ILSstud
Well-Known Member
My best friend's parents who happen to be pilots and own their own airplane introduced me to one of their friends who owns a Sirrus SR22. Yesterday he took me flying in it for about 2 hours, and tomorrow I'm flying up to JAX with him as he is doing an Angel flight up there. All I have to say is WOW. Now I come from a respectable background of Cessna 172s, Duchess 76s, and Piper Archers. I don't know how I can go back. It's like giving a kid a Porsche for a few days and then saying here go back to your Cavalier (no offense to anyone with that car). I really enjoyed flying with the sidestick, and after a few minutes of overcontrolling I really got the feel for the plane. It's much more heavy feeling but it is very, very slick. He had it spec-ed out with a 310hp engine, so the left turning tendancies were enormous. It seemed that the workload on this plane could get incredibly high if it was not equipped with an autopilot. One thing I really liked was the Avidyne MFD. He had the normal 6 pack as opposed to the PFD which he said he actually preferred. The situational awareness that is given with this MFD is spectacular. You can see traffic all around you. We were shooting the ILS into Fort Pierce, and you could see the aircraft on the extended final, one getting it's last vector to the final approach course, and another that was a few miles away getting vectored for the approach. Sure enough if you looked hard enough you could see them all. Like I said don't know how I can go back now hehe. Hey any reason to get in the air though right? After shooting a few approaches, we cancelled IFR and I took the plane through a steep turn, slow flight, and a power off stall. Again I was very impressed. During the stall I think we only lost about 40-50 feet ...it seemed very benign. It's slow speed characteristics are also another plus I must say. After being used to the buffeting of the Cessna 172, this plane just flies along merrily and still has incredible control feel. I think this has to do with the differing airfoil shapes of the wing. The name of this practice escapes me at the moment, but the wing is designed so that the outboard sections have a lower AOA. Washout I think? Landing in the Cirrus is certainly a HUGE challenge, as it does not seem to want to slow down. It is reminiscent of an Airbus wing (sometimes too efficient for its own good hehe). After some coaxing and a little bit of patience we got the plane down to pattern speed of about 100 knots. We rolled out on final at around 80, but we warned: this plane will stay in ground effect for ages if you let it. Anyway all in all a VERY nice experience. I should get my high performance endorsement so I can at least log some time in the Cirrus. I'm looking forward to tomorrow's flight...speaking of does anyone know how to get involved with Angel flight? Any other experiences with the Cirrus?
