After I learned to fly my SR22, I was struck by how simple it is to operate. It’s obvious that Cirrus didn’t just throw together an airplane with all of the designers’ favorite features, but put a lot of thought into making an aircraft that is easier to fly. James Fallows’ “Free Flight” speaks of the heated discussions at Cirrus while they were designing the SR20.
If you’ve ever designed anything related to technology, you know that a design has to be very sophisticated in order to be easy to use. Just another one of those little paradoxes.
Below is my “Top 10” list of features that make the SR2X simpler to fly. Now, don’t jump up and say, “My 1953 Dingblatt Aeroswooper had this feature.” We already know that. What’s unique is the combination of all of these features in one airplane.
Also, this list is based on my experience with the SR22. Most, but not all, of the items also apply to the SR20.
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No carb heat. 'Nuff said.
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No cowl flaps. I always forget to close the darn things, anyway.
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Only two fuel tanks. Just one would be better, but the fuel system is sure a lot less complicated than many airplanes with similar performance.
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Simpler nose gear. No steering links, no hydraulic shimmy damper, no nitrogen-over-oil strut. That’s two fewer hydraulic systems to worry about!
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Only three flap settings: 0%, 50%, 100%.
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Full power on climb-out. No matter what altitude you’re climbing to, just leave that power lever all the way forward until you get there. Unless ATC tells you you’re overtaking that King Air…
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Fixed gear. Doesn’t need retractable gear to go fast. It just does it anyway.
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The Garmin/STEC combination makes approaches dirt simple. You might have to turn the heading bug for vectors, procedure turns (with prompts from the Garmin), or holds, and you might have to turn a knob to adjust your vertical speed on non-precision approaches, but the avionics keep the shiny side up for you.
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One lever to control both the prop and throttle. Now if Continental would just get FADEC working, we could get rid of the mixture control.
and my favorite make-flying-simpler feature is:
- The Sandel EHSI. You never have to reach around the yoke to correct gyro precession, you can put the heading bug on your current heading by pressing one button, and you can set the CDI to automatically slew to the proper heading.
Many of the things on this list could have prevented fatal accidents in other airplanes. I’m grateful to have them all.
-Mike
