A friend of mine flew the SR20, and mentioned that the ventilation system wasn’t too good. When I flew it, the heater was stuck in the on position, so of course it was warm.
Any insights from anyone on this metter? Also, any news about the air conditioner availability and its cost?
Of course the heater is stuck on. The plane is built in Minn.
A friend of mine flew the SR20, and mentioned that the ventilation system wasn’t too good. When I flew it, the heater was stuck in the on position, so of course it was warm.
Any insights from anyone on this metter? Also, any news about the air conditioner availability and its cost?
Any insights from anyone on this metter? Also, any news about the air conditioner availability and its cost?
I flew N119CD recently and I did not notice the heat on. It was a bit warm, but I chalked that up to the 70 degree Wx and bright sun. My wife, who sat in the back and is very sensitive to such things, actually volunteered a comment that the ventilation back there was excellent. Better, in fact, than our 172 in the front.
Just our opinions; anyone else?
A friend of mine flew the SR20, and mentioned that the ventilation system wasn’t too good. When I flew it, the heater was stuck in the on position, so of course it was warm.
Any insights from anyone on this metter? Also, any news about the air conditioner availability and its cost?
My heater was stuck on and it did make for some warm trips now the weather is getting warmer.
However I’ve just been back to Holland to have a few things sorted and it was a very simple job to adjust it , I would do it myself next time.
Generally the ventilation system is very good with a variable hot/cold air supply that in its hottest position is very hot. You can vary this from full cabin through to full screen. Without thinking, we were picking up some ice on a trip recently and I put full heat on the screen. In the front we got the benifit of the screen heat , unfortunately the passenger in the back didnt say anything untill we were on the ground when she admitted to being frozen.
The same trip had a bad start. We were climbing out after take off when I smelt something burning.
Your brain is still thinking this one through when the black smoke starts rising past your leg, by now your passengers have caught on and are pointing out what you have known for at least 10secs. and didn’t want them to know. At this point I wished I knew my emergency checklists. For your information I now know you can open the doors in flight and they will stay 2 or 3 inches open. Anyway I made a pan call did a 180 and headed for the field. By this time the smoke had stopped as quickly as it started. We continued back,I cancelled the pan, this didn’t prevent us being greeted by three fire engines determined not to be robbed of their bit of excitement. I did manage to persuade them not to cover us in foam.
Straight to the maintenance hangar, a very thorough inspection found nothing, everything worked, no fuses tripped. I took a flight with the engineer did everything we could to the plane swichted everything on, nothing.
The general view was that a bit of plastic had got drawn into the heater sleeve, which is wrapped around the exhaust, melted and given off the acrid smoke through the heater. This could have been caused by a bird starting to build a nest which has happened there before apparently.
I have since done over 10 hours with no problem.
Anyway I had then to persuade my two female passengers to get back into the plane to continue our trip to France. Of course my wife didn’t have much choice but I thought the other was very brave especially as the first hour was over water.
On a brighter note, I now have done about 40hours in the plane and it feels better all the time. The comfort,the space, the all round vision,the ergonomics of the cockpit, all the engine instruments to the right in a similar green sector scanned in a glance, three GPS screens giving total situational awareness, a superb audio system. Its great fun to fly or just switch on the autopilot and she purrs along. You always feel so in control. Ithought initially that main wheel steering with a castoring nose wheel was a disadvantage, wrong , you soon get use to the steering and when you want to show off just spin her round on one wheel. Sorry, once I start I get carried away.
Regards to you all.
Robin Taylor.
On a trip from Brookfield, WI to Gaithersburg, MD the OAT was at and below freezing most of the way but I didn’t need the heat on because the sunshine was enough to heat the cabin.
The SR20 is sealed better than previous aircraft I’ve flown and seems to lose far less heat through random ventilation and thru the foam and fiberglass cabin walls.
I would be more concerned about summer cooling but the cabin ventilation seems to be at least adequate and judging from other experience with the plane they probably got that right too.
… glad this turned out well, thanks for recounting it. Speaking for the SR20-deprived, there can’t be enough details about life with your planes. JF
I, too, had a smoke-in-the-cockpit experience on my way home from the factory. After an emergency landing at a remote field in the wilds of Minnesota and a prompt visit by the factory techs it was determined through a thorough inspection that there is/was some residual oil (used most likely as a preservative) in the scat tubing that transports heat from the heat box around the exhaust into the cabin and onto the windsreen. The residue was being vaporized by the initial high heat application to the windscreen (to melt some ice). I haven’t used the heater since (California), expect to have the same experience again, but know not to worry too much about it.
On a related note: the cabin is quite airtight and thus very quick to heat up and get stuffy during start-up and taxi. Once you get some air flowing into the wing intakes the vents blast very nicely.
Cheers.
Am I correct in thinking that the windows do not open? Is it safe to taxi with the doors open a bit to get some air on those hot summer days?
Am I correct in thinking that the windows do not open? Is it safe to taxi with the doors open a bit to get some air on those hot summer days?
It’s my understanding that you can taxi with the doors wide open. They have gas struts that according to the POH steady the doors against gusts.
I’ll check with Cirrus on this and confirm.
Clyde
Is it safe to taxi with the doors open a bit to get some air on those hot summer days?
Here’s what someone in the know at Cirrus had to say about this:
"You can taxi with the doors open. In practice you find SR20 drivers have a technique of taxiing with the door “popped” and the pilot’s arm hooked around the door handle.
I took a plane to Phoenix last summer with ambient temperature approaching 120F. Taxiing with the door open was “acceptable” (120F is never comfortable) and after takeoff air flow was good enough to keep the airplane OK."