Different strokes indeed, but that's what makes the world go round and while our strokes might be different, we all seem to be in the same pond of aviation love.
The idea you have about the 172 is the same one that I had when I started flight training. That's actually what prompted me back into RC planes after a long absence. Since I couldn't find a suitable kit of a 172 at the time, a 182 was close enough!
Being involved with full size aviation and seeing right before me all the details and how the planes were built really got my juices flowing to replicate all that in miniature. Life could have been made a little simpler for me if I'd chosen to make it a display model only, but I love machinery also so it had to be RC.
Speaking of a 172, that modest little aircraft has earned a very proud position in aviation history. By sheer numbers, it is apparently the most successful and the most popular airplane in the world.
I'll grant you, they don't look like much, but they're nowhere near being ugly either, in fact the design seems to have a timeless quality about it, sort of the way a P-51 still looks fresh and sexy.
Way back when, as a kid, I never had any particular attraction for a Cessna because I thought low wingers looked more cool. My perception has changed since then and I came to have a lot of respect and admiration for them.
I always liked a Bonanza and as it turned out I met a guy who I became friends with who owns one. Yes, we went flying lots of times and it seems like more often than not, he hed me do the driving. Ok, it's a cool fancy plane, but I gotta say that it ain't my cup of tea. It doesn't matter to me that it's a status symbol or that it goes at a gazillion miles an hour, but sitting at the controls of that thing, it feels to me like driving a heavy truck!!! Sure, it has autopilot and all, but I enjoy FLYING a plane, but not this one! In fact, one day we made a trip from Long Island NY to Ohio and back where he had me do all the flying. I gotta tell ya, as much as I love aviation, I did not want to see another plane for at least a week!!! Since then, I refer to his plane as The Beast.
Well anyhoo, hope you get that 172 going. At the very least you'll be garanteed there won't be 20 other guys at the field with the same model!
