prep that reflects actual checkrides.
Any checkride: Airplane, Helicopter, Glider, etc.
Written and maintained by actual pilot examiners and master CFIs.
The World's Most Trusted eLogbook
Be Organized, Current, Professional, and Safe.
Highly customizable - for student pilots through pros.
Free Transition Service for users of other eLogs.
Our sincere thanks to pilots such as yourself who support AskACFI while helping themselves by using the awesome PC, Mac, iPhone/iPad, and Android aviation apps of our sponsors.

6 Answers



  1. John D. Collins on Jan 06, 2012

    Presuming that the Cardinal RG costs more per hour to rent, I don’t see any advantage towards obtaining the commercial certificate just because it has an Aspen PFD.

    +3 Votes Thumb up 3 Votes Thumb down 0 Votes



  2. Bill Trussell on Jan 06, 2012

    As you might think the correct answer would depend on your future plans.  If you are going to fly for a living then glass experience would be nice, but not absolutely necessary.  Most commercial operators will have type specific training requirements for you to achieve, which will include avionics systems.  There will be time to get the glass experience down the road if you wish.
    Flying the 172 RG is a lot like the fixed gear 172, but the wheels go up and down and there is a different engine up front.  It is complex but not high performance.  I would suggest to my students that they learn incrementally, fly the 172RG for the rating, then move up to the Cardinal in a lower stress enviornment post your checkride for the rating.  This would offer the best of all worlds, having achieved the commercial rating in a more familiar aircraft, then transition to the Cardinal.
    All that said a lot would depend on the overall availability of both aircraft. Which one has more time available to achieve your goals in a reasonable timeframe.  Either way it sounds like a lot of fun for  you!

    +1 Votes Thumb up 1 Votes Thumb down 0 Votes



  3. Micah on Jan 06, 2012

    I agree. i would train in the 172RG, save the money, and later find a glass cockpit sim course for introduction/training in that environment. Keep it simple; learn one thing at a time.

    +1 Votes Thumb up 1 Votes Thumb down 0 Votes



  4. n on Jan 06, 2012

    The first plane you fly as a green CPL is not going to have glass, heck you’re going to be lucky if you don’t have “inop” stickers in it.

    Get your CPL for as little as possible and spend the money you would have spend on the 177 (which ain’t the best flying bird btw) on gas to drive around and shake hands and land that first job!!!

    +1 Votes Thumb up 1 Votes Thumb down 0 Votes



  5. StudentCFI on Jan 08, 2012

    The Aspen really shines if you are going to use it for instrument, otherwise, just stick to the cheaper steam cockpit C172RG.  The commercial checkride is all visual maneuvers anyways, so why pay for all that fancy glass when you will spending most of your time outside the cockpit anyways?

    0 Votes Thumb up 0 Votes Thumb down 0 Votes



  6. Matthew Waugh on Jan 09, 2012

    Fly the C172RG – you can get “glass” experience later. It takes, at most, a few hours in the plane (and many hours in the books) to master glass – do commercial VFR maneuvers in a glass cockpit won’t buy you much of anything.

    0 Votes Thumb up 0 Votes Thumb down 0 Votes


The following terms have been auto-detected the question above and any answers or discussion provided. Click on a term to see its definition from the Dauntless Aviation JargonBuster Glossary.

Answer Question

Our sincere thanks to all who contribute constructively to this forum in answering flight training questions. If you are a flight instructor or represent a flight school / FBO offering flight instruction, you are welcome to include links to your site and related contact information as it pertains to offering local flight instruction in a specific geographic area. Additionally, direct links to FAA and related official government sources of information are welcome. However we thank you for your understanding that links to other sites or text that may be construed as explicit or implicit advertising of other business, sites, or goods/services are not permitted even if such links nominally are relevant to the question asked.