Cirrus Maintenance

I am considering purchasing a Cirrus and have a few questions regarding the maintenance of the aircraft;

  1. What is the maintenance schedule involved with the Ballistic Chute (CAPS)? Is it a time limited part?
  2. Does the entire interior require removal during annual inspection?
  3. Are there any Cirrus specific fuel tank inspection requirements?
  4. Anybody have experience with owner assisted annuals. What is the average time involved?
  5. Are the auto-pilot servos easily accessed?
  6. Any difficult, hard to access, they should have made more room to do this…events in a Cirrus annual?
  7. Is the oil filter easy to get to and remove?

Thanks, Scott

In reply to:


I am considering purchasing a Cirrus and have a few questions regarding the maintenance of the aircraft;

  1. What is the maintenance schedule involved with the Ballistic Chute (CAPS)? Is it a time limited part?
  2. Does the entire interior require removal during annual inspection?
  3. Are there any Cirrus specific fuel tank inspection requirements?
  4. Anybody have experience with owner assisted annuals. What is the average time involved?
  5. Are the auto-pilot servos easily accessed?
  6. Any difficult, hard to access, they should have made more room to do this…events in a Cirrus annual?
  7. Is the oil filter easy to get to and remove?
    Thanks, Scott

Scott,

Off the top of my head:

  1. the reefing line cutter is replaced at 6 years, a major chute service is required at 10 years (from chute manufacture).
  2. The interior is removed for the annual inspection.
  3. No fuel tank inspections are required.
  4. Don’t know, but there is a discussion about this on the member’s side.
  5. That depends on what you mean by easily. I don’t think they are especially difficult to get at.
  6. Don’t know. I think most shops are quoting 20-25 hours for the annual inspection these days. The G2 has better access that the G1 airframe.
  7. The oil filter is easy to get at. With a quick drain plug installed, the oil and filter can be changed without removing the lower cowl.

If you are seriously considering a Cirrus, you should join COPA. The maintenance discussions will save you hundreds, if not thousands of dollars, and the safety discussions could save your life.

Scott, I agree with Marc. About a year ago, I was in the same place you are. Joining COPA really helped me make up my mind to purchase a Cirrus and I truly believe that the safety discussions could someday save my life. Best $50 you could spend.

In reply to:


I am considering purchasing a Cirrus and have a few questions regarding the maintenance of the aircraft;

  1. What is the maintenance schedule involved with the Ballistic Chute (CAPS)? Is it a time limited part?
  2. Does the entire interior require removal during annual inspection?
  3. Are there any Cirrus specific fuel tank inspection requirements?
  4. Anybody have experience with owner assisted annuals. What is the average time involved?
  5. Are the auto-pilot servos easily accessed?
  6. Any difficult, hard to access, they should have made more room to do this…events in a Cirrus annual?
  7. Is the oil filter easy to get to and remove?
    Thanks, Scott

Scott,

As others have said here, join COPA! For $50, its money well-spent and you will have access to a vast array of information.

With that being said, our 2002 Cirrus has been completely trouble-free in almost a year of ownership, with 100% dispatch reliability. You will see lots of “complaints” about Cirrus as a company, maintenance issues and the cost of ownership over on the members side, but the complainers are the ones who are usually posting, and I suspect that many of them have never owned an aircraft before! With almost 4000 planes in service, I have to believe that the majority of owners are having a good experience with their planes, and our mechanics at North East Aero (KMGJ) are really the best.

FWIW, I will tell you that in my opinion there is no comparison between the Cirrus and any “spam can”, both in terms of reliability and performance.

Good luck!

Thank you very much for the information. It certainly makes sense to join COPA. I will probably do that.