If this happened to anyone please respond ASAP… I was IMC with my instructor over water in Central Florida… @ 8600 feet climbing on auto pilot (HDG/CLMD Mode) He noticed that the Sandel had TWO flags showing… The Auto pilot was slewing away from its heading…He clicked the auto pilot off and turned back to the heading and re-engauged the auto pilot. The auto pilot slewed even further. We the got a GPS Fail ind on the A/P. He Clicked off the A/P and diverted to MLB which was 3000 OVC. We landed in a 20 KT crosswind on RUnway 9R. After an hour on the ground I went to start the A/C and it would not turn over. The only thing that worked was the Primer/Boost Pump. We plugged in a GPU 24 volts and the Sandell came up but the engine did not crank… I called Cirrus and they said it was the Master Control Unit. I am stuck in Melborne FL and pissed. I just purchased the A/C and it has 75-80 hours on it. 2002 SR22 … Please respond ASAP…
Instead of being pissed, be happy that you are on the ground safe. Problems will happen with any aircraft, live and learn from the experience! Your still in the shakedown period. You’ll be flying again in no time.
In case you haven’t been reading this site long…many recent MCY failures in SR22’s are caused by a ‘stuck starter’ which stays engaged during flight. However, others have said the amp meter will be ‘pegged’ if this is happening and I suspect your CFI would have noticed the needle.
Good luck,
Since there have been so many MCU failures in our all electric planes, I would like a review of what we can expect to have left after an MCU failure. How much partial panel should we have. From some of the reports, the problem seems to affect both the essential and the non essential panel although I hope I’m wrong about this. It’s very difficult to fly partial panel if there is no panel. I apparently am becomming more concerned about this issue than many others on this forum. Any comments or advice would be appreciated.
Whit Lord
Instead of being pissed, be happy that you are on the ground safe.
He is luckier than others who have experienced inflight failures in their Cirrus.
Problems will happen with any aircraft, live and learn from the experience!
He should learn partial panel skills and the emergency procedures, they may save his life.
Your still in the shakedown period.
Which will last well beyond his warranty.
You’ll be flying again in no time.
Depending on how busy the service center is, because it could take 3 weeks before they will even schedule an appointment to look at his plane.
Charles: It could be worse, you could be on the ground where Jim lives in MN! I hear it was below 15 degrees this morning! Must have been a warm front.
Sorry, not to make light of a serious situation. I’m very happy your results were as good as they were. All in all, it was pretty fortunate that you were flying with a good CFI at the time. There is something comforting having that second, trained mind in the cockpit. Good luck getting the MCU fixed quickly.
Marty
Right on! Thanks
Okay, Art.
No one would take exception with the importance of partial panel.
While I would be very sympathetic to your experience, for you to imply it as typical is ridiculous. Recognize that your plane was an outlyer quality-wise, as was mine by the way. Random bad luck. Your efforts to bring everyone else into your funk is getting soooo old.
And as for your three week wait to get into the service center, that’s an outlyer as well. Maybe your treatment by the service center is random bad luck, and then again, maybe it’s not.
Andy
I wonder if that is the same service center that changed his autopilot 7 times.
And as for your three week wait to get into the service center, that’s an outlyer as well. Maybe your treatment by the service center is random bad luck, and then again, maybe it’s not.
In the Washington, Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania area there is only one useable service center Airways at Lancaster. Although there is a service center in Manassas most people I have spoken with only use them once. I am very happy with Jim at Airways but he seems to be swamped with work from Cirrus “outlyers”. While I certainly have a lemon, I hear stories about planes with multiple vacuum failures, multiple HSI failures, in flight engine failures, and Steve LinÂ’s list of problems, and I realize some Cirrus owners have it worse than I.
Marty,
I take great exception to that! I’ve just learned to love ‘white’ as much as ‘green’ and wear lots of layers!
Whit,
I could be wrong, but I don’t know of ANY mcu failures that disabled the essential bus. I’ve had 2 MCU failures (within 25hrs of new), and the essential bus was OK both times.
FWIW, the military airplanes IÂ’ve flown have been all electric and there was a very great emphasis in training on knowing the electrical system, its failure modes, and how to deal with them. In the P-3 Orion (which was based on the Electra which, BTW, was called that because almost everything was electric, including the hydraulic pumps!), even though an extraordinary level of redundancy was built in we were required to know what was on every bus (there were eleven of them as I remember) and what you had left under various failure and load shedding modes.
I remember early on when I bought a POH I was struck by how little info there was on load shedding, and remarked about it on this board. I hope the new POHÂ’s are better in that regard.
From the sound of it there are two problems: the “weak link” MCU, and perhaps a training shortfall in dealing with electrical failures.
perhaps a training shortfall in dealing with electrical failures.
Joe,
You make an excellent point. I recommend that management of specific electrical failures be featured in version 2 of the Cirrus Pilot’s Proficiency Program (due next year, I think). My all electric plane is great fun but I worry that I’ll be slow to react - or will react inappropriately - after a significant electrical failure in IMC.
BTW, I’m still enjoying the plane that resulted from the position I bought from you some years back. Are you still flying the Trinidad?
Best regards,
Hi George,
Glad the old position is working out well for you. The Trinidad is still going great guns. Had it painted last spring and now it feels almost new!
A few electrical gremlins popped up after the paint job, but I’ve gotten them sorted out.
The Trinidad is great, and I can almost rationalize it’s as good as an SR20, but it ain’t no 22! Glad you’re enjoying it!
Joe