Originally Posted by
Gertrude the Wombat
That seems to be not uncommon for 152 pilots. Possibly the 172 is rather more sensitive than the 152 to the approach speed being too high.
Fully agree. That's a very very common situation - My mistake is usually that I come with a higher speed than supposed to during the approach. In addition, having trained and flown 152 for some time, you get used to flying a quite forgiving aircraft as regards to anything really.
When it comes to slightly larger aircraft such as 172, some of those forgiving events are not present in the 172. Approach speed is one of them.
Also I noted that the propwash on the fin creates a larger degree of left-turning tendency - of course this is due to the higher BHP the 172 has.
I agree that pilots having flown a lot of hourse on the 152 would find the 172 tricky during their first few flights with it, as happened in my case.