For those pos-holders residing outside the USA, I have some news from a contact in Cirrus regarding certification.
The SR20 is certified under FAR23, which is in theory reciprocally accepted by several other countries. However Cirrus’ efforts so far to gain type certificates in other countries (to allow local registration) have not gone so well.
In Europe, the JAA are being their usual bureaucratic selves, and certification is some way off, and will end up costing Cirrus lots of money. They recently hosted several JAA officials at Duluth, presumably entirely at Cirrus’ expense. For this reason, all the SR20s in Europe will remain on the N-register for the forseeable future. Nonetheless, Europe is important to Cirrus, because of the large order base.
In Canada, Cirrus expected minimal difficulty, but this has proven not to be the case. Since there are no early Canadian deliveries scheduled, this has basically been shelved.
Other countries, like Australia and South Africa, where there are orders, have so far not even been started. There is a move inside Cirrus to concentrate on countries with early deliveries, however the European and Canadian experiences have apparently made Cirrus twice shy, and the timetable for getting certification in such countries is quite uncertain.
Cirrus’ official response to queries on this subject is something like “we cannot estimate when local certification will be complete. You may wish to defer delivery until we can offer local certification”. You can imagine how well this goes down!
If local certification (and thus registration) is not available, the only option is to get an FAA licence. Does anyone have any experience with obtaining an FAA licence without actually doing it in person at an FSDO?
In Europe, the JAA are being their usual bureaucratic selves, and certification is some way off, and will end up costing Cirrus lots of money. They recently hosted several JAA officials at Duluth, presumably entirely at Cirrus’ expense. For this reason, all the SR20s in Europe will remain on the N-register for the forseeable future. Nonetheless, Europe is important to Cirrus, because of the large order base.
The problem in Europe is that they formed JAA To represent all the individual countries. I am not sure of the exact number but it is between 20 & 30 countries. What problem you might say, surely for someone like Cirrus it means, they only have to get certification from one body and not every country. To a point thats true, however every country has kept its own body and allthough you can get JAA certification, every country can file ‘differences’. This means you could have a different spec. Cirrus going into every country in Europe. It also means all our training, licensing and maintenace requirements have been commonised (with differences) to incorperate the worst of the previous national regulations. We have a whole new level of beaurocacy as was seen by the commitee that visited Cirrus. All the major countries want to be involved otherwise they wouldn’t know what 'differences’to file.
For example it is said the CAA won’t approve the parachute unless there is an actual deployment right to the ground. Sorry guys the waiting list is extended by one because we are going to put a perfectly good plane into the ground. No way.
Who pays for the team to have a holiday in Duluth, Cirrus probably too much, but also all of us who fly in Europe. I am very patriotic and would love to have the first Cirrus in the U.K. on a British number when its available. This would mean $16000 dollars for an ADF, DME (just in case one of my three GPS’S fails) and second altimeter. We would also probably have to disconnect the parachute.
No, thank you F.A.A. the N-register is fine and N124CD rolls of the tongue nicely.
It also means all our training, licensing and maintenace requirements have been commonised (with differences) to incorperate the worst of the previous national regulations.
Yes, I’ve heard plenty about the JAA and I’m sure glad I don’t have to deal with them.
For example it is said the CAA won’t approve the parachute unless there is an actual deployment right to the ground.
Sounds a bit like the old Australian CAA - I am told that when the 747 was first introduced, the CAA initially refused to certify it in Australia unless Boeing brought one out to Australia and ran a series of full stall recovery tests. But those days are gone, with the renamed CASA (about its fifth name change) now modelling its regulations on the FARs.
Isn’t it also the British CAA that won’t permit BRS chutes on microlights, and insists on ejection seats being disabled in warbird showplanes? And am I right in saying that you cannot fly VFR into a primary control zone in the UK?
BTW, Robin, I’d still like to know where the photos of N124CD you sent were taken.
Clyde
BTW, Robin, I’d still like to know where the photos of N124CD you sent were taken.
Clyde
The pictures where taken in an airpark in France where I am lucky enough to have a house. Its situated in the Vendee region on the west coast.
Its about two hours flying time from my home airport in the U.K. with about half the flight over water. This makes the safety features on the Cirrus pretty attractive.
Robin