Table Of Content
Please note that in addition to filing the required Flight Request, investigators are responsible for contacting vendors to determine if the platform meets the requirements of the proposed scientific investigation. S-Tec’s System 55X provides pretty much the full boat in autopilot capabilities, allowing you to track a heading, a VOR radial, and a GPS course, as well as to manage your climb and descent, and hold altitude in between. And when the muck is down to minimums, the S-Tec becomes a great second-in-command, by handling the airplane through coupled approaches if you so desire. As usual, horsepower proves a significant asset for flying out of high-field-elevation airports like those found in Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, West Kansas, Montana, New Mexico, and Wyoming.
Flight Training
At 5,500 feet the true airspeed was 178 knots while burning 18 gallons of fuel per hour. I knew the wind aloft because I had just flown in, and an upwind/downwind run revealed an average groundspeed of 178 knots. The specs show 180 knots at 75 percent power at 8,000 feet, and that number should be easily attainable on about 17.5 gallons of fuel per hour.
SEASONAL FLYING
Too few small aircraft possess redundant suction sources; fewer also boast of electrical-system redundancy. And for too many aircraft still, the loss of either electrical or vacuum sources puts the pilot in a partial-panel situation. Not my idea of a good time to face a partial-panel approach, if a good time ever exists. The SR22’s dual 24-volt electrical system is another noteworthy change from the SR22. Primary and back-up electrical systems provide power redundancy to a panel devoid of air-powered gyro instruments — neither vacuum pumps nor air-powered gyro instruments exist in the SR22. The Cessna TTx is also known as the Cessna 400 was introduced in 2004 and is considered to be the closest competitor to the SR22.
Question: Why does the parachute have to be repacked every 10 years?
Where the original production Cirrus, the SR20, flies with a 200-horsepower IO-360 six-cylinder Continental, the SR22 has an IO-550 Continental six that develops 310 horsepower. Dave Higdon has a distinguished background in aviation journalism. As aviation editor for The Wichita Eagle for more than five years, he has established a reputation as one of the best general aviation reporters in the business. Previously, Dave held a variety of aviation journalism assignments with The Journal of Commerce, Air Transport World, and AOPA. He has covered every facet of aviation, from sport aviation in Tennessee, to the FAA in Washington, D.C., to Cessna, Beech, Boeing, and Learjet in Kansas. Dave is an instrument-rated private pilot and owns a very clean Piper Comanche.
His presence and character will be missed, but his legacy will be indelible. A key contributor throughout his 26 years at Cirrus Aircraft, Dave played a crucial role in the early design and certification of the SR20. Following similar work on the SR22 and SR22T, Dave was instrumental in the development and successful entry into service of the SF50 Vision Jet. A crucial player in the establishment of Cirrus’s SR and SF model lines, Rathbun was flying a non-company Cirrus.
But if larger wing tips and wing-fuselage interface points are a bit subtle for you where identification is concerned, when in doubt, cast a glance at the wing root. Cirrus engineers mounted a vortex generator (VG) on the fuselage just ahead of each wing root to keep air flow attached to the wing at higher angles of attack, which, in turn, improves low-speed handling. Because the VGs stop working just above stall speed, stalls still begin at the wing root and propagate normally toward the wing tips. Cirrus employed a few significant design changes in the SR22’s wing — one of those noticeable, another invisible, inside the wing.
As closely matched as the SR20 and SR22 are in many areas, they differ most in speed, range, and fuel efficiency. At a true cruise speed just over 180 knots, the SR22 covers about 750 nautical miles in about 3.8 hours — with reserves on its 84 gallons. That’s about 50 miles shorter than the SR20 goes on 60 gallons cruising 160 knots for about 4.25 hours.
And there are other changes you might notice with the two planes parked side-by-side. For example, the SR22 boasts a taller landing gear set, raising the SR22 about three inches for greater ground clearance with the big 78-inch Hartzell prop. As an average-to-short pilot, I noticed the taller gear did change the view somewhat during taxiing, while assuring a slightly earlier arrival on the ground.
Flight into known icing
The wing was made lighter by 50 lbs (23 kg), and the size of the in-built fuel tank was increased to hold 11 US gal (40 l) more than the previous generation. A more realistic example of a secondhand aircraft is this 2012 SR22-G3 GTS. The aircraft has a total of 735 flight hours on the frame and engine.
The Vision Jet™ took its inaugural flight on July 3, 2008 and the first conforming prototypes took flight in 2014. In the mid-1990’s, Cirrus discontinued production of the VK-30 and launched the SR20 – a single-piston composite airplane that changed the world of general aviation. The SR20 featured a 10-inch multi-function display and side-yoke flight controllers. Only the mixture control remains to manage between climb, cruise, and descent. And like the SR20, the SR22 preps for flight easily and quickly, with pre-flight taking no more time than any other simple airplane. You check all usual suspects — fuel, oil, wheels, tires, brake lines, control surfaces, lights, antennae — and you’ve pretty much run the lineup.
The web portal flugzeuginfo.net includes a comprehensive civil and military aircraft encyclopedia. It provides code tables for aerodromes, air operators including the world's major airlines and for ICAO and IATA codes for aircraft. The website has also a photo gallery and gives you an overview of all aviation museums worldwide. But the SR22’s solid feedback and tactile response helped me dial in to the proper technique and timing just in time for my last try. And on touchdown each time, the rudder alone was more than ample for holding the SR22 straight on the runway centerline. Best of all, holding the stall for about 20 seconds never deprived me of aileron or rudder control.
Cirrus opted for wide rocker switches, labeled for easy reading, to control the master, avionics, back-up electrical system, and fuel boost-pump. Near the right side of this surface sit the dimmers for the interior lights. The SR22, certified in November 2000, is a more powerful version of the earlier SR20. The SR22 is a low-wing cantilever monoplane of composite construction, featuring fixed (non-retractable) tricycle landing gear with a castering nose wheel and steering via differential braking on the main wheels. It is powered by a nose-mounted 310 hp (231 kW) Continental IO-550-N piston engine. The four-seat cabin is accessed through doors on both sides of the fuselage.
Unreservedly, Cirrus’s SR22 adds another solid contender to the market for high-performance singles, albeit one more capable than other more-sophisticated competitors. For any serious general aviation pilot, the strengths of the SR22 will be hard to ignore — especially for the money. In fact, this power class has only one other aircraft that comes close, Lancair’s muscular Columbia 300, another composite. And there are ways to stretch the range of the SR22, as there is with every airplane — you basically sacrifice some of that speed for a lower power setting that yields a sufficiently higher fuel efficiency.
Piper’s original PA-28 Cherokee proliferated thanks to versions with 150, 160, 180, and 235 horsepower. Similar examples exist at Beech, Commander, Maule, Mooney, and beyond. The biggest change was the increased MTOW of 3,600 lbs (1,633 kg) up from 3,400 lbs (1,542 kg).
More horsepower meant more fuel and that, too, required an internal change in the wing. Pulling the power level back to the next detent gave me a power setting of about 2,400 rpm and 23 inches of manifold pressure — about 75-percent power. Leaning down toward 18 gph brought true airspeed up to 183 knots; leaning past peak dropped fuel consumption into the 16 gph range, while true airspeed declined to just above 170. As with most airplanes, lower fuel flows help extend the range of the SR22.
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