Alexb2000
En-Route
I just got back from flying the G5 Turbo this afternoon. The airplane was loaded with everything except the Sat. Phone.
Just as a point of background I have a lot of G1000 time, so all of the standard G1000 features were not new. I have also flown the G3 NA Cirrus w/ the Perspective avionics so I have seen that installation before.
Walk around. The aircraft sits well on the ramp. Cirrus has increased the prop clearance in recent models and it shows. They also added an Oleo strut to the nose gear. In addition tubeless tires and slotted brake rotors. Lighting is all LED and really slick. Interior is typical of late model Cirrus' very nice and similar to a luxury car.
Ergonomics. I am 6'1" and I was comfortable in the Cirrus. The seat slides back at an angle. The further back the lower the seat. If you have more torso and less leg then they have rudder extensions which allow you to sit further back (lower). When you first get in you hear a sound like tin foil crunching. That is the aluminum crush pads under the seats. Overall very nice.
Controls: Self-centering spring loaded side stick, differential braking for taxi, no prop control, and a large power lever similar to a turbine.
Take off: About 75 knots, rotates with very little effort, jumps off the ground. We were using approach flaps for take-off. About 100' turn on the yaw dampener accelerate to 120 indicated and climb out about 850 FPM. It was a hot day in Dallas about 105 on the ramp.
Climb: Seemed like 120 was a good climb number. Less speed gave a better vertical rate, but on a hot day the temps would be too hard on the engine.
Speed: 16.5K burning 16.5 gave about 190 true. This was at ISA +17. Fast airplane even down low, more on that later.
Maneuvering: Because of all the legends and Internet talk I really wanted to put it through the paces. Power off stalls, trimmed full back, idle power, stick full aft AND hold it for several minutes. No problem just mushes down under full aileron control and only very minor rudder. Holding an accelerated stall you can steer the airplane around with the stick. Even 45 degree banks stalled are benign. Slow flight is dead simple. Truly one of the easiest aircraft to stall EVER. Much better than a 172, you can't even get it to break over without a lot of effort. I played around with it quite a bit and for the life of me I can't understand how anyone could kill themselves inadvertently stalling this aircraft.
That sales guy who was spinning it in Australia must have done some very extreme maneuvering, certainly nothing that anyone could accidentally do.
Flight controls were much more responsive than I thought they would be. The roll rate for example is fast, much faster than a Beech or Cessna. Fast enough to throw me to one side of the seat with a quick bank. Obviously not aerobatic, but much more responsive than I expected.
Envelope control: This is a new feature and very interesting. Just like an airliner the flight controls won't allow the aircraft to depart controlled flight. As you exceed 45 degrees suddenly the aircraft just reduces the turn to standard rate. Pitch up more than 17 degrees and down it comes. Pitch it down and speed control won't let you exceed VNE. If you told me years ago that a GA single would have envelope control I would have said, "No Way", yet here we are. It seems to work very well.
Big Blue Banana: I don't remember the technical term but the MFD has a blue banana that will show you a vertical profile. Here's an example. I asked the salesman what he would do if we had an engine out at our current position at night. He did the usual G1000 solution to pull up the nearest and point us there. Then selected best glide IAS, as we slowed he put in the elevation of the nearest airport (Paris, TX) into the VNAV profile. I said, "Paris huh, well at night you better have your skills razor sharp to do a dead stick in there". If you short it you won't be happy. Within two minutes we slowed to best glide he looked at the big blue banana on the MFD and it had slipped off the Paris airport and was just barely short. At that point he said, we wouldn't make the airport with these winds, time to find another one or pull the chute. All of that took just two minutes or less to figure out and KNOW. It was pretty awesome.
Coming in hot: This was the salesmans way to show you what the aircraft could do. So we are coming back to Addison. He keeps 75% power on the whole descent. We are indicating about 180 and truing 190-200 all the way down. We were 3.5 miles from the runway on a left base INDICATING 175 knots. Pull the power, dump flaps in at 150 indicated, and grease it on brick one. NO B.S. it was a really good example of what the airplane can do. I was chuckling thinking we were going to sail over the airport and bust the George Bush restricted area. The new flaps, BIG composite prop, and it gets slow fast, way faster than my 206 to my surprise. Shooting an approach into a Class B would be a dream, easy to stay up with airline speed.
I don't know how many of you have flown the new G5, but it is an awesome machine IMO. Cirrus has really, really refined the aircraft over 4 generations and it shows.
So let's talk about it.
Just as a point of background I have a lot of G1000 time, so all of the standard G1000 features were not new. I have also flown the G3 NA Cirrus w/ the Perspective avionics so I have seen that installation before.
Walk around. The aircraft sits well on the ramp. Cirrus has increased the prop clearance in recent models and it shows. They also added an Oleo strut to the nose gear. In addition tubeless tires and slotted brake rotors. Lighting is all LED and really slick. Interior is typical of late model Cirrus' very nice and similar to a luxury car.
Ergonomics. I am 6'1" and I was comfortable in the Cirrus. The seat slides back at an angle. The further back the lower the seat. If you have more torso and less leg then they have rudder extensions which allow you to sit further back (lower). When you first get in you hear a sound like tin foil crunching. That is the aluminum crush pads under the seats. Overall very nice.
Controls: Self-centering spring loaded side stick, differential braking for taxi, no prop control, and a large power lever similar to a turbine.
Take off: About 75 knots, rotates with very little effort, jumps off the ground. We were using approach flaps for take-off. About 100' turn on the yaw dampener accelerate to 120 indicated and climb out about 850 FPM. It was a hot day in Dallas about 105 on the ramp.
Climb: Seemed like 120 was a good climb number. Less speed gave a better vertical rate, but on a hot day the temps would be too hard on the engine.
Speed: 16.5K burning 16.5 gave about 190 true. This was at ISA +17. Fast airplane even down low, more on that later.
Maneuvering: Because of all the legends and Internet talk I really wanted to put it through the paces. Power off stalls, trimmed full back, idle power, stick full aft AND hold it for several minutes. No problem just mushes down under full aileron control and only very minor rudder. Holding an accelerated stall you can steer the airplane around with the stick. Even 45 degree banks stalled are benign. Slow flight is dead simple. Truly one of the easiest aircraft to stall EVER. Much better than a 172, you can't even get it to break over without a lot of effort. I played around with it quite a bit and for the life of me I can't understand how anyone could kill themselves inadvertently stalling this aircraft.
That sales guy who was spinning it in Australia must have done some very extreme maneuvering, certainly nothing that anyone could accidentally do.
Flight controls were much more responsive than I thought they would be. The roll rate for example is fast, much faster than a Beech or Cessna. Fast enough to throw me to one side of the seat with a quick bank. Obviously not aerobatic, but much more responsive than I expected.
Envelope control: This is a new feature and very interesting. Just like an airliner the flight controls won't allow the aircraft to depart controlled flight. As you exceed 45 degrees suddenly the aircraft just reduces the turn to standard rate. Pitch up more than 17 degrees and down it comes. Pitch it down and speed control won't let you exceed VNE. If you told me years ago that a GA single would have envelope control I would have said, "No Way", yet here we are. It seems to work very well.
Big Blue Banana: I don't remember the technical term but the MFD has a blue banana that will show you a vertical profile. Here's an example. I asked the salesman what he would do if we had an engine out at our current position at night. He did the usual G1000 solution to pull up the nearest and point us there. Then selected best glide IAS, as we slowed he put in the elevation of the nearest airport (Paris, TX) into the VNAV profile. I said, "Paris huh, well at night you better have your skills razor sharp to do a dead stick in there". If you short it you won't be happy. Within two minutes we slowed to best glide he looked at the big blue banana on the MFD and it had slipped off the Paris airport and was just barely short. At that point he said, we wouldn't make the airport with these winds, time to find another one or pull the chute. All of that took just two minutes or less to figure out and KNOW. It was pretty awesome.
Coming in hot: This was the salesmans way to show you what the aircraft could do. So we are coming back to Addison. He keeps 75% power on the whole descent. We are indicating about 180 and truing 190-200 all the way down. We were 3.5 miles from the runway on a left base INDICATING 175 knots. Pull the power, dump flaps in at 150 indicated, and grease it on brick one. NO B.S. it was a really good example of what the airplane can do. I was chuckling thinking we were going to sail over the airport and bust the George Bush restricted area. The new flaps, BIG composite prop, and it gets slow fast, way faster than my 206 to my surprise. Shooting an approach into a Class B would be a dream, easy to stay up with airline speed.
I don't know how many of you have flown the new G5, but it is an awesome machine IMO. Cirrus has really, really refined the aircraft over 4 generations and it shows.
So let's talk about it.
Cruise power to idle on a big-bore turbo 
