SR22 Experience

Lance F

Lance F

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Lance F
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Went to hang out at my airport this morning and saw a guy with an SR22 on the ramp who obviously had a problem. I asked, and he said his flaps wouldn't work, and they were full down. To make a long story short it was as simple as a popped CB, but I helped him find it. I mentioned I'd never flown a Cirrus, and he said "let's go."
I had to fly from right seat because of his insurance, but that was no biggie. He let me be sole manipulator of the controls for the whole flight, which was quite brave of him.
Anyway I had a very favorable impression. Flying with the side stick was nothing. I literally adapted instantly on the take off roll. The IO550 has a lot of power. Made me feel very humble with my little 200HP Mooney. I liked that power, but I did not think is was very smooth or quiet, even with Bose ANR's. I did a bunch of air work and found the plane very easy and precise. However I thought the electric trim was a bit too aggressive. Steep turns, slow flight, all a piece of cake. I made a very acceptable landing and now have made a new friend.
So, as always, a good Saturday morning at the old aerodrome.

Oh, and now I can finally pontificate with my now extensive experience on the endless Cirrus threads :D
 
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It's a nice plane, for sure. The one weak part, however, is (as always) the nut that holds the stick.
 
I agree with your comment regarding the trim. I teach my students to "flick" the hat switch very lightly up or down instead of pressing/holding it. The aileron trim is really easy to get out of whack so I don't bother touching it. All of my Cirrus time is in the SR20 but the -22 looks like a great machine...lots-o-power.
 
pbramlett said:
Why did the cb pop?
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Not diagnosed. It was pretty cold here this morning, and I am guessing things were a little stiff. If it happens again, he'll take it to his normal mechanic. My standard is you get one cb reset free.
 
HPNPilot1200 said:
I agree with your comment regarding the trim. I teach my students to "flick" the hat switch very lightly up or down instead of pressing/holding it. The aileron trim is really easy to get out of whack so I don't bother touching it. All of my Cirrus time is in the SR20 but the -22 looks like a great machine...lots-o-power.
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Most trims I have worked on have a dash pod on them to control the rate of movement. Don'tt know if Cirrus has it though.

Lance, good write up on the Cirrus and the transition to the stick. Most yoke drivers really over think going to a stick and stick drivers are the same. The transition is effortless either way IMHO.
 
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Lance, I thought pretty similarly, after flying with Joe in his SR22 and then later an SR22 turbo. Although I don't like the plane for a number of reasons, I did find it to be smooth to fly and also easy to fly. My first landing in one was a bonafide greaser (with two witnesses).

While I would build the plane significantly differently in a lot of manners and it's no secret that I'm not a fan of them, it is a nice and easy plane to fly. After flying one, I didn't understand why people have so many problems with them. Easy answer:

Ron Levy said:
It's a nice plane, for sure. The one weak part, however, is (as always) the nut that holds the stick.
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Lance F said:
Flying with the side stick was nothing.
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Geico266 said:
Lance, good write up on the Cirrus and the transition to the stick.
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Actually the Cirrus has a side yoke. That and a side stick aren't quite the same thing. A Cessna Corvalis has a side stick. Neither is hard to adapt to, but I thought you might want to know. :D
 
Everskyward said:
Geez, you fly a Lear. Is it more aggressive that that? :D
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Can't compare it to a Lear but my impression of the Cirrus electric trim is the same as my namesake the Lear driver. And to answer Geico's question, there is no trim speed control. What's weird is that the speed isn't really all that fast in that it takes a long time to go from Vx trim to high speed cruise trim but when you try to trim it precisely for level flight it's way to easy to overshoot. Most other certificated airplanes have a manual trim control in addition to the electric one and that's the setup on my own airplane. It's electric trim is also too fast to make small corrections accurately but the trim wheel makes that easy. Bumping the switch as briefly as possible is the suggested method of mitigating the issue but even that seems to almost always get virtually no change or too big of one. The most effective method I found for setting trim was to briefly turn the autopilot on in the appropriate mode and let the autotrim do it's job. Then when you click the AP off the plane is trimmed nicely.

If I were running the Cirrus design team (heaven forbid) I'd incorporate a time dependent speed control so the actuator moved slowly when the switch was first activated and faster if it was held on for more than a second, BWTHDIK.
 
Welcome to the dark side Lance. I hereby curse you with daydreams of Cirri dancing in your head for the next 2 weeks.
 
I kind of like flying a Cirrus SR22 as I do a Lear. It's great when it's somebody else's gas. I'm afraid that when it's my credit card on the line I'll have to stick to my Mooney.
 
Lance, care to comment specifically on steep turns and stalls? In Joe's Cirrus I was generaly impressed but had difficulty with steep turns to my side. It involved an awkward wrist movement. Even more so for a departure stall. Other than that I thought it a fine machine although it has some gotchas.
 
Lance, you've been here long enough that I shouldn't have to scold you for this. But here goes:

:needpics:
 
I think the thread is interesting. I don't see any point in saying it's worthless without pictures. :dunno:

I'm enjoying reading what pilots have to say about the planes they have flown.
 
Hey NoHeat - it's kind of a running joke on the board - "Pics or it didn't happen" :D

All good-natured ribbing, sometimes interspersed with a loving "Dear ___, you suck." endearment where appropriate.

Edit - just saw you've been here a couple of years - sorry about thinking you were new here. My bad. :dunno:
 
Since this opportunity just kind of popped up. Never even thought about a picture. My bad.

After leveling off I immediately went to the steep turns. First was to the right, the side I was flying from. The controls were great with no slop at all. I had no problem holding a 60 deg bank all the way around within 50'. The turn to the left didn't start out so well. The side yoke wasn't the problem. The sight picture was a lot different and as mentioned earlier the trim was pretty sensitive. I stopped after a quarter turn, got back to altitude and tried again. This time it went fine.

I wanted to do at least approach to stalls...but the owner was starting to feel quezzy. Oops. Seemed he'd never had his plane in more than a 45deg bank. So I did a little slow flight and landed.

Fun experience.
 
Lance F said:
I wanted to do at least approach to stalls...but the owner was starting to feel quezzy. Oops. Seemed he'd never had his plane in more than a 45deg bank. So I did a little slow flight and landed.
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*sigh* :mad2:
 
Lance F said:
The turn to the left didn't start out so well. The side yoke wasn't the problem. The sight picture was a lot different and as mentioned earlier the trim was pretty sensitive.
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This is a pretty common error in the Cirrus. The sight picture for steep turns is quite a bit different in opposite directions.
 
HPNPilot1200 said:
This is a pretty common error in the Cirrus. The sight picture for steep turns is quite a bit different in opposite directions.
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Oooh I'm normal. How comforting :)
 
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