My New-to-me Cirrus

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MrMorden
Posts: 2184
Joined: Fri Aug 17, 2012 7:28 am
Location: Athens, GA

Re: My New-to-me Cirrus

Post by MrMorden »

It will be interesting to see what happens and what's available to us if/when the LSA rules change.
Andy Walker
Athens, GA
Sport Pilot ASEL, LSRI
2007 Flight Design CTSW E-LSA
Wm.Ince
Posts: 1080
Joined: Sun Nov 17, 2013 3:27 pm
Location: Clearwater, FL

Re: My New-to-me Cirrus

Post by Wm.Ince »

CharlieTango wrote:To us light sport guys this is a to-die-for airplane.
Gotta’ concur with that.
I’ve never met anyone who didn’t love the Cirrus.
Bill Ince
LSRI
Retired Heavy Equipment Operator
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dstclair
Posts: 1092
Joined: Thu Mar 06, 2008 11:23 am
Location: Allen, TX

Re: My New-to-me Cirrus

Post by dstclair »

For those interested in my journey, I completed formal Cirrus Embark Training a few weeks ago and thought I'd share a bit of my journey back to a high-performance aircraft. A little background -- I flew a complex high-performance aircraft before upgrading to an S-LSA around 11 years ago. I flew exclusively in S-LSA's and VFR for the next 11 years until purchasing an SR-22 in late January of this year.

First, flying is flying so once in the air slow flight, stalls, unusual attitude recoveries, et. al. are all the same. If you're proficient in an S-LSA, you'll do fine in a Cirrus. Stalls are super benign. Controls are MUCH heavier which is a pro and a con. The 'pro' is that you'll not over control the aircraft. The 'con' is that 2 hours of hand-flying doing a lot of maneuvers will wear you out!

The SR-22 has a lot of ponies under the cowl so you need a lot of rudder on take-off and climbs. You'll learn to gradually add power on the ground to keep you on the centerline. Attitude on rotation feels severe at Vx the first few times -- like doing a vertical take-off (OK -- not really :D). Landing is taught 'by the numbers' and power settings. The view out the wind screen looks very flat, like you're flying it on the runway. Cirrus teaches to use only full flaps on landing regardless of winds. Biggest challenge was getting used to short final at 75-80 knots vs 55 kts or less. Very forgiving on landing. My old method was pulling power abeam the numbers and gliding in. I'll probably practice this a few times, then figure out what works best for me.

Cirrus has fully integrated avionics in the cockpit and teach from a cockpit management perspective. My CSIP told me I was essentially the First Officer to the AP/Flight Director. In general, you set up everything on the ground then once you've taken off, are >500' AGL and within 30 degrees of initial course, you engage the AP.

Probably the most difficult part of the transition, which wasn't hard, was to get used to the speed again and keep ahead of the plane. Slowing a SR22 down takes time and it's pretty easy the first few times to enter downwind 50 kts too fast, then watch your CSIP laugh as you try to slow down before the threshold......
dave
Wm.Ince
Posts: 1080
Joined: Sun Nov 17, 2013 3:27 pm
Location: Clearwater, FL

Re: My New-to-me Cirrus

Post by Wm.Ince »

That’s sounds like a blast!
I don’t even want to think about the difference in operating costs.

Congratulations and enjoy your wonderful new airplane.
Now Fast Eddy has someone to compare those old Cirrus notes with. :D
It will be fun listening to you two.
Bill Ince
LSRI
Retired Heavy Equipment Operator
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