Taxiing ------- Never taxi faster than you can jog comfortably (10 km/h or about 5kt for me), and usually more slowly, especially at night or in bad weather or gusty winds. The ASI isn't all that useful at low speeds on the ground, so we usually gauge it by power setting: I was told to taxi a 172 at about 1000 RPM, but I end up riding the brakes that way -- I find that 800-900 RPM is more suitable (and even then, I brake more than I'd like to). The yellow line is where your nosewheel is supposed to be. That said, little planes pass each other all the time on taxiways -- it's just like a country road, where one plane pulls far over to the side (even onto the gravel) to let the other by. During daylight with good visibility, ground control basically clears you to taxi to a runway and leaves you alone to work out the details. Big planes, of course, have to be more organized and wouldn't have room to pass on the same taxiway (there are also issues with jet blast -- taxiing too close behind an idling 737 could flip your Cessna upside down). Turn radius at a 90 degree junction: When I turn very tightly with a lot of differential braking, I can just bring it onto the centreline without an s-curve and without stopping my forward roll. That's a minimum turning diameter of about 30 feet (15 foot radius) while actually rolling forward -- a 25 foot radius would likely be much more comfortable. You can turn much more tightly if you stop your forward motion and just pivot around one wheel, but that's not good for the plane. Note that you should stop before crossing any runways -- even when you're precleared to cross, you still stop and look.The C172 should also stop to do a runup just before it goes to the hold-short line runway -- that can take 3-5 minutes for a single and longer for a twin. Allow another minute or so for tower clearance before taxiing out for takeoff. Take-Off (using Flightgear) --------------------------- 1. Click the right mouse button once to make it into the control yoke (you should see a crosshair cursor). 2. Advance throttle (PAGE UP) to full, and wait until the airspeed is about 60 KIAS (if you try to rotate much earlier, bad things will happen). 3. Pull back on the elevator (mouse) only a little bit, and then wait for the plane to climb -- DON'T yank it into the air. Watch the airspeed, and try to keep it between 70-80 KIAS while climbing (lower the nose if you're going too slowly, raise it if you're going too fast). For best rate of climb in the C172R, 75-78 KIAS is ideal. 4. The effects of the spinning propeller will try to pull the nose to the left during the steep power climb; for now (without rudder pedals), just use the ailerons (left-right mouse motion) to keep the wings level. 5. At your cruising altitude (or at 1000 ft AGL for a circuit), level off and reduce power to around 2100-2200 RPM. The propeller effects should nearly disappear. For more information see the circuit manual on the Flightgear homepage