John
Whatever did they do when there were no 172s and all were tail draggers?
Reminds me of the joke about the tandem Bi Plane trainer!
The grey haired instructor was known for playing a joke on his students!
Just before sending them solo he unscrewed his stick and showing absolute confidence threw it over the side into the field below! Meaning the student had to land !
One student also a prankster caught onto what would happen to him and unseen slipped a spare stick into the cockpit with him!
As expected the instructor unscrewed his stick and threw it over the side!
The student unscrewed his stick too and threw it over the side exclaiming that he was just following the instructors example !
He just had time to here the instructor shout bail out and disappear over the side with his parachute
Those must have been the days when men were men and pilots were pilots and they smoked capstan full strength then they built the 172
Pace