cirrus aircraft

In article ,
"Morgans" wrote:

"Ron Garret" wrote

The Cirrus has an electric trim. I find it's all but impossible to get
fine enough control to really get the thing trimmed up properly at high
speed; it's just too twitchy. But the Cirrus also has an autopilot,
which more than makes up for the twitchy trim.

Thanks; a reply that I can use. ;^)

So the auto makes it possible. What if the auto was not working, or you
just needed (or wanted) the stick time? Would it be reasonable to fly 2
hours without your hand getting overly tired?

Well, I'm just heading out to the airport now. I'll let you know in
about three hours :-)

rg

"Ron Garret" wrote

Well, I'm just heading out to the airport now. I'll let you know in
about three hours :-)

No cheating by using the auto-pilot, - right? g
--
Jim in NC

In article ,
Ron Garret wrote:

In article ,
"Morgans" wrote:

"Ron Garret" wrote

The Cirrus has an electric trim. I find it's all but impossible to get
fine enough control to really get the thing trimmed up properly at high
speed; it's just too twitchy. But the Cirrus also has an autopilot,
which more than makes up for the twitchy trim.

Thanks; a reply that I can use. ;^)

So the auto makes it possible. What if the auto was not working, or you
just needed (or wanted) the stick time? Would it be reasonable to fly 2
hours without your hand getting overly tired?

Well, I'm just heading out to the airport now. I'll let you know in
about three hours :-)

Well, I just got back from flying sans autopilot for about an hour. My
conclusions are that 1) it can be done but 2) it's a pain in the ass.
The biggest problem is not your hand getting tired, it's trying to keep
the damn thing in trim. The roll trim is (thankfully) much less of a
problem than the pitch trim. I was able to fly hands-off the roll for
many minutes at a time. But the best I could do in pitch was 20-40 FPM
climb or descent at speed in calm air. When I hit up or down drafts
things got much worse, and at one point I lost 500 feet in (I estimate)
10-15 seconds while I was fiddling with the radios. But YMMV. I tend
to fly with the AP on by default in cruise. If you fly with it off most
of the time you might get better at trimming it than I am.

Slowing down helps a lot. It's vastly easier to keep things under
control at 120 KIAS then at 175 KIAS, but then the downside is obviously
that it takes that much longer to get where you're going. The good news
is that hand-flying approaches is quite doable, since you're not going
to be flying those at 175 KIAS anyway.

Personally, if I ever lose the autopilot in IMC I'm probably diverting
to the nearest airport immediately.

rg

Ron Garret wrote:

Personally, if I ever lose the autopilot in IMC I'm probably diverting
to the nearest airport immediately.


That stikes me as an interesting comment, coming from a 172 owner
unable to afford to have George do the flying. Would people say that's
typical of Mooney 201/Bonanza and other planes of a similar class to
the SR series?

-cwk.

wrote:

Would people say that's
typical of Mooney 201/Bonanza and other planes of a similar class to
the SR series?

I cannot say what is typical but in my case (a Bonanza V35 owner who flies
a lot of single-pilot IFR), I always hand-fly at least the departure up
through cruise and the initial and final instrument approach of every
flight when in IMC to retain proficiency. Most times I let the AP handle
the straight and level flight, which allows me to prepare for the approach.

--
Peter
























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wrote:

Ron Garret wrote:
Personally, if I ever lose the autopilot in IMC I'm probably diverting
to the nearest airport immediately.

That stikes me as an interesting comment, coming from a 172 owner
unable to afford to have George do the flying. Would people say that's
typical of Mooney 201/Bonanza and other planes of a similar class to
the SR series?

Well, I don't have an auto-pilot in my ancient Bonanza. I manage to do
IFR without any problems. I must confess I rarely do any exceeding long
legs IFR, though. 2 to 3 hours at the most.


--
Frank Stutzman
Bonanza N494B "Hula Girl"
Hood River, OR

I have been flying a v35 and it trims out fine. Its a lot better than my
Cherokee 180.
"Frank Stutzman" wrote in message
...
wrote:

Ron Garret wrote:
Personally, if I ever lose the autopilot in IMC I'm probably diverting
to the nearest airport immediately.

That stikes me as an interesting comment, coming from a 172 owner
unable to afford to have George do the flying. Would people say that's
typical of Mooney 201/Bonanza and other planes of a similar class to
the SR series?

Well, I don't have an auto-pilot in my ancient Bonanza. I manage to do
IFR without any problems. I must confess I rarely do any exceeding long
legs IFR, though. 2 to 3 hours at the most.


--
Frank Stutzman
Bonanza N494B "Hula Girl"
Hood River, OR

There are many very experienced old-hats that are of the opinion that
autopilots are required equipment for single-pilot IFR. An STEC-30 or 50 is
high on my upgrade list. Until it's in the panel, I will not fly any
appreciable IMC (more than 1 hour) without an instrument rated co-pilot.

Marco Leon

wrote in message
ups.com...

Ron Garret wrote:

Personally, if I ever lose the autopilot in IMC I'm probably diverting
to the nearest airport immediately.


That stikes me as an interesting comment, coming from a 172 owner
unable to afford to have George do the flying. Would people say that's
typical of Mooney 201/Bonanza and other planes of a similar class to
the SR series?

-cwk.




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Marco Leon wrote:

There are many very experienced old-hats that are of the opinion that
autopilots are required equipment for single-pilot IFR. An STEC-30 or 50 is
high on my upgrade list. Until it's in the panel, I will not fly any
appreciable IMC (more than 1 hour) without an instrument rated co-pilot.

I'm glad I'm not an old hat. I flew single pilot IFR very frequently
for the six years that I owned a Skylane. And this was in the northeast
where we have a fairly wide range of weather during most of the year and
also fairly high traffic density. My airplane didn't have an autopilot
and I found flying IFR to be fairly easy most of the time. Last might
reroutes in turbulence could make reprogramming the GPS a little tricky
while flying, but even that was manageable.


Matt

Would people say that's
typical of Mooney 201/Bonanza and other planes of a similar class to
the SR series?


One data point: regulation in Germany (and other European countries)
prohibit single-pilot IFR flying without at least a two-axis autopilot
in the aircraft. One of the few German rules that make sense to me...

--
Thomas Borchert (EDDH)