It all started last year, when I got in touch with Matthew Stibbe via one of his websites, and this blog. We exchanged several e-mails, and rapidly found out that we share the same views on what modern general aviation should be. Earlier this summer, Matthew kindly invited me as a passenger on a Cirrus SR22, out of Denham (EGLD), and airport located 5.5 nautical miles north of London Heathrow. The idea of flying such an high-performance, modern, glass-cockpit equipped aircraft was really exciting. It was really a shame that logistic and organisational problems lead to its cancellation. But the next offer from Matthew was even better: join him and the group to which he belongs for a fly-out: two flights, and lots of pilot chat with Cirrus fans. I could not imagine a better offer.

So the day finally came, and after a long but not so tragic Lufthansa flight from Frankfurt to London, and an overnight in a typically (read bad) London hotel, Matthew picked me up there, and drove us to Denham. The weather forecast was excellent, but even to English standards, the 200 meters visibility in fog was not good. We could however meet other members of the group, and pre-flight the aircraft. The first impression when meeting with a Cirrus is that it’s a rather large aircraft. 2.71 meters high, and 7.92 meters long for a wingspan of 11.68 meters. Compared to a Saratoga or Bonanza, it looks and feel huge, and the cabin is wide, allowing for lot of room and passengers comfort. I was in a rear passenger seat for the first leg, and despite my 1m90, I was installed comfortably – a true four seater.

The design of the Cirrus doors is well known, and hard to describe – the open by pivoting up and forward. Getting on board is easy, and closing the door requires a special technique: use the arm which is in the center, not directly beside the door. Needless to say, the Cirrus is a plastic plane, made of composite fiber, with the exception of the leaing edge. A close inspection shows the micro-holes of the anti-ice TKS system, which diffuse anti-ice fluide when required. There is also a fluid outlet for each propeller blade, allowing for some propeller de-icing.

The leading edge design is also rather surprising. It includes a vortex generator, but also a kind of “break”, where the profile suddenly jumps by a couple of centimeters.

Another specificity of the Cirrus is its side-stick. It allows for more room in the cockpit, solving one of my long lasting problems: where to put an A4 kneeboard ? On the negative side, no place to attach a chart clip. But why a chart clip when the MFD can display any JeppView chart from its database ?

Flying with the stick is rather comfortable, but requires a strong wrist musculature. The mixture of spring loading and aerodynamic forces on the ailerons makes the stick feel heavy around the roll axis. In comparison, the pitch feels much lighter, making easy to bust levels. This combination remembered me of IFR simulators, which are designed so to force the students to focus on the attitude indicator.

Do I have to say that the dashboard is dominated by the two screens of the Avidyne glass-cockpit ? PFD in front of the pilot, MFD on the right, but oriented towards the pilot, not flat like a G1000. The central pedestal is the home of the audio box, the transponder, the auto-pilot, and the two GNS430s – more on that in a later post about the avionics.

Despite being a modern aircraft, the Cirrus is not FADEC equipped, so there are still two levers to control the engine. Yes, you read it correctly: two, not three. The large “power” lever is a classical throttle, but when pushing it forward, it suddenly feels harder, when the lever reaches the propeller control. Both are mechanically coupled, no need to worry about prop RPM – but no way to reduce RPM to help diminishing the noise. The second lever is a classical mixture control.

The first leg of the day was from Denham to Bembridge. I was sitting in a rear passenger seat, together with Matthew, as another member of the group was in the front left seat, and his son in the front right seat. There is enough room for passengers to feel comfortable, even for long legs. We took-off rapidly once the fog was dissipated, and routed around Heathrow CTR and then directly to Bembridge. The noise level in the cabin is rather low, but the Bose X headsets certainly contributed to reduce it even more.

While I was taking photographs of the PFD, I noted the airspeed… up to 180 knots in cruise ! That’s 20 more than aircraft of the same category, and this despite the fixed landing gear. The 310 horsepower, for a maximum take-off weight of approximately 1600 kilograms are somehow comparable to the 300 horsepower for 1600 kilograms of the Saratoga. The difference in speed and climb performance probably comes from the more modern design of the Cirrus wing.

The side visibility from the passenger seats is fine, but as for most IFR, high-dashboard planes, the forward visibility from the back seats is very limited. It’s obviously better from the front seats. One of the surprising things when being in the front right seat is the assimetry of the dashboard. Some space in front of the co-pilot seat is simply not used, and this makes hard to fly with reference to the natural horizon, as there is no horizontal reference. The foggy atmosphere was also not helping, not to mention my natural tendency to fly IFR…

On the way home, Matthew kindly left me take over the controls of the aircraft. Being in the co-pilot seat, I was flying with my right hand on the stick, and left hand on the power lever. I’m used to fly central stick aircrafts, and this did not feel really different. The armrest makes it really comfortable to fly, and both rudder and elevator trim can be controlled using the hat switch on the stick. The Cirrus is more reactive to control inputs than a Piper single engine, but not as much as a Bonanza or DA40. We got some thermal tubrulence, but the relatively short wings and high weight makes it feel stable. As it’s really roomy, there is no risk to hit the ceiling, even for someone as tall as me. Moreover, the double shoulder harnesses firmly but comfortably maintain the people on board in their seats.

As this was not an instruction flight, I could not fly from the left seat, nor land the aircraft by myself. It’s thus hard for me to say anything about the flare and landing. Both landing were perfectly smooth, but seemed high to me – probably because of the height of the plane itself. I got the same kind of feelings when I learned to fly the Bonanza, and this is exactly what differences training is about.

To conclude, let me say that the Cirrus SR22 is exactly what I do expect from a modern, high-performance, single engine piston aircraft, and I don’t really see any competitor for the time being. May be the DA50 will take this role later on… If I had enough money, and access to a Cirrus, I would not hesitate for a single second.

I will post later about the avionics, and other events during this week-end, and can obviously not close this post without a warm thank you to Matthew.

Read more: click here to read my comparison of the Avidyne Entegra and the G1000.