To help pilots assess whether they are picking up ice in flight, Cirrus has added LED lights on both sides of the fuselage ahead of the wings.Ī prism in the lights splits the beam to illuminate both the horizontal stabiliser leading edges of each wing, each of which has a "witness" plate about the size of a razor blade to which ice will attach first. In addition to a second 15-litre TKS reservoir and a new maximum flow rate option, the system has longer leading-edge cuffs chord-wise, with more holes, a cuff for the vertical stabiliser, two nozzles for keeping the windshield clean, a backup pump and a stall detection system. The $24,500 FIKI version of icing protection system for the Cirrus, developed in conjunction with CAV Aerospace, maker of TKS systems for a wide variety of GA aircraft including the Cessna Caravan and Beechcraft Bonanza, is significantly different. The basic ice protection already offered for the SR22 includes a 15-litre (4USgal) tank of TKS fluid in the aircraft's right wing, with electrically powered pumping and piping systems to carry the glycol-based anti-icing liquid to the leading edge of the wings and horizontal stabiliser, where it seeps through laser-drilled holes in the titanium leading-edge cuffs, coating the aerodynamic surfaces.įor the propeller, the TKS fluid is metered out through a "slinger" ring that allows a coating of fluid to be pulled by centrifuge action along each of the three blades. © John Croft The SR22's enhanced vision system includes a sensor unit mounted beneath the left wing Our flight, in N569PG, took us from Lee Airport (ANP) in Edgewater, Maryland, eastward to the relatively unlit sections of the state's eastern reach, a perfect location to demonstrate the company's new dual-wavelength (infrared and visual) enhanced vision system (EVS) option for the SR22 while observing in flight the workings, though not the need for, the ice protection system.ĭuring our evening pre-flight, Caldeira pointed out various changes to the top-of-the-line $650,000 SR22 turbo that were required to support FIKI and, to a lesser extent, EVS.
These enhanced capabilities, combined with the synthetic vision already offered in the Garmin-based Cirrus Perspective avionics suite, offer a preview of features that will, increasingly, become available to general aviation aircraft as sales of such equipment go up and prices come down.įlight International sampled these relatively new offerings on a night demonstration flight in the Washington DC area with Cirrus mid-Atlantic region sales director Boni Caldeira on 8 July. The third-generation Cirrus SR22 GTS is blazing a trail for enhanced capabilities in high-end general aviation aircraftįlight into known icing (FIKI) and enhanced vision for the third-generation Cirrus SR22 GTS, aka "turbo", are two options that, taken together, will boost the utility and safety of this high-end, piston-powered, turbo-charged single -an aircraft that was already an extremely capable cross-country machine. Airline Business special: CEOs to watch in 2021.FlightGlobal Guide to Business Aviation Training and Safety 2021.EDGE: A new global force in aerospace and defence.
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