I got the following inquiry sent to one of the COPA email addresses; I replied with my own personal experiences, but discussed with the email writer the advantages of posting the query here, for more people to respond.
Here’s the query; feel free to reply here or directly to the questioner at Migiziequay@aol.com"]Migiziequay@aol.com[/email]: My husband & I have had a SR20 on order for a long time. Our # is 269. We;ve both flown the plane several times, and did fall in love with all of it . One of our friends here in Duluth is part of a club with a SR20. It seems that the CG is quite forward, that if you have 2 larger folks (>170#) up front, you need lead placed in the back. It sounds as though flying with more than 3 on board is a challenge with the relatively low useful load. We were flying a Cherokee 140, got frustrated waiting, so recently bought a Cherokee 235, which we love. Soon we may have 3 planes on our hands - something will have to be sold. Would appreciate hearing realistic stories from owners as to traveling with 4 adults, cross-country. Can you do it safely without stopping frequently? Thanks,
AMC
I love my SR20, but currently if you take conservative reserves as I do (1.5 hours) if I have one passenger plus me, I can fill the tanks; 2 passengers with luggage is two hour legs; 3 passengers isn’t doable. With the GW increase, which is coming up, it will add 1.5 hours to the two passenger plus me, making it 4 hour legs plus 1.5 hour reserve. Given the speed, this will be very functional.
My experience, which I believe is typical, is 2103 pound empty with C configuration, 3-blade, and leather. I flight plan for 10 to 10.5 GPH. You can do the math at 2900 or 3000 GW.
For what’s it’s worth. I recently flew an early -20 with full fuel and 3 adults. Performance was excellent in all modes of operation. I think the “book” is very conservative.