A few Cessna 172 questions!

M15A wrote:

I always thought I should take off at 75 knots in the Cessna! Am I wrong?

55 KIAS is correct.

M15A wrote:

Another question: In the lesson the instructor tells me to reduce power to 1500 RPM and add 10 degrees of flaps when I am on the base leg. When I do this, should I keep on flying straight en level or should the decent begin at that point?

You should be descending.

M15A wrote:

At the final approach leg the instructor tells me to reduce power again and add another 10 degrees of flaps. I don't know how much I should reduce the power in this case (to flight idle?) but I assume I have to add power again after I added the second 10 degrees of flaps to stay on 75 knots? Otherwise I will either go down way too fast or stall!

Use power as necessary to maintain speed, instructors recommendations are just rough guidelines.

M15A wrote:

And right after that I should add another 10 degrees of flaps. How fast should I be flying with 30 degrees of flaps applied? After that I assume I just have to make a normal landing.

You don't need full 30 degrees of flaps for a normal landing. I recommend using Flaps 20 with a speed of 70 KIAS for normal landings and Flaps 30 with a speed of 60 KIAS for short and/or grass runways. 🙂

Thanks man! 😎

I have to disagree with the comment about not using full flaps, at least in real world flying. You don't need full flaps in most cases (you don't actually need any flaps), but a full flaps landing is safer than a partial flaps landing in a C-172, presuming wind conditions allow for full flaps. The reason for that is that full flaps provides greater visibility to the pilot than less than full flaps at any given condition of speed, power, and descent. Since greater visibility = greater safety and since a prudent pilot always executes the safest maneuvers possible consistent with the mission, I always use and recommend full flaps when conditions allow.