Article First Published March 2022 by the Cessna Owner Organization
When was the last time you thought about why your instruments are arranged the way they are? Often the only time it is thought about is when a pilot is looking to upgrade their instruments or rearrange them to a more pleasing layout.
Modern Cessna 172s are equipped with impressive G1000 “Glass Cockpit” screens, but it is more likely that many pilots who learned in the Cessna 172 learned with “steam gauges” in a standard six-pack layout with a center radio stack. When compared to the 172N, P, R, and early S models, older models have nonstandard layouts that seem to lack symmetry and purpose. When older models are purchased, owners often look at their jumbled instrument layout and consider how they can create that six-pack layout that they trained on.
