Got a call late yesterday from Tom B saying
he could do a demo flight for me this afternoon,
can’t wait.
Any questions people want me to put to Tom ?
I got to fly N119CD today - still got that big smile on my face. Initial thoughts the SR20 is alot bigger in “real life”. Tom Bergeron told me nearly everyone says this, probably due to the fact most of the other composite kit planes are much smaller.
Interior and control layout is great, with the big screen and 2x430 perhaps one too many moving map ;-). I had no problem with the sidestick control seemed very natural.
Only disappointment was the climb performance but may be being alittle unfair. Flew from Jeffco Denver, which is 5700ft plus it was 32 degrees, so that makes a density altitude of ~8500ft. Rotated at 70 and it seemed quite difficult to get it to the climb speed of 94, putting the nose down and we were only just holding altitude. Once we got to 94-100kt seemed to climb at ~300ft. We were full fuel and 2 up. Perhaps I should have accelerated in ground effect for a couple of seconds. Never
really got more than 600ft min.
Any comments about hot and high ?
Asked about current engine problems and got a wry smile. The extra load will be done with the SR22 paperwork, so expect 200lbs more soon. No date on any of the engine monitoring software for the arnav. Told to expect 8/9 planes this month upto
18 a month by Dec, and 3 a day in 2 years time !!!
What a plane !!!
I got to fly N119CD today - still got that big smile on my face. Initial thoughts the SR20 is alot bigger in “real life”. Tom Bergeron told me nearly everyone says this, probably due to the fact most of the other composite kit planes are much smaller.
Interior and control layout is great, with the big screen and 2x430 perhaps one too many moving map ;-). I had no problem with the sidestick control seemed very natural.
Only disappointment was the climb performance but may be being alittle unfair. Flew from Jeffco Denver, which is 5700ft plus it was 32 degrees, so that makes a density altitude of ~8500ft. Rotated at 70 and it seemed quite difficult to get it to the climb speed of 94, putting the nose down and we were only just holding altitude. Once we got to 94-100kt seemed to climb at ~300ft. We were full fuel and 2 up. Perhaps I should have accelerated in ground effect for a couple of seconds. Never
really got more than 600ft min.
Any comments about hot and high ?
Asked about current engine problems and got a wry smile. The extra load will be done with the SR22 paperwork, so expect 200lbs more soon. No date on any of the engine monitoring software for the arnav. Told to expect 8/9 planes this month upto
18 a month by Dec, and 3 a day in 2 years time !!!
What a plane !!!
I enjoyed my ride to. On a near standard day at sea level with two children in the back, two adults up front and full fuel the SR20 climbed at well over 1000ft/min at 100KIAS. Climb was very very strong once the plane accelerated. However, I’m not surprised that, without a turbocharger, it would be sluggish at 8500’ DA.
SR20 Turbo anyone?
Only disappointment was the climb performance but may be being alittle unfair…Never
really got more than 600ft min.
Any comments about hot and high ?
Very informative report, thanks a lot
Concerning climb rates, I have two relevant experiences. When I took a cross-country trip last year with Gary Black, I was in the left seat for takeoff from Bryce Canyon, KBCE, elevation 7500+, on a fairly warm morning. Full fuel, two big people, traveling luggage. The climb felt sluggish, as you say. On the other hand we were able to get through and above some very high terrain (maybe 10,000ft? or higher? don’t have charts here) closely surrounding the airport without circling to gain altitude or anything. Later we got to 15,500 without any particular problems. I guess it’s a compared-to-what question. The climb in high/hot conditions is worse than a Mooney and worse than I would like, and better than, say, the 172s I’d used before.
The first time I flew in an SR20, more than a year ago, we took off at near sea-level in Seattle, on a typically cool day. The climb rate was easily over 1000fpm then.