Comments on: Cirrus SR22 demo flight: initial impressions

By: Raymond Moreno

Raymond Moreno — Fri, 24 Feb 2006 14:36:55 +0000

Hello, I too have had the oportunity to fly the Cirrus recently. It has been one the best planes that I’ve ever got to fly. I agree, the glass panel is pretty informative if your going to fly around just for VFR flying. It’s definately more suited for cross country flying. The electric trim is definately a plus, especially in the approach to landing phase because the plane tends to sink quickly with power at idle. This plane is more suited for the series pilot wanting to transition into regional line training aircraft. The four-point seat harness at times crepped up towards my shoulders at least in the airplane I was flying. Handling characteristics were pretty responsive with good roll and pitch rates. It did’t seem that I needed much rudder imput when climbing or making steep turns. Taxiing and takeoff took a little getting use to because of the full castering nose wheel. I found myself looking for the traditional instruments while flying because the glass screens seemed to me, not to be in real time. I’m use to the leads and lags of the analog instuments. As far as comfort, the airplane is great with lower noise level and excellant radio sound qualities. The instrumentation is awsome, I can see where a student would be intimadated. The added safety parachute system is a plus for the pilot and the passegers. I can continue on and on about the airplane but there’s to much to list. Overall, it was like going to Disneyland or the candy store for a pilot. I love the airplane, the future is bright for these new generation aircraft. Thanks..Ray Moreno

By: John

John — Sun, 12 Feb 2006 01:35:29 +0000

Aviatrix, I think you misunderstand my point.

The Cirrus procedure for an icing encounter specifies, among other things, that alternate air be turned on. The alternate air control is located, who knows why, beneath the instrument panel. Given the twitchy nature of the SR22, I would turn on the TKS, engage the autopilot, reach under the panel, turn on alternate air, reach over to the right side of the instrument panel and set the heater/defroster on high, then disengage the AP and resume hand flying until out of the ice.

Remember that the SR22 is not certificated for flight into known icing conditions, so I would consider hand flying in these conditions to be an abnormal situation.

Make sense?

By: Aviatrix

Aviatrix — Sat, 11 Feb 2006 09:05:52 +0000

But icing conditions are when you want to hand fly, so you can detect any change in controllability. I disconnect the autopilot for icing or for a wake turbulence advisory.

By: david

david — Thu, 09 Feb 2006 15:33:53 +0000

Thanks for the comment, John. I have no objection at all to using the AP, but after everything I heard about how hard the SR22 was to hand-fly, I was pleasantly surprised that it wasn’t much different than my Warrior, even in light turbulence. I made continuous use of the electric trim, though, to relieve control pressures — with the sensitive stick, I didn’t want to be muscling that plane around.

By: John

John — Thu, 09 Feb 2006 15:23:42 +0000

I have a different perspective on the autopilot. I teach pilots flying an SR22 to consider the autopilot to be required equipment for IFR flying. Pilots transitioning to these kind of aircraft often have a hurdle to get over – namely the feeling that using all the automation is “cheating.” It’s not cheating, it’s just a different kind of flying and just like hand flying, it requires practice to become proficient at managing all the equipment safely and effectively.

I would recommend against hand flying a Cirrus for long periods of time. Can it be done? Sure. Is it a good idea in IMC? I personally don’t think so. Consider running into icing conditions and needing to turn on the alternate air or having to troubleshoot some circuit breakers, both located beneath the left instrument panel by the pilot’s knees. It seems doubtful that this can be safely accomplished without some help from the AP or someone in the right seat.

I’m not left-handed, but if you happen to be and are flying from the left seat, the AP is a big help when you get an amended clearance and need to write something down.