On Sep 28, 9:15 am, Christopher Brian Colohan
wrote:
After flying Tomahawks and Citabrias, I took my first lesson in a
Cessna 172 last night. I asked many questions, but I had one question
which nobody in my flying club (including the chief pilot) knew the
answer to when I was the Why does the electric elevator trim have
two switches (both of which must be depressed) on the yoke instead of
one?

I assume this is a recent model 172. To avoid a stuck switch (or
shorted switch) from running the trim. In the preflight checklist that
Cessna provides one of the tests under the "trim test" section is to
ensure that the trim does not move with either of the switches is
moved by itself. Additionally you should ensure that the electric trim
does not work at all when the auto-pilot cut-off is held down.

The best theory I could come up with was "to avoid runaway trim if one
switch stuck", but that is not very satisfying...

Anyone know why?

Chris

(Another question: 13 fuel drains? What were they thinking??? But I
am pretty sure the answer is "the lawyers designed that part, not the
engineers.")

No one really knows. Some believe that there is one for every lawsuit
someone brought against Cessna because they forgot to drain the tanks.
Few actually believe that Cessna designed the tanks to collect water
at that many points. In anycase, we just drain them all.

-Robert, CFII