The question was asked a longgg time ago, but no answer was given.
In the options, please make sure you have Modern Flight Model selected, and not Legacy Flight Model. I wish they’d remove that selection from the menus and move it to Devmode where it belongs.
The 172 G1000 uses the new CFD flight dynamics. I’m pretty sure the default 152 has not been upgraded to this yet, I might be wrong. If using Legacy Flight model, this could be a huge difference between the planes.
As far as the trim is concerned, if you look at the trim wheel, it should move when you change the trim. If you roll it forward, that would be like moving the nose down. If you roll it back that would pull the nose up. Very small amounts of trim change have a pretty big effect when flying. If the trim tabs are at either extent, that also will cause problems. Start with it about midway, and then experiment from there. I think there’s a line on the trim wheel that demarks its position? It should be close to center.
You should not need any flaps when taking off. Typically only use flaps on take off for short field and rough field take offs when you have to get off the ground quickly. The risk is, for low time pilots, removing flaps too early after takeoff can cause issues if the plane is still too slow. You want to be climbing at about 76 knots for a C172, so make sure you’re close to that speed before really climbing. A C172 should climb at around 800 ft/min or so on the VSI. If you’re climbing at higher than 1500 on the VSI, you’ll stall pretty quickly.
I’ll test the C172 tonight to see what I get out of it.
@OwnedBread08777 , when you say you’re only getting 200 ft/min, what’s your forward speed? As I noted Vy in the C172 is 76 knots. If you’re slower than that, yeah, it won’t climb so well.