All, sent this email originally to the folks who met as part of the New Equipment Committee to share my first thoughts on the airplane. It’s my hope that we keep building our Cirrus experience and learning from each other.
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Wanted to pass along a quick review of flying N716CD on Saturday – I truly think we made the right choice with this airplane. I found the feedback from Jim David and Dennis Schell really helpful in knowing what to expect.
A few thoughts:
-Echo the comments that the sidestick is intuitive from the very-beginning! I can’t believe this is something that I even thought was going to be a problem, I think most will agree.
-Landing – I spent a lot of time studying the pattern and I think it paid off, the biggest learning I had was to use the Trim aggressively, in that you want to trim continuously through the pattern, alot more than you would need to in a Cessna
-Procedures – I really don’t like the checklist that is in the airplane, it is unintuitive and leaves out key items that are on our airplane like the Electric Rudder Trim. The official Cirrus one appears to be a little bit better in this area and is more based on a flow.
-Rudder Authority – we landed in a light crosswind and I had some “directional learning” as I found the rudder is extremely effective. Cirrus wants you to do a crab and transition to wing-low or do the crab&kick method, but Jack V teaches wing low method, which I was happy about.
-Speed – members said in the survey they want speed, and speed is what they get! Cruising up to OKK at 70% yielded 165-170kts.
-First lesson plan on about 4 hours door to door, we only had 3 (flying 1.7) and that was tight.
I’ll leave you with:
-Leaning Aggressively not always a good thing – flying Fuel-Injected for so long, I’ve become accustomed to leaning aggressively. There is such a thing as leaning too aggressively, as I found out on the taxi-back at TYQ. Thankfully after a quick second realizing how quiet it is down at midfield (and a few choice words) we got restarted immediately.
I think we’ll look back in a few years time and still be pleased with our decision to get a Cirrus. One thing I also think is important, and why I found Jim’s comments extremely helpful, is we need to encourage people to fly this aircraft. Its easy to get a little doubtful when you hear some of the “hangar-talk” about a Cirrus. I’ll personally admit to having second thoughts after hearing some of it, but thats unfounded and I can see myself getting comfortable, proficient and confident in this airplane very soon.
Best,
Joe
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