If it's rigged well you'll find it to be like driving a truck. I did most of my primary in a 150 Aerobat, which although a bit tight for my 6'3" frame was peppy and nimble. When I finished up my primary training it was in a 152 and you could tell Cessna took a lot of the fun out of the original 150. The 172 is, of course, a larger & heavier aircraft. So it responds a bit slower, rides a little smoother, but does have quite a bit more room. Oh, one hint you'll definitely want is to make sure your seat is firmly locked in once you've got it adjusted. You'd get quite a surprise if it popped out of lock during a departure climb! They are very prone to do that in the older aircraft.

Really though, just enjoy yourself and think of expectations from aircraft once you start building your own catalog of experience. When I first started I didn't care, I just wanted to fly! It could've been the ugliest, nastiest bird on the ramp, I just wanted to go! The Cessna will give you a good, stable platform to build your foundation. When you try other aircraft later on you'll start to find out things you may or may not care for, like aggressive stall behavior.

When I was a kid we had a friend with a Piper Cherokee 150 and would fly all over Florida. I loved that airplane. Well, the first FBO I trained at got one just like it. We took it out for my training session and were doing some stall work and I discovered its desire to REALLY drop a wing during stalls. I didn't like that! Good learning experience, but I still didn't like it. Back to the Cessna. In defense though, they also had a Piper Warrior II which flew like a dream. Of course it had a very different wing and was essentially a slightly larger version of the Cherokee.

Another positive thing about Cessna for training is the landing gear. With most high-wing aircraft you've got big, wide spring-steel gear legs that are very forgiving. Low wing aircraft have short stubby struts that aren't (unless of the trailing-link type found on Commanders). There's a couple big training outfits here in Florida that use Piper aircaft and I guarantee almost every one has gear damage in their logs. As a matter of fact, I can think of two incidents with them involving gear failure that made local news in the past few years. One day you'll be making a landing and will happen to look down at your mains and be quite surprised how much movement is going on! LOL!

Keep us posted with your progress, it'll be nice to follow along the excitement. Get your VX on the ramp and send some photos with the 172!