I, and probably most of you have received the following letter from Cirrus. I quote only a part that of the letter, that informs us about the CAPS. This will have to be complied with at the time of the next service on the airplane.
"… On Monday, 25 February 2002, Cirrus Design and Ballistic Recovery Systems (BRS) released Service Bulletins that corrected a condition that may have rendered the CAPS system inoperable. The condition was in the activation cable assembly and was corrected by adding a clamp to the cable at the base of the rocket cone adapter (reference BRS Service Bulletin SB 95-01 and Cirrus Service Bulletins SB A20-95-01 and A22-95-01). This modification was substantiated by a series of tests performed by Cirrus and BRS prior to release of the Service Bulletins. The Service Bulletins have been sent to all Cirrus customers and Service Centers. Parts required to comply with these Service Bulletins have been sent to all Service Centers and are available to customers who need to have the work accomplished at non-Cirrus Service Centers. Cirrus requested that the FAA issue an Airworthiness Directive for this condition to ensure that all aircraft in the Cirrus fleet comply with the referenced Service Bulletins. This Airworthiness Directive is forthcoming from the FAA.
During testing of a proposed production change to accomplish the changes defined in the BRS Service Bulletin (95-01), Cirrus engineering tested the performance of the complete CAPS system and identified a method to improve the overall system performance by reducing the pull force required to activate the system. Tests have shown that adding a clamp to the activation cable immediately behind the CAPS activation handle and minor re-routing of the cable aft of the handle reduces the pull force required to activate the system. The proposed changes are being reviewed with the FAA and FAA approved tests are in process. Test completion and FAA review and approval is expected to be complete tomorrow. A Service Bulletin will be released on Monday, 4 March 2002 and will be applicable to all SR20 and SR22 aircraft in the fleet. Cirrus expects that the time of compliance for the Service Bulletin will be 15 hours or at the next scheduled maintenance. …"