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Yep…it must have been the Mitsubishi…my apologies to Beech.
I’m sure Beechcraft accepts your apologies. [;)]
(Note - I recognize this is not a hazard specific to Cirrus. I know of someone who had this happen in a 421 @ 25,000’. Scary stuff. There may, however, be Cirrus-specific warning signs or emergency corrective actions.)
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It’ll happen in a Citation or Gulfstream as well. You just gotta be diligent and realize you have engaged a feature that will climb the airplane to stall if you have VS selected. I don’t know if the Cirrus A/P’s have a speed select (FLC) or not, but if you select FLC, then the airplane will keep the speed and lose climb capability. (But, it won’t stall, just quit climbing)
I think we are beginning to see a pattern here that suggests a lot morer vigilence in autopilot use is needed when flying in downdraft situations. It is easy to have the autopilot try to maintain altitude at the expense of airspeed.
You all be careful out there in those mountains!
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I think we are beginning to see a pattern here that suggests a lot morer vigilence in autopilot use is needed when flying in downdraft situations. It is easy to have the autopilot try to maintain altitude at the expense of airspeed.
You all be careful out there in those mountains!
I canÂ’t understand why we canÂ’t have the autopilot automatically disconnect at some predetermined speed. Or at the very least an audible alarm when such a speed is obtained.
There is no speed input to the autopilot. The airsepeed indicator is not an electronic instrument. You could find a way to feed the garmin ground speed into the autopilot but that would still mean re-structuring the autopilot to accept such an input. I know of no GA autopilot that can do this and the FAA certification of such a unit would be very interesting.
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General Aviation News
Hi Scott,
This excerpt is from Aero-News:
Aero-News Alert: Fourth Successful Cirrus BRS/CAPS Chute Deployment Saves Two
Tue, 21 Sep '04
Four Deployments Equal Eight Saves
Details are still coming in as we write this, but a “bad weather” related CAPS deployment has apparently resulted in a successful save for Cirrus Pilot William Graham (65) and his passenger Barbara Graham (64).
I was Sacramento Execute airport, which is very close to Stockton, that day and saw the severity of thunderstorms in the area. Turbulence and wind shear can exist miles from the actual thunderstorm and who knows may have been a contributing factor. We won’t know the full story until the NTSB is done investigating. I can just bet William Graham is glad he bought a Cirrus and had the option to pull the chute.
Tom
Bill has already posted some first-hand information in the member’s section, and based upon his description, it appears that the situation was not weather related. We need to let the NTSB investigation take its course.
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I was Sacramento Execute airport, which is very close to Stockton, that day and saw the severity of thunderstorms in the area. Turbulence and wind shear can exist miles from the actual thunderstorm and who knows may have been a contributing factor. We won’t know the full story until the NTSB is done investigating. I can just bet William Graham is glad he bought a Cirrus and had the option to pull the chute.
The reason Scott said what he did is that several days ago the pilot, William Graham, posted in the members’ section a very extensive account of the accident. It made clear that even though weather in the area was bad that day, weather (including wind shear and turbulence) was not a primary factor in the accident. I don’t want to try to paraphrase his full account, and as you say the NTSB’s work has just begun; but Scott had a reason for saying what he did.
And yes, as you say, Bill Graham is very glad that he had the parachute.
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…Sacramento Execute airport…
I shudder to think what a ramp check is like there! [:O]
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It made clear that even though weather in the area was bad that day, weather (including wind shear and turbulence) was not a primary factor in the accident.
Over on AvSig, one of the posters reported he was solicited to look for Bill’s plane after the accident, since the pilot was doing airwork in the area. He didn’t find Bill, but did report that the weather in the immediate vicinity was not severe, although thunderstorms did move in afterwards.
I know the FAA office is near by, but I have not had a ramp check in 6 years of flying in SAC.
And Tom, and others on the non-members side of the COPA forum, that amazing tutorial is one of the reasons why this collection of aviation enthusiasts enjoy our planes so much! The information and contributions made by so many owner/pilots of Cirrus planes adds to my experience every time I check the COPA forum.
Cheers
Rick
Scott,
Thank you for the detail WX. I even learned a thing or two. We don’t have too many thunderstorms on the West Coast compared to other parts of the country. Except when flying to the east, I donÂ’t see much activity of the storm scope. Did Bill have a storm scope? If so, do you know what activity it showed?
The Cirrus autopilots DO NOT have a speed select function.
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The Cirrus autopilots DO NOT have a speed select function.
Thanks Brian,
Just got my POH and discovering everything else I don’t know! 
I have always wondered why the autopilot, like any other avionics device in the plane, does not have its own “on/off” switch. If the autopilot disconnect on the yoke fails, it would be nice to just have a switch on the unit itself. Why have to go for the breaker as the only other option in that case?
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I know the FAA office is near by, but I have not had a ramp check in 6 years of flying in SAC.
I didn’t know they ramp checked sac.
We had 'um flying all over here during the hurricane. Plastic sacs, paper sacs, burlap sacs
Geez, If I don’t get back to work, that’s what I am going to get . . . sac’d