Mona and a faulty SR20
The Sunday morning did not start off well as far as the weather was concerned. A sky completely obscured with dark, low clouds and areas of heavy rain greeted me as I travelled up the M61 towards Blackpool.
I'd booked a four hour slot to fly the SR20 and,as it was a last minute cancellation, I hadn't really planned where to go. The west coast of the country was forecast to see the clouds lift and the rain ease later in the afternoon, and as my slot began at 1pm, I was hopeful the conditions would be good for flying.
This post is just to show that sometimes things do not work correctly with the new technology airplanes. I've written before about the Cirrus and problems with the Primary Flight Dispaly (PFD), but these latest problems were slightly different. I started the engine and all looked well. The PFD was in good shape and so I taxied out and took off. In the turn after departure, the HSI began flicking between a big red X and normal operation, eventually sticking with the X. This time the attitude indicator was working fine, but no HSI is inconvenient. It's not essential, but when you are hiring such an aircraft, you want everything to work.
After landing at Mona airfield on Anglesey I was hopeful the system would "snap out of it" and work again, but it was not to be, with my big red X still in place. I had a cup of coffee before leaving for home, but as I was cruising at 5000 feet over the island of Anglesey, I got a yellow caution bar on the MFD to say the cylinder head temperature of no 3 was up over 450 degrees Celius. This was not good, but it soon turned red and hit 500 degrees! You have to assume this warning is for real and so I turned the plane towards Mona again, ready to land and investigate. I also pushed the mixture control to full rich to provide more cooling in the cylinders, reduced power and increased airspeed by pointing the nose down and descending. These actions did not produce any change in the indicated cylinder temperature, but as suddenly as the warning had appeared, it disappeared! It seemed to be an instrument fault and so I headed off to Blackpool with just my big red X over the HSI.
There were no further failures, but the problems with this particular Cirrus are becoming concerning, and my confidence in it has been shaken. If you are going to fly a long distance in challenging conditions, you have to be confident in your airplane. Until the problems have been solved, I will not fly G-GCDB on any serious trip.
I'd booked a four hour slot to fly the SR20 and,as it was a last minute cancellation, I hadn't really planned where to go. The west coast of the country was forecast to see the clouds lift and the rain ease later in the afternoon, and as my slot began at 1pm, I was hopeful the conditions would be good for flying.
This post is just to show that sometimes things do not work correctly with the new technology airplanes. I've written before about the Cirrus and problems with the Primary Flight Dispaly (PFD), but these latest problems were slightly different. I started the engine and all looked well. The PFD was in good shape and so I taxied out and took off. In the turn after departure, the HSI began flicking between a big red X and normal operation, eventually sticking with the X. This time the attitude indicator was working fine, but no HSI is inconvenient. It's not essential, but when you are hiring such an aircraft, you want everything to work.
After landing at Mona airfield on Anglesey I was hopeful the system would "snap out of it" and work again, but it was not to be, with my big red X still in place. I had a cup of coffee before leaving for home, but as I was cruising at 5000 feet over the island of Anglesey, I got a yellow caution bar on the MFD to say the cylinder head temperature of no 3 was up over 450 degrees Celius. This was not good, but it soon turned red and hit 500 degrees! You have to assume this warning is for real and so I turned the plane towards Mona again, ready to land and investigate. I also pushed the mixture control to full rich to provide more cooling in the cylinders, reduced power and increased airspeed by pointing the nose down and descending. These actions did not produce any change in the indicated cylinder temperature, but as suddenly as the warning had appeared, it disappeared! It seemed to be an instrument fault and so I headed off to Blackpool with just my big red X over the HSI.
There were no further failures, but the problems with this particular Cirrus are becoming concerning, and my confidence in it has been shaken. If you are going to fly a long distance in challenging conditions, you have to be confident in your airplane. Until the problems have been solved, I will not fly G-GCDB on any serious trip.
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| It looks good but my confidence in it has been tested recently |
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| 1946 Auster at Mona |
posted by David M at 9:55 PM
2 Comments:
I am having a similar with my cylinder 3 head temp. What was the outcome / cause?
I am having a similar with my cylinder 3 head temp. What was the outcome / cause?
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