The flight school where I teach recently acquired an SR20. In order to be able to instruct in this airplane, one has to complete the Cirrus certified training syllabus. This checkout involves VFR and IFR operations. For VFR, along with showing maneuver proficiency, an emphasis is put on knowing the procedure for deploying the ballistic parachute. Also as part of the CFI checkout is learning which circuit breakers to pull when sitting in the right seat for simulating various failures for students in the left seat. The IFR flights involve all kinds of approaches full/partial panel. Since I wasn't planning on teaching in the SR20 initially I completed the "transition" training so that I could rent and fly the SR20 for fun. I was surprised how roomy the SR20 was inside and how easy it was to adapt to the side stick. The challenge for me was the amount of time the airplane required to slow down from 160 kts for pattern entry. In a C-172, the airplane slows nicely when 10 degrees of flaps are added along with a power reduction abeam the numbers in the downwind. The Cirrus on the other hand requires arrival planning several miles out to get slowed before entering the pattern. Once the SR20 is slowed for the pattern, the speeds are quite higher than other single engine GA airplanes. For example the final approach speed in the SR20 is 80 kts. On the IFR side, the faster speeds take some getting used to. I'm used to C-182 approaches which start at 135 kts, but in the SR20, things happen a lot faster when commencing at 160 kts. It took me several tries to get used to the higher approach speeds.One other piece of equipment that takes some getting used to is the keypad interface to the G1000. The typical Garmin buttons are still available on the PFD/MFD, but in addition to those, the Cirrus has a keypad that allows full programming of the G1000. My muscle memory still wanted to use the PFD/MFD buttons, but after re-training myself, using the keypad is much more efficient.
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| G1000 w/keypad |
