How are your landings from the right seat? Maybe you are ready for your CFI ticket.
I was probably wrong about this but Aircraft insurance policies and flying club rules often specify that you have to fly from the left seat unless the pilot holds a current flight instructor certificate.
I think that due to the angle to the PFD the Cirrus is not a good plane to fly from the right seat. The CB panel is another reason … but i admit you can also not really see it from the left seat either 
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Checked German regs: It‘s legal unless the manufacturer prohibits it by a note in the POH.
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I believe it is.
Yep. Corrected above.
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I always jam my back into the seat before taking off just to make sure it won’t slip. It happened to me once and boy does that get your attention. Being tall is a lifesaver.
Alexis,
In the early Cirrus aircraft equipped with a Sandel EHSI there was a prohibition about flying from the right seat in IMC because the Sandel was almost impossible to read from that position.
The limitation was in the Sandel Supplement in Part 9 (Supplements) of the POH.
Other than that, I know of no limitation requiring the PIC to sit in the left seat.
I have had my seat slide back several times on takeoff. Not all the way, fortunately, but a few holes before it locks in. I consciously Push down on the underseat adjustment bar before I takeoff. My service center told me I needed new seat rails to resolve the situation. This was after they “Adjusted” we’ll seat locking mechanism. Has anyone heard of replacing the seat rails as a solution for this problem? This is in a G5.
Well…
We have changed a few seat pins to get proper alignment. This process and part numbers for offset ground pins is in the MM.
Tracks may help…but not my first part to swap.
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Be very-very careful with a seat that slides. I am friends with 2 families that have had accidents due to this. One was a Bonanza that resulted in death and the other totaled a Cirrus on the ramp. Make sure the seat is locked and if you are having issues have it mitigated.
I would have to disagree. While Alexis brings up a good point that even if defective, it’s the pilot’s responsibility to check it, the design should be robust enough for this not to happen. Perhaps the spring could be tighter/more tension, have a second lock/positive mechanism to keep it from moving, not sure, but there’s nearly always a way to improve engineering. Even a good mechanical design isn’t good if it doesn’t address human factors, or other potential failure points. Something that can cause such a serious crash/injuries should not ‘fail’ so easily, even if we were to agree on pilot error. Maybe we don’t need CAPS either - pilots just need to stop making errors!?
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I too wish that every part on the aircraft could be designed to be utterly foolproof and reliable. Nevertheless, as an owner, it is my responsibility to assure the aircraft is airworthy. And, frankly, it’s my butt in the seat.
As Jim Barker noted, the maintenance manual provides a seat locking pin alignment test procedure and instructions for correcting any misalignment that might cause a partial engagement of the seat lock.
See Section 25-10 Cabin in the Cirrus Aircraft maintenance manual. The test procedure has several steps - one is highlighted below:
(5) Inspection/Check -Crew Seats
…
(b) Verify seat forward/aft position adjustment catches both seat pins in all locking positions. To determine if both seat pins are engaged, skew seat forward-and-aft, and note whether second seat pin engages after the first seat pin.
1 If seat position adjusts smoothly and seat pins engage simultaneously, seat track is aligned with seat.
2 If seat position is difficult to adjust and/or seat pins require that seat is skewed before seat pins are aligned with seat track holes, perform Adjustment/Test - Crew Seat Longitudinal Alignment.
The above procedure is also referenced in Item 12 in the Cabin group per the Cirrus Aircraft maintenance manual - 100 hr/annual inspection.
The Adjustment/Test - Crew Seat Longitudinal Alignment procedure that follows it requires a specialty tool from Cirrus for measuring seat track alignment. There are also replacement “offset” pins in varying sizes for accommodating measured fore/aft play in the locking mechanism - as measured using the tool. There’s a lot more to the procedure. It goes on for multiple pages. The point is that the seat pins/alignmnent can get out of whack and there are proscribed procedures to diagnose this and correct it.
Caution: I am not an aviation mechanic. The above is offered as an invitation to read the manual, and ask questions of your service providers.
We can and should take the time to read the maintenance manuals - at least the recommended inspections - and check with our service providers to ensure they get done. In addition, we can take the various owner inspection courses offered at our CPPPs.
A good pilot is always learning. And, there’s always something more we can learn that one day might save our butt. There’s something new to learn almost every day in our discussion forums on the member side.
Now, if one wants to complain about a mechanism - rather than curse the darkness, how about filing an SDR? The FAA main page can be accessed here where one can both file reports and search for same:
https://av-info.faa.gov/sdrx/Default.aspx
Strangely, there is not a single Service Difficulty Report I can find on record with the FAA for the seat locking mechanism. There are multiple reports for failed magneto drive gears, for example. But, for this issue - not one.
Fly safely!
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I have not experienced this problem myself, but hopefully Kirk will be willing to share his experience with the FAA.
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Not sure if this helps but did a quick video of how the seat operation works.
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I’m 6’5” tall so roll back isn’t an issue for me. I keep it all the way back.
A few months ago on a bumpy landing to my mountain home AP on short final the seat slid about 1/3 forward. Not a flyable position and pretty sure it was locked for take off.
Instantly I had to let go of the stick and push the seat full aft with one hand on the bolster and another on the release bar. Very not ideal but over quick.
I now add “seat check” to my GUMPSeat check. I’m not convinced this is all operational error and I think seat has a bit of a mind of it’s own. Checked in annual now and “seat is fine”
It is easy to be all back and not locked in a detent but I always check that !
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Kevin,
The seat will go farther back on the track than the last locking pin holes. About 1/3”
sheepskins and other sorts of full seat covers seem to negatively exacerbate the handle and pin insertion mechanism proper placement when released.
The REQUIRED placard on the center console under the flap switch and forward of the power lever (red) is more than a good idea.
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Thanks Kevin and Jim for your constructive input…happy new year…
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Thanks nice video. Flew yesterday with a second cirrus pilot. First after some research realized if you can push take off go around button on the throttle and the AP the plane will fly straight and at recommended angle with yaw damper and pretty much take off in a dream I had…setting up the auto pilot heading and IAS will not work until some height above ground…tried both with two pilots (in my dream). The feeling that the handle is fullly down I think is key but I will say for my body build it is very hard to bend over and really feel it down…thanks for all who gave useful constructive feedback…
By the way talked again to Cirrus and they confirmed what I do is the correct method for locking seat so it’s def an AP issue and grounded for single pilot left seat operation for me.
I still am baffled by the negative comment on right seat flying. Would never recommend somebody jump in and try it solo but if you’re in the habit of flying with a cirrus pilot buddy it becomes easy to do and surely it seems odd an instructor would say they are comfortable doing it with a student who is not yet competent to fly but would NEVER Do it solo? As an instructor I would suspect correcting another students mistakes at the last minute would be harder than flying from right seat where you set up the whole approach and had a stable approach set up by yourself? And yesterday my pilot friend landed and practiced his approaches and landing with the “back up PFD” button which in the G5 gives him his own PFD…
Happy new year
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Agreed
There is a back up PFD in the G5 so PFDvery close to right crew if that is used…your mileage may vary…