I’ll be driving through Duluth tomorrow. I am very tempted to swing through Cirrus to take a look at their operations, but they only provide Company Tours on Fridays by request. I’m not comfortable requesting a special company tour just for me. More so because I’d never buy a Cirrus—even if I could afford one—because of their poor stall characteristics, inability to recover from spins (the chute is a hack), and their use of Avidyne’s glass cockpit, about which I have reservations. (Read Philip Greenspun’s review.)
Still, maybe I’ll give them a call… They have the best interiors of any aircraft I could hope to fly.
Thursday, July 13, 2006
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2 comments:
Couldn't agree with you more about the chute. It falls at 1,400fpm under the chute. The DA40 mushes in a stall at 700fpm. Duh. I think I'd do better with a big airbag UNDER the plane.
The wing on the SR2[0|2] is supposed in two parts so that it was certified for spin resistance. Dunno if that helped in Lancaster, CA recently (stalled, spun, died with a CFI, too low for a chute pull).
I think I would still like a look at the factory of a new plane.
The Avidyne is a bad idea. Poor resolution. Runs windows. Philip Greenspun reported that over Alaska at altitude he had the whole system spotaneously reboot on him. Not something I want to mess with.
Thanks. It’s nice to know that I’m not the only one feeling that way about the Cirrus—and the Avidyne.
My understanding of the Cirrus’s wing is that it is twisted a little about mid way down its length so that the inner portion of the wing stalls earlier than the tips. Thus, as the plane nears a stall, the inner portion of the wing starts buffeting (solid warning sign of impending stall) but the outer portion of the wing remains un-stalled, continuing to allow bank control of the aircraft. However, I do not believe that the wing design provides any spin “resistance”—the Cirrus had to include a chute to meet the “or equivalent safety” part of the spin certification, as it is not recoverable from a spin.
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