Flight Test

SR20

Fast, efficient and comfortable, the Cirrus SR20 is a general aviation aircraft for the 21st Century. Dave Unwin is impressed.

There are times when being the editor of Today’s Pilot is perhaps not all it’s cracked up to be. Difficult designers, subversive sub-editors, awkward advertisers and the ever-present threat of the next deadline can all combine to take the shine off of what is actually quite a good job. Still, it can have its compensations, such as flying a brand-new Cirrus SR20 high over Lake Constance on a spectacular spring evening! With Johann ‘Baron’ von Riemershausen in the seat alongside me and a Zeppelin passing overhead, we raced down the runway at Friedrichshafen and up into the cool evening sky for an aerial view of the Austrian Alps. As much as I enjoyed my flight with the ‘Baron’ it actually left me with more questions than answers and I was eager to get my hands on another Cirrus in order to perform a more qualitative evaluation. My next chance to fly the SR20 came a couple of months later, when Mike Glazer flew his immaculate aircraft into Conington on a very hot July day.

Before we went flying, I had a good look around the machine and was extremely impressed, both by the very high build quality and by the amount of thought that had gone into its design. One of the first things that struck me during the walk round was the width of the wheelbase. For a four-seat aircraft it is incredibly wide. It is also very low maintenance. Both the mainwheels and nosewheel struts are of composite construction, making for a very simple undercarriage. As befits an aircraft designed to go places at a good rate of knots, all three wheels are closely spatted.

The relatively high aspect-ratio wings were also interesting as they feature drooped leading edges at about two thirds span. The logic behind this design is that it keeps this part of the wing (and the ailerons) flying after the inboard section has already stalled. I was also interested to see that the wing features two sets of stall strips – one set relatively close to the fuselage and the second set situated just inboard of the drooped leading edges. Again this is to ensure that the inboard section of the wing stalls before the drooped section. Large span, single-slotted flaps complete the wing. Although the airframe is predominantly constructed of composite materials, I noted that Cirrus has wisely decided that the parts of the aircraft most vulnerable to hangar rash, such as the ailerons, flaps, elevator and rudder, are all made from aluminium. The engine, a 200hp Teledyne-Continental IO-360 air-cooled flat six, is quite tightly cowled and features a pair of very long, tuned exhaust pipes. In common with many other aspects of the SR20, the propeller is also slightly unusual. It is a three-blade constant speed unit made by Hartzell, with blades that feature an intriguing swept-back leading edge.

While moving around the fuselage, I was particularly impressed by the door to the baggage bay, as it features a very simple – but much appreciated – feature, a pocket built into the door. This is absolutely ideal for holding bottles of oil, a fuel strainer and other pre-flight paraphernalia. Like all great ideas it is brilliantly simple, and I couldn’t believe that it hadn’t been thought of before. Another great idea is the small window set into the roof of the cabin just forward of the cover for the CAPS, as it lets light into the baggage area.
Access to the cockpit is good. There is a grab handle on either side of the fuselage, and a pair of steps just aft of the trailing edge complements these. I was rather surprised to see that the non-slip surface of the wing root walkway is white, although this may have something to do with keeping the temperature of the composite mainspar down. The doors open wide and are well-supported by gas struts.

Settling into the very comfortable cockpit, I was immediately struck by how ‘car-like’ it is. Someone at Cirrus Design has obviously made the connection that the kind of person who will buy a Cirrus Design aircraft almost certainly drives a fairly expensive car. Consequently, in many ways the cockpit resembles the interior of an upmarket motorcar (I was later to read that the interior is actually modelled on the BMW-5 series). The seats adjust fore-and-aft over a wide range, and a handy grab handle is situated above the windshield to help you pull yourself forward. The seat tracks are arranged in such a way that as the seats move forwards, they also angle upward slightly. This ensures that shorter people are positioned slightly higher as they move the seat forward. A nice touch, and doubtless one much appreciated by anyone who is ‘vertically challenged’. The backs of the front seats recline, while the backs of the back seats can be folded forward to make it possible to carry bulky objects that extend forwards from the baggage bay. The cabin is very large for a four seat aircraft, with plenty of room for four adults. Each occupant is provided with a headset socket, and even a cup holder, while underneath the armrest between the two front seats is a very useful storage compartment.

Having adjusted and locked my seat and fastened my harness, I began to familiarise myself with the instruments and controls. The most obvious feature is the very uncluttered panel, a product of clever design, and the use of side-stick controllers, of which more later. With a few minor exceptions, I thought the cockpit was extremely well thought-out. The instrument panel is dominated by the ARNAV ICDS2000 multi-function display screen in the centre, with the flight instruments situated on the left side of the panel and the engine instruments on the right. The main switch panel for the electrical services is situated directly below the flight instruments and consists of a row of large, user-friendly rocker-switches. Conversely, the main circuit breaker panel is less user-friendly, being situated to the right of the pilot’s right leg, along with the parking brake and alternate air knob. Another feature that I didn’t really like was the location of the fuel gauge. This is located on the centre console aft of the combined throttle/prop lever, and doesn’t really lend itself to being incorporated in an ordered scan of the instruments. However, there is a low fuel light on the annunciator panel. The centre console contains easily the most comprehensive avionics suite I have ever seen installed in a single piston-engined aircraft. Two immensely powerful Garmin GN430 GPS receivers are fitted, with number one coupled to the HSI and STEC 55autopilot and number two coupled to the ILS. Either can supply information to the ARNAV moving map display, and this can also display a wealth of other information, such as aircraft performance charts and checklists from the Pilots Operating Handbook. The ARNAV is also coupled to the BF Goodrich WX500 stormscope, which can detect lightning at ranges of up to 200 nautical miles. Communications are taken care of by a pair of Garmin GNS430 VHF transceivers connected to a Garmin GN 340 integrated audio system and intercom. A Mode C transponder and a marker beacon receiver, both also produced by Garmin, complete an avionics fit that wouldn’t look out of place in a Lear Jet. Upon looking up, I also noted the cover for the CAPS deployment handle, which is located in the roof. More on this later.

Starting the engine is perfectly straightforward. Between the seats and to the left of the throttle is a rocker switch. Having pushed the mixture lever to ‘fully rich’ and the power lever fully forward, simply rock this switch backwards and hold, to prime the engine for four seconds, then click it forward to the ‘boost’ position. The power lever is then retarded until it is only open about an inch, and then the engine is started. A flick of the avionics master switch brought the awesome avionics on line and we were ready to taxi. By now, the temperature in the cockpit was rising steadily under the merciless glare of the midday sun and I couldn’t help but observe that the well-situated cockpit air-vents weren’t actually doing anything. Despite having a number of very useful automotive features, the Cirrus SR20 doesn’t have an electric fan to supplement ram-air pressure, and on the ground it could certainly use one. Mike told me that it is possible to taxi with the doors open, but that he found it awkward to shut the door once strapped in. I was also surprised to note that the SR20 is not fitted with a direct-vision panel, as this would also have helped in lowering the cockpit temperature.