One of the boloved COPA board members had an encounter with 4 geese hitting his left wing and the damage was less than half of would have been seen with an aluminum wing. The plane was still flyable with no decrease in performace.
Earlt on I had reservations about composites. My new thinking is that I would not want a plane built with anything else. The material is stronger and rust and corrosion are a non-issue.
Brian
Greg
I agree that customer satisfaction is very high with Cirrus products. A recent pilotreport.com survey validates this as well. SR22 was rated #1.
Thanks for the repair info as well.
Thanks, Brian. The more info the better.
If you take a factory tour you can see all or almost all of the pieces including the wing spar in their naked composite state.
In reply to:
I saw no use of carbon (black) or kevlar (sort of off yellow) fiber. If anyone knows anything to the contrary, please let us know.
Frank,
This is HIGHLY subject to correction… I’m only half-sure I remember someone at Cirrus telling me that there is actually some carbon composite material used around the cabin area to form a sort of “roll bar” for added safety. Until/unless you can verify this, though, this info is worth about what you paid for it.
Mike.
From the maintenance manual: “The spar is laminated epoxy/glass fiber in a C-section, with a center closeout panel bonded after cure, for stability.”
Mike, thanks for the datum. If anyone wants to SEE their wing spar, just un-velcro the carpet on the vertical surface under the front of the front seats. There it is – kinda cool. --Frank