Performance of SR22 in hot countries

Guest Discussion
1

I am writing this post from India. Our’s is a hot tropical country, with temperatures averaging 95deg F, and reaching a maximum of 113deg F. We are planning to buy a Cirrus SR22 turbo. I would like to know the performance of the aircraft in hot weather conditions like us.

Thank u,

Capt.Vamsi.

2

I live in Phoenix Arizona and have taken off in over 120 F temps. It is an outstanding hot weather plane and can Handly those temps easily. Good luck.

3

Hi

I’m based in Johannesburg, South Africa. Typical summer conditions are 30 to 35 Celsius, leading to density altitudes on takeoff sometimes exceeding 9500’

Our SR22 Turbo handles the conditions flawlessly. The only potential gotcha is the CHTs during LOP climbs at ISA +30 need to be carefully monitored. No problem whatsoever ROP.

Regards,

Ari

4

Thanks for ur immediate reply. One more question. Any problems to the airframe(as being all composite material) if parked outside hangar on a permanent basis. Hangar space is a big problem in my local airport.

5

Sorry - ours stays in a hangar! No idea.

6

I live in Florida, Miami in particular, sometimes referred to as the deepest jungles of Hell, soon to be with oily costal plains where the mosquitos are almost as big as my aircraft…

More Cirrus’s live here than almost anywhere in the world, and the SR22 does just fine with an acceptable 1100 ft rate of climb, even at 95 degrees.

BTW, I don’t even have air conditioning, but 2 open doors during taxi ventilate the aircraft very well.

7

Composite materials are used extensively, on commercial airliners, and private pleasure boats, for years with no ill effect. My aircraft has a Bruce cover and that works fine.

5710.sr22-1.jpg

8

Capt. Vamsi,

The phone number on your profile suggests you’re AP-based, with airport elevations ~1600’. The Las Vegas area - higher elevation and higher summer temps - has plenty of COPA members happy with their SR-22’s performance. I don’t think performance is something to worry about. A few comments though:

  1. Carefully match your planned configuration against your expected load. It may be unrealistic to expect to (legally) carry three passengers with a full fuel load. Depending on 100LL availability at your intended destinations, this might be an issue. (This is especially true if you’re looking at a used plane, since some variants had certain W/B peculiarities.)
  2. Given the prevalence of thunderstorms and other convective activity in the summer, a turbo might enable much smoother flights. This largely depends, I suppose, on what type of passengers you intend to fly.
  3. Carefully consider air-conditioning. The a/c has significant cost, weight and (possibly) maintenance implications. But if you’re going to be carrying business folk on “missions”, I don’t see how you can avoid it. Carefully going through your inflight checklist for interminable minutes on the apron in the humidity of the Deccan could wilt your passengers!
  4. Since you’re going to be tied down outside, get a full aircraft cover from Bruce or another vendor. This is absolutely essential given the ambient dirt/dust. And to secure against curiosity-seekers who aren’t necessarily careful or educated around planes. There are heavy canvas covers. And there are the light synthetic kind that mostly keep the sun off. For India, I’d go with the former.
  5. Make sure to order cowl plugs from wherever you get the cover.
9

The Turbo will perform very well. As Sanjay mentioned, Las Vegas is often even hotter than the conditions you mentioned, and the Turbo just shrugs it off, still delivering 1000FPM+ plus (ROP) climbs. I frequently fly out of Santa Fe NM, 6000 feet MSL, at 30 degrees C. This would be a bit of a nail-biter in the NA but is a piece of cake in the Turbo.

10

The airframe can handle it. The paint will suffer, but I am sure you expect that. As others have already pointed out get a conopy cover, electronics don’t like being baked and the greenhouse effect is substantially reduced with a cover over it.

FWIW, my plane is hangared the vast majority of the time - although it has sat out occasionally on hotter ramps than you describe without a problem. There are quite a few Cirri tied down out on the ramp around here and they are doing fine. Not a concern.

11

Vamsi,

I live in Brazil and have been flying my SR22 for five years now with no problems.

I have it hangered though most of the time

andre]