Back to the future???

[Bill Greenwood]

Just my sort of informed guess, but I think the big thing for most students just starting out is cost, and if an older 150 is the cheapest so be it.
Here in Boulder, it seems cost is certainly the factor and the 150 and 172 were getting good use. Another factor is the CFI. When the prospective student walks in the door, if the CFI really wants to ride around for 30 hours and have a glass cockpit the student is likely to be shown and sold on the Diamond D40, although the 172 has a Garmin 1000 also.
To me, a Diamond is funny looking, but some students are drawn to the more modern and strange plastic planes and like to play with all the advanced avionics. I think the 150s should have a basic navcom with a vor and maybe a simple gps. They don't need to spend $20,000 for a fancy all glass panel or spend a lot of the students time learning how to use all the that that kind of panel can do, rather the student really needs to know how to fly, and hopefully not skip over not only flight basics but fundamental navigation.
I know people that can barely drive around the block without their gps and if it goes off they don't have any idea where they are. Not good for pilots.

[Mike Berg]

I did all my training (many moons ago) in either a 150 or 152 with just the basic navigation equipment and this was before GPS or LOREN for that matter. It seems like looking out the window and following or splitting the section lines (if there happens to be some) along with your finger on the map makes someone a better navigational pilot. My Cherokee had a VOR and LOREN which was suspect at times. I now fly a L16 (Champ) with a GPS but I still look out the window and watch the moving map even if it happens to be on a screen and the paper maps are close by in the side pocket. Groundspeed, compass and time are still an important function of "where am I".