speed brakes

I hope to make a deposit on a Lancair this month. I have been thinking about the option of speed brakes. Do the owners of the SR22 think that they would be helpful, being that the two planes are so similar?

Thanks David

I hope to make a deposit on a Lancair this month. I have been thinking about the option of speed brakes. Do the owners of the SR22 think that they would be helpful, being that the two planes are so similar?

Thanks David

No… I have had my SR22 now for over a month and have never needed speed brakes.
With the gear down all the time and a little planning, you won’t need them.

The SR22 is a pleasure to fly just the way it’s built.

I hope to make a deposit on a Lancair this month. I have been thinking about the option of speed brakes. Do the owners of the SR22 think that they would be helpful, being that the two planes are so similar?

Thanks David

I have found that slowing down the SR22

seems to be easier than the SR20. I
don’t know why, maybe the wingtip ext.
along with add’l. weight? Pull the
power back and it is not a problem. I

have yet to have a bad landing.

I hope to make a deposit on a Lancair this month. I have been thinking about the option of speed brakes. Do the owners of the SR22 think that they would be helpful, being that the two planes are so similar?

Funny you should mention this, since I did a little experiment in my SR22 this morning.

I flew into the airport area at about 170 KIAS,

1,000 feet above pattern altitude. I started

descending and slowing about four miles away from the airport, and had no trouble getting into the pattern at 110 KIAS. Descent rate was about 600 fpm. All it takes is awareness and judicious use of the power lever.

I think the training emphasizes slowing for the pattern for the sake of recovering Cessna drivers like myself. As soon as you reduce the power a bit on a Cessna, all those rivets and seams act like hundreds of tiny speed brakes.

As for the classic justification of speed brakes, descending at higher power settings to avoid shock cooling, I have no experience, just as I have no idea if Lancairs behave the same as the SR22. Speed brakes do sound macho, though (“I need speed brakes just to keep this baby under Mach 1”).

-Mike

I have been thinking about the option of speed brakes.

Pilot: Buttonville tower, do you see a Mooney overhead at 2000 feet doing 190 knots?

TWR: Aircraft calling Buttonville, affirmative.

Pilot: That would be me. May I have clearance through the zone … I mean clearance enroute … oh never mind.


I put 50 hours on a Mooney after a few hundred in Cessna’s and although it never quite got that bad, there were days that brakes would have been nice. Needed no, nice yes.

  1. Descending a long way on cold winter days: -30°C from 10,000 to 3000, want to keep the expensive engine warm. On those beautiful cold clear VFR winter days, the air is so dense the plane would really rather not go down,

  2. Want to steam toward the approach or into the pattern then make a big airspeed change without a big power change,

  3. Made an oops. Should have started descending a few minutes ago. It happens.

Never necessary, but if you pay $300K for a nice plane, why not a bit extra for more utility? They put “unnecessary” spoilers on jets. My Lancair number 84 will have the brakes.

Steve

P.S. I got the “drop from the sky” demo from Lancair that shows that with a bit of power, full flaps and 125KIAS you descend at almost 2500 fpm. Nope, you don’t need brakes in a Columbia 300. But Silvia, in the back seat, wondered why she was hanging from her seat belts with such a great view of the farmers fields out the front window. Brakes would have been a more civilized way to get the job done.

David,

I think speed brakes are a nice luxury if you plan to do a lot of large airport flying where you and your engine would benefit from being able to reduce speed and/or descend well without shock-cooling. But only really necessary in that instance.

However, assuming you are not buying the Lancair 400, I don’t think they are important. Once you have a turbo-charger in there, speed brakes become more of a necessity rather than a bonus.

Dean

I have about 70 hours of experience in the SR22 and wouldn’t want speed brakes. That’s not to say that there weren’t a few times when I screwed up an approach and could have used them, but I wouldn’t want the weight, safety issues, maintenace expense, or added complexity even if they were installed for free.

Speed brakes make more sense in turbo charged a/c.

To put it another way, the SR22 has a speed brake: the throttle. Chop the power, pitch up to 80 KIAS, and you’ll be riding a lawn dart down.

I hope to make a deposit on a Lancair this month. I have been thinking about the option of speed brakes. Do the owners of the SR22 think that they would be helpful, being that the two planes are so similar?

Thanks David

I hope to make a deposit on a Lancair this month. I have been thinking about the option of speed brakes. Do the owners of the SR22 think that they would be helpful, being that the two planes are so similar?

Funny you should mention this, since I did a little experiment in my SR22 this morning.

I flew into the airport area at about 170 KIAS,

1,000 feet above pattern altitude. I started

descending and slowing about four miles away from the airport, and had no trouble getting into the pattern at 110 KIAS. Descent rate was about 600 fpm. All it takes is awareness and judicious use of the power lever.

I think the training emphasizes slowing for the pattern for the sake of recovering Cessna drivers like myself. As soon as you reduce the power a bit on a Cessna, all those rivets and seams act like hundreds of tiny speed brakes.

As for the classic justification of speed brakes, descending at higher power settings to avoid shock cooling, I have no experience, just as I have no idea if Lancairs behave the same as the SR22. Speed brakes do sound macho, though (“I need speed brakes just to keep this baby under Mach 1”).

-Mike

Mike, I tried the same thing in my '22, but it wasn’t an experiment. I was being followed by a King Air and there was a nice, pretty, black CB approaching the field from the departure end. The tower said to keep my speed up for the following traffic. Neither I nor the King Air wanted to do a missed apprioach given the Wx at the end of the field.

I was at the OM (6 miles +/-) and at least 170 KIAS loosely following the glide slope in VFR conditions. i started slowing down shortly thereafter and would estimate that I was still 160 KIAS at 3 miles.

I managed to land and turn off at about 5,000’ Feet (I had 10,000’) with moderate braking.

All that was necessary was consistently pulling back on the power (I did watch CHT’s and they were not too reflective of shock cooling. ythe '22 manages to keep CHT’s very stable) and carefully pulling the nose up as much as possible to stay on the descent profile but loosing airspeed. At 119 KIAS over the numbers, the flaps went down. The rest is history.

I certainly don’t want to make a habit of that type of approach, and speed brakes would have helped considerably, but they were not necessary.

I have been thinking about the option of speed brakes.

Pilot: Buttonville tower, do you see a Mooney overhead at 2000 feet doing 190 knots?

TWR: Aircraft calling Buttonville, affirmative.

Pilot: That would be me. May I have clearance through the zone … I mean clearance enroute … oh never mind.

Watch the ear drums!!!


I put 50 hours on a Mooney after a few hundred in Cessna’s and although it never quite got that bad, there were days that brakes would have been nice. Needed no, nice yes.

  1. Descending a long way on cold winter days: -30°C from 10,000 to 3000, want to keep the expensive engine warm. On those beautiful cold clear VFR winter days, the air is so dense the plane would really rather not go down,
  1. Want to steam toward the approach or into the pattern then make a big airspeed change without a big power change,
  1. Made an oops. Should have started descending a few minutes ago. It happens.

Never necessary, but if you pay $300K for a nice plane, why not a bit extra for more utility? They put “unnecessary” spoilers on jets. My Lancair number 84 will have the brakes.

Steve

P.S. I got the “drop from the sky” demo from Lancair that shows that with a bit of power, full flaps and 125KIAS you descend at almost 2500 fpm. Nope, you don’t need brakes in a Columbia 300. But Silvia, in the back seat, wondered why she was hanging from her seat belts with such a great view of the farmers fields out the front window. Brakes would have been a more civilized way to get the job done.