Pace
I was hoping you would jump in here as you have a good knowledge of the type.
Thank you.
The earlier one we tested the roll rate on indicated that it may need more attention in IMC especially as it was also slippery.
That’s fair.
IO540
IMHO, a Cirrus will be flown mostly on autopilot, because the sidestick does not lend itself to precise hand control.
I cant agree with you. The sidestick enables very precise control. Precision requires a little time with the side stick but it comes. I actually rather enjoy not using the autopilot and have flown two hour sectors entirely manually and without fatigue. That said a well known examiner expressed precisely this view to me. I think you need 20 or 30 hours on type before making a judgement.
Generally, I am not convinced a Cirrus requires an Instrument Rating or super human pilot skills. A Cirrus does however require sound skills, good currency (particularly if you lack experience on which to fall back) and a pilot with a mature outlook on their flying.
Pull the power back and the Cirrus will cruise very happily at much slower speeds, the handling is benign and it will behave and perform much like any other spamcam. Wind it up and things happen that much more quickly and it can become more of a struggle to stay ahead of the aircraft whether that be hot and high on the approach or losing control transitioning from VMC to IMC.
In terms of handling I would admit I find it quite difficult to land well. For some reason I think it is relatively easy to allow the landing to become flat. I dont mean the approach, but the actual moment of arrival and and the first few seconds after. This annoys me but it may be a reflection of a problem I have rather than the aircraft. There is absolutely no doubt it is very easy to end up hot and high with very little you can do to solve the problem. It takes a good level of skill indeed to fly tight fast circuits with sufficient control of speed and height to turn very short final configured correctly for a slick arrival. In an equivalent twin, TB20 or Beech shove the undercarriage down, pull the power back a touch and you can turn the approach into a perfect arrival, that you cant do so readily in a 22. Alan Sugar an experienced pilot with an IR managed to run his off the end of the runway and whilst the one he chose was a little short and a tad wet I am not at all surprised that it is easy to leave yourself with absolutely no margin for error.
Some say there is evidence that the tanks are poorly designed increasing the risk of a fire should the worst happen – this may be so, I don’t know enough to reach an informed judgement.
Last edited by Fuji Abound; 16th Oct 2009 at 08:06.