Cubdriver,
Very cool article. I suppose that I took for granted our "special feature"! I have not flown a 172 in years, but I do know that I've never flown one outside of Riddle that had skylights.
2005 was I believe the first year Riddle started to acquire G1000 equipped 172's. That hail storm and the tornado on xmas day 2006 certainly accelerated our rate of receiving new planes. Cessna sent engineers out to the school to inspect the aircraft after the hail storm and approved them for flight. It was a bit disconcerting getting into an aluminum can that looked as though it was attacked by a ball-peen hammer!
I apologize for the total thread-jack here!