Pirep on SR22, N567AB

Guest Discussion
1

My wife, baby, and I are stuck in northern MT after picking up N567AB yesterday. A big “thanks!” to Suzi Knox and the other folks at Cirrus who sometimes went above and beyond the call of duty. Here are some notes.

  1. I continue to be very happy with it. The leg room is better than any other a/c I’ve flown, except the cabin part of a Malibu. The bagagge space is larger than I thought it was goine to be and I can fit two large suitcases and several other things back there.

  2. I love the stormscope! Today we were headed into Billings, MT, watching TS to the south and west, and then it moved into where we were. With the Stormscope, we knew which was safe and got away from it.

  3. I love the terrain feature of the Arnav. However, I wish that it had much finer resolution so that it would be more useful in the mountains. But out here on the plains, it is great.

  4. I love the Arnav in general. The sequence that I reported would crash the Arnav in Cirrus’s demo model, N140CD, doesn’t exist in our plane. So they must have updated the software. However, today it got into a mode where the screen was just blinking something nonsensical. It did not need a reboot, however. And note that the Arnav, being for VFR use, does not draw holds or DME/GPS arcs. But it will show the waypoints.

  5. The Sanedel HSI is also really nice. Having four screens in the plane (Sandel, Arnav, two Garmins) is not overkill. Sure, one can do with less, obviously, but I found all four quite helpful today.

  6. For the financially-curious, I ordered an SR20 last summer for a 2002 delivery. Then six months ago I bought an earlier SR22 position from a doctor in Canada who was joining a club that had already contracted for an SR22. I paid $60k, $30k for his deposit and a $30k premium. However, his contract price, which I got, was $30k below the current contract price, so it was a wash for me. I couldn’t sell the SR20 position, as it was so far out, so my partner and I just got a refund from Cirrus. The SR22 I own alone (my partner didn’t want to join in an SR22 – too expensive).

2

My wife, baby, and I are stuck in northern MT after picking up N567AB yesterday. A big “thanks!” to Suzi Knox and the other folks at Cirrus who sometimes went above and beyond the call of duty. Here are some notes.

  1. For the financially-curious, I ordered an SR20 last summer for a 2002 delivery. Then six months ago I bought an earlier SR22 position from a doctor in Canada who was joining a club that had already contracted for an SR22. I paid $60k, $30k for his deposit and a $30k premium. However, his contract price, which I got, was $30k below the current contract price, so it was a wash for me. I couldn’t sell the SR20 position, as it was so far out, so my partner and I just got a refund from Cirrus. The SR22 I own alone (my partner didn’t want to join in an SR22 – too expensive).

Thank you for your PIREP and congrats !

For my curiousity; wich position number for a SR20 did you have ?

Jaap

3

I was position number 34, which resulted in getting SR22 #30. Btw, last Friday when I was in the factory, the fuselage for #52 was just starting down the line.

We finally made it back to Palo Alto today. We went through two days of rain and TS. I got a lot of actual IFR time and did a number of approaches. I wish I had taken all of the IFR charts I could possibly need with me to DLH, but I made due from the FBO’s along the way.

The Arnav died, so I got used to using the Sandel and Garmins alone. The big thing that one doesn’t get w/o the Arnav is Terrain.

The AP is also screwy. It works great in heading mode and all the altitude modes work very well. However, both in Nav, Nav/Hdg, and GPSS modes, it flies about 30 degrees away from where it should, even when the AP is engaged with the course captured and the a/c pointed perfectly. I’ve got to reread the manuals to see if there is something I’m missing.

Btw, if cabin air goes dead after flying through cold rain – think icing. That’s what happened to us. Not cold enough for wing icing, but the air intakes for the cabin iced up completely. For about two hours afterwards, we’d get tiny ice crystals shooting at us at random times out of the vents.

I just flew the plane at night for the first time. The landing light is impressively bright. The strobes are so bright I wish I could turn them off on the ground sometimes, but that’s not legal. I figure the landing light and nav lights and noise probably help more with keeping people from walking into the propellor.

I also had the transponder problem people have mentioned before. The controller could see me as a primary target, so I don’t think it was a problem with radar coverage. My new theory is that the antenna is blocked by by the exhaust. Next time it happens, I’m going to turn 30 degrees and see if they start getting a reply. But another factoid which is not consistent with this theory is that I think I saw the “R” (reply) indicator on solid the whole time they couldn’t see my mode C. So is “R” a code for something other than “replying” and “identing”? Cycling the transponder didn’t help, but after a while ATC started getting my transponder replies.

Anyway, I am thrilled with the a/c and so is my wife. She loved flying the SR22, found it easy to land.

My wife, baby, and I are stuck in northern MT after picking up N567AB yesterday. A big “thanks!” to Suzi Knox and the other folks at Cirrus who sometimes went above and beyond the call of duty. Here are some notes.

  1. For the financially-curious, I ordered an SR20 last summer for a 2002 delivery. Then six months ago I bought an earlier SR22 position from a doctor in Canada who was joining a club that had already contracted for an SR22. I paid $60k, $30k for his deposit and a $30k premium. However, his contract price, which I got, was $30k below the current contract price, so it was a wash for me. I couldn’t sell the SR20 position, as it was so far out, so my partner and I just got a refund from Cirrus. The SR22 I own alone (my partner didn’t want to join in an SR22 – too expensive).

Thank you for your PIREP and congrats !

For my curiousity; wich position number for a SR20 did you have ?

Jaap

4

Sorry to followup my own post, but I anticipate the paragraph below might trigger some finger wagging by some on this forum. So let me explain.

We were at 6,000’ in heavy rain with the OAT showing something around 38F and had sight of the ground immediately below us on and off. We then climbed up to 8,000’ and broke out to VMC above Billings MT, then noticed the loss of intake air. The airspeed also dropped greatly. I flipped on the pitot heat and the airspeed came back in about 1-2 seconds. (I should have had the pitot heat on earlier.) The whole time I was looking at the wings for any trace of ice and saw none. If we hadn’t broken out to VMC when the pitot iced and the air intake iced, I would have descended and landed immediately.

And for the legal question, there was “known icing forecast” just to the east of where we were. I was careful to not go into this area.

I think the ice I experienced was rain that froze as I climbed, but I really don’t know.

Btw, if cabin air goes dead after flying through cold rain – think icing. That’s what happened to us. Not cold enough for wing icing, but the air intakes for the cabin iced up completely. For about two hours afterwards, we’d get tiny ice crystals shooting at us at random times out of the vents.

5

The autopilot issue sounds like the centering adjustment is way off. There’s a teeny hole in the front of the autopilot, between the REV and ALT buttons. Take a heavy duty paper clip, unbend it, put one end on a grinder to make a teeny flat blade screwdriver.

Now go fly the plane, and put it in HDG mode. Tweak the centering adjustment until the plane is pretty close to flying the heading you selected. Now select a GPS waypoint and put the a/p in APR mode. If the a/p wants to fly to one side of the course or the other, tweak the centering adjustment and wait a minute or two until it settles down again. Lather, rinse, repeat.

I’ve done this on both the SR20 and SR22 and they both fly smack down the middle now. (The 22 likes to fly about five degrees off of the heading selected on the Sandel; I’m trying to find out if there’s a separate adjustment for the heading pickoff from the Sandel…)

6

Robert,

It is legal to turn off the strobes when necessary. Below is an excerpt from the AIM

4-3-23. USE OF AIRCRAFT LIGHTS
a. Aircraft position lights are required to be lighted on aircraft operated on the surface and in flight from sunset to sunrise. In addition, aircraft equipped with an anti-collision light system are required to be operated during all types of operations (day and night) except when the pilot-in-command determines that the anti-collision lights should be turned off when their light output during adverse meteorological conditions would constitute a hazard to safety (14 CFR Section 91.209). Supplementary strobe lights should be turned off on the ground when they adversely affect ground personnel or other pilots, and in flight when there are adverse reflection from clouds.

Larry N171CD

I was position number 34, which resulted in getting SR22 #30. Btw, last Friday when I was in the factory, the fuselage for #52 was just starting down the line.

We finally made it back to Palo Alto today. We went through two days of rain and TS. I got a lot of actual IFR time and did a number of approaches. I wish I had taken all of the IFR charts I could possibly need with me to DLH, but I made due from the FBO’s along the way.

The Arnav died, so I got used to using the Sandel and Garmins alone. The big thing that one doesn’t get w/o the Arnav is Terrain.

The AP is also screwy. It works great in heading mode and all the altitude modes work very well. However, both in Nav, Nav/Hdg, and GPSS modes, it flies about 30 degrees away from where it should, even when the AP is engaged with the course captured and the a/c pointed perfectly. I’ve got to reread the manuals to see if there is something I’m missing.

Btw, if cabin air goes dead after flying through cold rain – think icing. That’s what happened to us. Not cold enough for wing icing, but the air intakes for the cabin iced up completely. For about two hours afterwards, we’d get tiny ice crystals shooting at us at random times out of the vents.

I just flew the plane at night for the first time. The landing light is impressively bright. The strobes are so bright I wish I could turn them off on the ground sometimes, but that’s not legal. I figure the landing light and nav lights and noise probably help more with keeping people from walking into the propellor.

I also had the transponder problem people have mentioned before. The controller could see me as a primary target, so I don’t think it was a problem with radar coverage. My new theory is that the antenna is blocked by by the exhaust. Next time it happens, I’m going to turn 30 degrees and see if they start getting a reply. But another factoid which is not consistent with this theory is that I think I saw the “R” (reply) indicator on solid the whole time they couldn’t see my mode C. So is “R” a code for something other than “replying” and “identing”? Cycling the transponder didn’t help, but after a while ATC started getting my transponder replies.

Anyway, I am thrilled with the a/c and so is my wife. She loved flying the SR22, found it easy to land.

My wife, baby, and I are stuck in northern MT after picking up N567AB yesterday. A big “thanks!” to Suzi Knox and the other folks at Cirrus who sometimes went above and beyond the call of duty. Here are some notes.

  1. For the financially-curious, I ordered an SR20 last summer for a 2002 delivery. Then six months ago I bought an earlier SR22 position from a doctor in Canada who was joining a club that had already contracted for an SR22. I paid $60k, $30k for his deposit and a $30k premium. However, his contract price, which I got, was $30k below the current contract price, so it was a wash for me. I couldn’t sell the SR20 position, as it was so far out, so my partner and I just got a refund from Cirrus. The SR22 I own alone (my partner didn’t want to join in an SR22 – too expensive).

Thank you for your PIREP and congrats !

For my curiousity; wich position number for a SR20 did you have ?

Jaap

7

Bob, Please check this on your autopilot:

If you are not on the course line (exactly when you engage the A/P, the A/P will fly an intercept. When you hit NAV, does the A/P fly towards the course line or waay?

For instance:

If your course to waypoint is 360 degrees and you initial heading from the tower is 020. When you are cleared"on course, if you hit NAV or NAV twice (for GPS steering), the autopilot will steer something like 330 to intercept. To avoid this, you’ll have to hit DIRECT TO, ENTER ENTER on the 430 to redraw the course line on to a “present position to the first waypoint”. Then hit Nav or NAV twice (for GPSS and you’re on your way without flying an intercept.

Does this help?

8

Just to confirm your experience- At Cirrus they told me that the first sign of icing is the blockage of the air vents.

Sorry to followup my own post, but I anticipate the paragraph below might trigger some finger wagging by some on this forum. So let me explain.

We were at 6,000’ in heavy rain with the OAT showing something around 38F and had sight of the ground immediately below us on and off. We then climbed up to 8,000’ and broke out to VMC above Billings MT, then noticed the loss of intake air. The airspeed also dropped greatly. I flipped on the pitot heat and the airspeed came back in about 1-2 seconds. (I should have had the pitot heat on earlier.) The whole time I was looking at the wings for any trace of ice and saw none. If we hadn’t broken out to VMC when the pitot iced and the air intake iced, I would have descended and landed immediately.

And for the legal question, there was “known icing forecast” just to the east of where we were. I was careful to not go into this area.

I think the ice I experienced was rain that froze as I climbed, but I really don’t know.

Btw, if cabin air goes dead after flying through cold rain – think icing. That’s what happened to us. Not cold enough for wing icing, but the air intakes for the cabin iced up completely. For about two hours afterwards, we’d get tiny ice crystals shooting at us at random times out of the vents.

9

  1. ARNAV died

  2. AP not adjusted properly

  3. Xponder problems

All on your flight home and you are still thrilled with the plane…

You are very forgiving. And obviously the plane must be one heck of a machine. Still, I humbly suggest that these kind of bugaboos which seem to be showing up in a lot of the AC ought to be caught by CD. They’ve delivered close to 200 planes by now, haven’t they?

10

Well said.

The air inlet scoop changes the speed/temp of the air and that’s why it froze. Same is true for the pitot tube, always have it on when below 40 F. I hope you had a cup to catch the ice for your soda. Cirrus is a great bird, not only for the cup holders but for the ice maker too.

Woor

Sorry to followup my own post, but I anticipate the paragraph below might trigger some finger wagging by some on this forum. So let me explain.

We were at 6,000’ in heavy rain with the OAT showing something around 38F and had sight of the ground immediately below us on and off. We then climbed up to 8,000’ and broke out to VMC above Billings MT, then noticed the loss of intake air. The airspeed also dropped greatly. I flipped on the pitot heat and the airspeed came back in about 1-2 seconds. (I should have had the pitot heat on earlier.) The whole time I was looking at the wings for any trace of ice and saw none. If we hadn’t broken out to VMC when the pitot iced and the air intake iced, I would have descended and landed immediately.

And for the legal question, there was “known icing forecast” just to the east of where we were. I was careful to not go into this area.

I think the ice I experienced was rain that froze as I climbed, but I really don’t know.

Btw, if cabin air goes dead after flying through cold rain – think icing. That’s what happened to us. Not cold enough for wing icing, but the air intakes for the cabin iced up completely. For about two hours afterwards, we’d get tiny ice crystals shooting at us at random times out of the vents.

11

Just to confirm your experience- At Cirrus they told me that the first sign of icing is the blockage of the air vents.

Sorry to followup my own post, but I anticipate the paragraph below might trigger some finger wagging by some on this forum. So let me explain.

We were at 6,000’ in heavy rain with the OAT showing something around 38F and had sight of the ground immediately below us on and off. We then climbed up to 8,000’ and broke out to VMC above Billings MT, then noticed the loss of intake air. The airspeed also dropped greatly. I flipped on the pitot heat and the airspeed came back in about 1-2 seconds. (I should have had the pitot heat on earlier.) The whole time I was looking at the wings for any trace of ice and saw none. If we hadn’t broken out to VMC when the pitot iced and the air intake iced, I would have descended and landed immediately.

And for the legal question, there was “known icing forecast” just to the east of where we were. I was careful to not go into this area.

I think the ice I experienced was rain that froze as I climbed, but I really don’t know.

Btw, if cabin air goes dead after flying through cold rain – think icing. That’s what happened to us. Not cold enough for wing icing, but the air intakes for the cabin iced up completely. For about two hours afterwards, we’d get tiny ice crystals shooting at us at random times out of the vents.

Maybe, but that is not what happened to me.

12

…obviously the plane must be one heck of a machine.

You bet!

We flew her a couple of weeks ago. A rocket. 3 people, little less than 1/2 fuel, climb > 2000/min, before runway end at pattern altitude…

Wilfried