Some great flying today. Flew from Manassas (outside of DC) to see my father in Southwestern Pennsylvania. He wanted to have lunch at a new airport restaurant at a different airport than I flew into. He asked if we should drive or fly? I said “you’re kidding right?” We flew to that airport, had lunch. His Cherokee is there, so he took me up in his Cherokee for a bit. We landed, and I flew him back to the first airport where his car was. I then flew from there to Williamsburg, VA to meet my wife at her father’s house where we are staying the weekend. The mountains were beautiful, the flying great, and the Cirrus fantastic. Flew for a total of about 3 1/2 hours in the Cirrus today. It lands so much easier than my 172 did, especially in gusty winds. Have a few squawks on it, I noticed. The autopilot “oscillates” the yoke left and right a small amount while engaged. It flies to the right of the nav course, it’s three degrees off while on heading mode, and when you transmit it pitches down. I’m sure we’ll get them all fixed under warranty. Didn’t detract from the day at all.
I was able to spend time with my family that I otherwise wouldn’t have because of flying. And the Cirrus made it all the better.
Great Pirep Derek. I can’t wait to have a similar experience. We are getting close. Today, I received photos from Cirrus of SR22 #108 prepped for delivery on Tuesday! Our instructor will fly the plane down to us for about 3-4 days of instruction and orientation, etc. on Wednesday or Thursday.
Happy flying,
Greg-N11MZ
Derek, please advise what the scquawks turn out to be as you find out; as my 22 is having the same two issues (oscillation with the autopilot, and a couple degress off the heading bug).
thanks in advance, Jim
Hi Derek
My 22 had the same problems, The problem with the heading could be easily resolved by you!
Take a very thin screwdriver and put it into the existing hole in the face of the autopilot, while flying turn it right or left until the heading bug and the real heading are the same. small quarter turn at a time. thats’ it.
this info came to me directly from S-tech tech. and worked as advertised.
As far as the very small right left movement of the autopilot yoke (about one eighth of an inch in my case maybe one motion per second continues). I have requested the autopilot to be replaced by cirrus, which they did. on the second autopilot there was still motion but not as defined or continues. when I talked with S-tech about it they said that the autopilot servo unit( which they think is the cause of the problem) isnt their product and was specifically designed and modified by cirrus for the 22, at that point they sent me back to cirrus who could’nt help.
You got it. It actually had these same problems (in addition to some others) when we picked it up, but they seemed to be resolved. However, when I flew it this yesterday, they reappeared. Also, I just came back from flying today and found a screw on the front wheelpant is stripped. Again, no big deal. I’ll post my findings to the board.
Note that this is the autopilot centering adjustment, which affects not only heading mode but also NAV/APR mode. I adjusted mine to fly straight down the middle of the localizer, and it flies five degrees left of the heading bug. Seems like there should be a separate adjustment for the heading pickoff in the Sandel but I haven’t been able to find it, and I’ve thusfar been too lazy to chase it down with the various avionics manufacturers.