2017 Cirrus SR22 G6 Review + GA News - EP 2

Podcast Show Notes - Ep 2 After the News, I give my review of my flight in a 2017 Cirrus SR22 G6, which uses the Perspective+ glass cockpit. Here's a list of some features from that review. For full details, or if you're trying to decide between buying a new or used Cirrus, contact me and I can give you some guidance on the tradeoffs. For anyone interested in eventually buying the SF50 Cirrus jet, you may want to start your training in a 2017 Cirrus SR22 G6, since it has virtually the same cockpit! Most of the features differences I discuss about the 2017 Cirrus SR22 G6 are related to differences between the Perspective and Perspective+ avionics. But there are some external differences. For example, the Cirrus has keyless entry, so you can unlock it with a key fob. When you do, the new light tubes which wrap around the length of the wing tips illuminate. The lights stay on until you climb above 300 feet, when they switch to a pulsating "wig-wag" functionality, which greatly enhances the plane's visibility to other pilots. Some of the 2017 Cirrus SR22 G6 features you'll find inside include:

• Cell phone storage pocket on front of pilot seat.
• Optional automatic yaw damper turns on at 200 feet and off at 300 feet
• Weight & Balance page lets you enter weights, fuel, TKS, baggage, & plots position on graph.
• QWERTY keyboard makes it easier to enter flight planes
• At shutdown, flight plan saved and transponder set to 1200
• Can load a Visual Approach to any runway using the PROC key
  • Choice of Straight in, which takes you to a 5.1 mile final
  • Or Vectors, which provides a curved path to a 1.4 mile final
  • Visual approach also calculates a descent profile to fly
• Option to display sectionals, IFR high, or IFR low en route charts on MFD
• You can transfer flight plans between the airplane and an iPad or smartphone
• On Traffic Page, turn knob to sequentially view info for each aircraft

Some of the new 2017 Cirrus SR22 G6 features on the PFD include:

• Can displays maps in HSI on PFD
• Coms – displays name of facility you're talking to
• Aircraft Callsign displayed on PFD near Coms
• SurfaceWatch displays description of where you are located on ground
• Groundspeed displayed next to TAS at bottom of Airspeed tapeCirrus says the Perspective+ has ten (10x) times faster processing speed than prior Cirrus Perspective® avionics. I found no delays in using the displays.

If you're interested in the new 2017 SR20, it has a power upgrade to a Lycoming IO-390 engine with 215hp! And it comes with a useful load increase up to 150lbs more. It also has the same wingtip lights and Perspective+ found in the 2017 Cirrus SR22 G6. General Aviation News

1. ForeFlight Glide Advisor™️ helps you to quickly assess your landing options in case you ever lose engine power in flight. Using terrain, GPS data, and your aircraft's best glide speed and ratio, ForeFlight shapes a glide range ring around your own ship icon on the moving map display.
2. When Garmin released its NXi upgrade of the G1000 integrated flight deck in January, it also announced the new visual approach feature, and that has now been added to the GTN 650/750 touchscreen GPS/com/navigators. The visual approach guidance feature adds a new visual approach in the procedure menu, and it provides advisory vertical guidance "based on a published glide path angle or a three-degree glideslope from the threshold of the runway, while considering terrain and obstacle clearance," according to Garmin. The procedure is designed to help pilots fly a stabilized approach. If the pilot hasn't already selected the visual approach when nearing a destination airport with a flight plan loaded, the GTN automatically provides a short cut to load and activate the visual approach when the aircraft is within five miles of the airport.
3. The Garmin G5 is a low cost, drop in replacement for attitude indicator and/or a directional gyro. It will be soon be available for certificated aircraft. The TruTrak autopilot will also soon be available for certificated aircraft. Aspen Avionics is offering a $1000 discount in April only on the VFR version of their PFD.
4. UAvionics, introduced four new ADS-B products. And there's a new dual band ADS-B receiver from Dynon for LSA and experimental aircraft.
5. In LSA news, the Viper SD-4 light sport aircraft was introduced at Sun n Fun. Belite introduces the low cost Chipper kit aircraft.
6. In Privatization news, American Airlines CEO Doug Baker argues that airline trips have increased a half hour since 1979 and it attributes that to ATC delays. Max Trescott puts that myth to rest; in 1979, the airlines were flying 727s and 747s that were faster than any of today airliners. Also, airlines weren't padding their schedules so that they could improve their on-time performance reports now compiled by the Commerce Department. Also, members of the Trump administration are visiting Canada this week to see their privatized ATC system.
7. In International news, the new electric Volta helicopter will give a demonstration flight at AERO 2017 in Friendrichshafhaven, Germany. It recently hovered for 15 minutes. And REMOS AG, has delivered the first production line copy of a GXiS that conforms to German Ultralight standards. The aircraft, registered as D-MIDA, expands the fleet of a flight school operation known as UTC, based in Schoenberg (EDPK), Bavaria.
8. Once again, a California flight school, this time in Fresno, is closing its doors, and foreign students from Taiwan and other countries, who've paid as much as $58,000 to attend, may be out their money. NEVER pay a flight school more than 10-20% in advance, even if they offer you a discount.
9. Drunk pilots in the news. A drunk pilot headed to San Diego overflew his destination by 70 miles and landed his Cherokee in a parking lot. And an airline pilot who passed out in the cockpit of an airline in Canada is sentenced to 8 months in prison.
10. Harrison Ford has his day in court. After remedial flight training, his incident in which he landed on a taxiway at the John Wayne Airport is now behind him.

Listener Question An air traffic controller asks "Is LPV the most accurate and is it considered a precision approach. Do you prefer ILS or RNAV?" Max tells him the LPV is the low minimums to which you can fly an RNAV (GPS) approach, and while it's almost exactly like a precision approach, it doesn't meet the international definition for a precision approach. Max prefers the to fly an LPV approach, though flying an ILS is easier for pilots who aren't expert at using their GPSs!