Definitely NOT helpful to a new pilot to have the interconnect unless perhaps you are coming from a Piper Cub and are used to leading your turns with rudder. The original intent was to make the plane fly like it had more dihedral and thus would bank with the application of rudder. This the interconnect does do. In return however you get a plane that fights you during crosswind landings and for which substantial opposite aileron force needs to be held during a X wind landing. You get used to it either way, but I’m glad to have mine removed.
I have removed it on the SR20 and i find 3 things that are different.
You have to use your rudder at takeoff. Not a bad thing, but be aware.
The autopilot doesnt fly as well as it did before. Unlike the 22 the SR20 has only roll trim servos, I dont know if this is why the autopilot has more issues holding approaches but i observed this change after the bungee removal.
Super! I told the pre-buy shop to bag it. My CSIP agrees! Thanks much. 1 week from today my Cirrus will be in my hangar!!! I can’t believe my aviation dreams are all coming true. And this COPA this is terrific…
Congrats. Late to the party, but when my interconnect was removed last annual, I couldn’t tell the difference, really. Well, now the rudder doesn’t move the ailerons anymore during preflight Cirrus didn’t even try to sell me the Cirrus package; they just removed it and made the maintenance log entries, etc.
I’ve noticed that interconnect seems to help the autopilot fly approaches. I have a SR22 G2 with an S-tec 55x autopilot (still working perfectly).
Over time, the interconnect bungee gets stretched. It becomes noticeable when flying an ILS - a bit more fish tailing at first. When the bungee is adjusted correctly (per the maintenance manual), the flying an ILS is a bit better.
Perhaps it is because I have an S-tec autopilot. The Avidyne DFC90, probably doesn’t need the interconnect to fly a perfect ILS.
I’ve never understood how removing it would be beneficial so I’ve kept mine as well. Unless I have a compelling reason to remove it, my motto is that if it ain’t broken, don’t fix it.
I kept mine… until the next time the bungees needed to be replaced anyway, at which time I had it removed. In preflight or on-the-ground control check, I can definitely tell the difference, but honestly once you’re at speed in flight, the aerodynamic forces seem to cause most of the control feel - or at least I don’t notice all that much difference in the feel with the interconnect removed.
I also didn’t notice much A/P difference, the 55X still tracks just about as crappy as it did before in any kind of crosswind!
Cirrus didn’t even try to sell me the Cirrus package; they just removed it and made the maintenance log entries, etc.