I have ordered an SR-22 B, with Stormscope, Skywatch, Engine monitoring and de-icing. I am scheduled to take delivery the first week of November. I am interested in any suggestions, advice (or words of wisdom) about the whole process of acceptance, training, flight home, etc. Are there things you would do differently, if you had the chance to go through the process again? For example, is it worth hiring an experienced Cirrus trained pilot (but not a Cirrus employee) to go through the acceptance test to catch smaller things that might be overlooked? Are there things Cirrus will do for you - if one knows to ask for them?? I look forward to hearing anyone’s thoughts, experiences and suggestions!
I hired a former Cirrus company pilot to help with the acceptance and was glad I did, although not for any dramatic reason. I was perfectly happy with the young but very professional CFI, Justin, who did the two day transition training through UND for Cirrus.
Apparently Cirrus does some custom work not obvious on their price list; I saw aircraft with modified graphics and block heaters, for example.
My biggest suggestion is to plan on a lot of flexibility in your schedule in case of problems with the aircraft, not just the weather. And make your hotel reservations NOW.
Took delivery of a SR20 on the 13th. I also had Justin and was very happy with his professionalism and flexibility. Several minor squawks that were promptly fixed. I would recommend taking delivery during the week since there is a limited crew available on the weekend. Make sure you take charts and plates for your trip home since they don’t sell/have them. I LOVE THE PLANE!
Jack
I took delivery of my SR20 last week. UND lined up Tom Sullivan for my training and accompany home. He is an independent contractor, but worked for Cirrus and said he had more experience in the Cirrus than anyone.
Hopefully this will be a non-issue by the time you get there, but, as you may know, there is a problem with the flap relays in the first 50 + hours or so of operation. They are close to figuring out the problem, but having extra ones is a good idea. Also, make sure you get a few quarts of mineral oil. You’ll need this for the break in period and not all FBO’s have it. I got other spare parts too - they give you a list you can order from.
BTW, I saw several (4 or 5) planes in production with the de- icing. I thought they were probably for testing or salesmen, but maybe one is for you!
My plane was not washed and actually fairly dirty when I took delivery. I would call them the day before and let them know that you plan to not inspect the airplane unless the surfaces are reasonably clean. The surface dirt hid some paint problems that I have since noticed.
Steve: I had my CFII come to DLH after I had completed two days of the factory transition course. My CFII thought the factory course was a great idea.
We were at DLH nearly a week, between training and repair of the aircraft. A one week “shakedown” is a great way to find out if there are any problems with the aircraft.
Some of the problems appeared during the week that were not present on the official “acceptance”. DLH is the ideal place to have repairs done. In fact, it was a Sunday afternoon that the avionics master relay was replaced after it failed to engage after lunch on the last day of training. Cirrus has all of the parts and all of the tech support that you could want right on site 7 days a week.
Advise:
Plan on as much flexibility on your schedule as possible. I had some avionics problems during the week of training which had us waiting for repairs on the aircraft. The good thing is that there have been no avionics problems since. The bad thing is that it required more time at DLH than originally planned.
Make your hotel reservations for longer than you think is necessary. We had to move out of one hotel (Fairfield?) to another when we had to stay longer than originally planned.
I am not sure where you are from, but I bought a Mountain High oxygen system and had it shipped to Cirrus and filled at DLH. It was used on the trip west.
Make sure you have charts, headsets, etc. for your flight home.
Make sure you take some munchies and water with you on the way home if it is a lengthly trip.
I really liked the idea of having my CFII along on the trip west. Having either an instructor (ideal) or another pilot for the trip in a new aircraft seems to me like a good idea.
I took a detailed acceptance checklist with me. I think a copy of one is posted on the COPA main page.
As far as hiring an experienced Cirrus trained pilot to go through the acceptance test I don’t think that is necessary. Our factory pilot was Russ Rothe. In any matter concerning the aircraft, he insisted that the aircraft be perfect. He found the problem with the autopilot pitch servo before we were aware of it. He also had some helpful advise on setting up the Garmins (change fuel tank message, data fields, crossfill settings, etc.).
There may be other suggestions, but these are all I can think of now.
I picked up my SR22 in August on a Monday (a good idea) and was assigned Tom Sullivan. He told us right away that he was not a Cirrus employee and as such now worked for us. He caught more squawks than my son or I did and figured out how to get them fixed pronto. I then flew to Cincinnati with him in the 22 (my CFII son flew our 182) and we had three days of training for a total of 5 pilots. We discovered a few more problems (flap relays, breakers popping, stormscope nonop) and when I flew Tom back to DLH, they were waiting for me and fixed everything that day. I ended up w/ one night in Deluth TOTAL. ALL training was done on my home turf. Not terribly expensive considering 5 persons trained and the insurance company was thrilled that we all have “the certificate”. I HIGHLY recommend Tom Sullivan and I highly recommend doing your training at your home. Just the three hours DLH-Cincinnati and the four hours back with Tom in the back seat was worth a bunch in experience.
I took training with John Fiscus of the Flight Academy. John is a high time (1200 hrs. in Cirri) Cirrus factory flight instructor who has opened his own flight school. He is extremely knowledgeable in Cirrus aircraft and is an expert in using the avionics. John is easy going, relaxed and extremely competent. I would rec. him highly. You can find his website by searching on the Flight Academy. If you can’t locate it e-mail me and I’ll give you his cell number.
As far as DLH is concerned I had a miserable experience at the factory. The sevice staff was less than enthusiastic to attend to squawks and would utter things like “that’s how they all come off the line”. Don’t fall for that unless the other planes out there have the same defect.
I believe they are a bit overwhelmed with the increase in production. I feel there has been a decrease in the quality of the product as well as the customer service since some of the earlier posts on the web site.
Brian,
I told Cirrus I wouldn’t take the plane without de-icing. Apparently I wasn’t the only one who said this to them. So, they were able to accelerate the de-icing option. Cirrus told me that they are producing a lot of 20 planes with de-icing that will be available starting the last week of October. This run, apparently will be the beginning of the 2003 model year (not to be confused with the calendar year). I guess this is a small attempt to market like a car company!! I also believe it will include the new exterior graphics and color schemes.
Iread a small article in plane and pilot or private pilot about cirrus testing out the deicing system…I’ll post what magazine and month let me start digging…
Brian,
That is what the rest of the world is saying about all of us and the CAPS system. I hope not to need the de-icing very often (It is not certified for known icing anyway) and I know what to do if the de-icing doesn’t work. There is much more of a challenge with the CAPS system - if that doesn’t work for some reason. Also, TKS is not new - it is well proven on other aircraft. So, I am comfortable being an early adopter of this.
I also had Russ and I found him to be my advocate for fixing an avionics problem I insisted on solving before leaving. The Sandel heading was lost when #2 com/nav was transmitting. Russ worked with the service guys over a span of 2 days and they finally tracked it down to EMI (required more shielding) and/or a bent pin in the remote gyro. I seem to recall that others had this difficulty in May deliveries. I don’t know the experience level of the UND trainers so if you need Russ’ phone number, let me know.
Flexibility is key. I’m glad I planned on getting an extra day of training because as it turned out we needed it to resolve this problem. Russ was able to work around this difficulty during training but it was cumbersome. If you have a choice I would take delivery in the early part of the week. I arrived on Friday and we did not have the benefit of the Cirrus mechanics over the weekend. Didn’t solve the problem until Monday.
I just received my delivery package from Cirrus. De Ice is on the leading edge of the wing, prop, and horizontal stabilizer. They have a slick catalog sheet on it and maybe Cirrus can send you one. They are installing de ice now.
Is the de-ice on the leading edges of everything and windshield and prop?
Leading edges of wings and horizontal stabilizer, and prop. Click here for Steve Lin’s excellent report from Oshkosh, which includes photos of the system