Cirrus vs Corvalis/Columbia

There seems to be much debate over safety concerns for the Cirrus Aircraft. There area couple of bloggers that are out to bad mouth Cirrus and claim that the Cessna Corvalis/Columbia aircraft are far safer and easier to fly. It should also be noted that both bloggers are salesman for Cessna (go figure) and are using fear to try to sell their aircraft. Since Cessna has purchased Columbia, they have since stopped production of the 350 and now only sell the 400TT and at that are having a tough time making it. Cirrus on the other hand is the number one selling GA aircraft in production and is still selling lots of aircraft (even though the economy has been poor!).

One of my COPA members compiled these statistics gathered from a friend's Corvalis/Columbia membership and compared them to the Cirrus. It should be noted though that it is hard to do much weighted analysis based on these numbers because the Corvalis/Columbia is about 1/3 the size of the Cirrus fleet. Pilot Error is comparable in both fleets, however Corvalis/Columbia seemed to have had more mechanical problems. They've also had less problems weather, cruise flight and pilot decision making. Surprisingly they have more problems with landing than the Cirrus fleet, which is unique in that many blogs post just the opposite.

In a survey done last year, Corvalis/Columbia pilots fly 150-160 hours per year. This is similar to the 146.5 hours per year estimated for SR20 and 161.5 hours for SR22 pilots.

CAUSE OF ACCIDENT/INCIDENT

Electrical Failure!

Yesterday 12 FEB 2011, I went on a flight with my friend Frank to practice some instrument approaches, pick-up some oil and have breakfast in St. Louis. When I started up my plane, I had an "low voltage" annunciator light come on and my Essential Bus, showed "red" on my MFD. When I looked at my analog gauges, all was normal. After giving it about 60 RPMs everything turned back to normal and the annunciator light turned off. During run-up everything was normal, so I then proceeded to fly over the Sherman. I picked up Frank and then we took off and I picked up my IFR clearance in the air and headed for Columbia, MO. Periodically I would get a low volt/ALT1 or ALT2 annunciator light and sometimes my Main Bus would light up yellow on the MFD. I have had this happen a few times and my mechanics all seem to think I have some sort of loose wire someplace. My annual is coming up in a few weeks, so we would figure that out then. I shot the GPS RW20 approach, went missed and entered the published hold. After two turns we left the hold on vectors for the ILS RW30 at Jefferson City, MO. Enroute my analog engine gauges started bouncing and then my MFD started to flicker and eventually went out. Shortly there after my NAV/COM#2 went out as well as my TCAS, Terrain, XM, Stormscope, and Transponder. I then cancelled IFR (it was severe clear anyway) and asked for direct to KJEF. Then I realized I lost my fuel gauges, trim and flaps as well. Flying a plane with no trim really sucks to say the least. The tower than proceeded to try to get me headings to a different runway and I had to get direct for RW30 since I just wanted to get the plane on the ground and because I was coming in a bit fast since I had no flaps and wanted the 6,000' runway. The landing was fine, probably a bit too fast and I used basically all 6,000feet to be easy on my brakes (which were hot and mushy at the end) and I taxied over to the FBO. We spent the rest of the day trouble shooting all sorts of stuff and we were lucky that there was a mechanic that was working on his own plane and happened to be very familiar with Cirrus (he had basically the same plane). He and a couple of my COPA buddies on the phone had us check all sorts of stuff. We think that I have either a bad Alternator 1 or a voltage regulator in the MCU (Master Control Unit - the box that controls all the glass avionics). We recharged the battery (which was dead), pulled all the non-essential circuit breakers and flew her back to Kansas City VFR with no issues. I'm just glad we were not in IMC!

Overall it was a great learning experience since now I know exactly what to look for and expect in the event of another electrical issue like this. The redundancy of the aircraft avionics works as advertised. I assumed that my light issue was just a loose wire as my mechanics though since the analog gauges were all showing normal readings. Little did I realize that my battery was taking the entire load until it couldn't support the main electrical bus anymore and shut it down. Basically all I had was the essential bus (PFD, analog flight gauges and NAV/COM #1). The other lesson here is that if you lose your Main Bus, you lose flaps and trim! Now the fun part begins of trying to figure out what heck to do next. Oh the life of aircraft ownership :-)

This would be my second inflight event that I have had to deal with. The first was when my landing gear lever died on my Piper Arrow and I had to do an emergency extension to get them down.

Flying with Children

There are many thoughts and opinions on flying with children. Just like everyone else, I have my own opinions on this topic. I have two kids, a four year old and a six month old infant. Both have flown a lot with us, all over the country and seem to have loved every minute of it. Flying with children takes a little planning and preparation to make it all work out. There are several issues that need to be worked out for them so that it is safe and fun. The first one is seating.
Most car seats will fit inside an airplane, but you need to test this out before you actually attempt to go someplace. We have several car seats and I have found that one of them works better than the others because it doesn't have a wide base and it is also adjustable for angle. This allows us to strap it in the rear seat and provide a comfortable "perch" for my son to fly. Now that he is four, we have actually purchased him a booster seat and I have put him in the front passenger seat and this seems to work fairly well. You just need to make sure that the child cannot reach anything that could cause and accident, like say the fuel mixture lever or yoke! For my infant, we tried to put him in a car carrier and put it in the back seat, but he didn't like it, so we bought a chest harness and he flew on mommy's chest. Some might frown upon this, but it was the only way that my wife had total access to him. If doing this though, you need to make sure that the passenger's seat belt goes UNDER your child, so that he wouldn't get squished in an accident.

The next important thing to think about is hearing protection. This is extremely important since airplanes are very noisy. When I first son was 2-3 years old, we used some small shooting earmuffs from a sporting goods store. Although he couldn't talk to us, his ears were protected. Now that he is older he wears a set of Bose-X and has learned to only pull the mic down when he needs something. For babies, this is really hard because no one makes earphones small enough for infants. If you google flying earmuffs you will find examples of homemade solutions like winter earmuffs and wrapping gloves over their ears and covering with a hat and all sorts of stuff. We were able to get my shooting ear muffs to work, but then again he was on my wife's chest and she was able to keep his head supported. If he would have been in a car carrier, this probably wouldn't have been possible.
There are also several other tricks that can really help your infant (and wife) enjoy the trip as well. First trick is to have a bottle ready for them as soon as you start your take off roll. The sucking action on the bottle will help them keep the pressures down in their ears and make it a much more enjoyable flight for all. We also did this on descent as well. I also found that if you add "Baby Tyler on board, gradual climbs and descents required" in your remarks box of your flight plan, the controllers will assist you greatly. On several occasions we have actually been asked by ATC "How's Tyler doing?" which is pretty cool! When doing your flight planning, it is important that you stay at or below 8,000 feet. The pressures higher than this is too hard on their little ear drums and at younger ages this can be very painful for them. Normal airlines pressurize their cabins to around 8,000 feet even though they are at 30,000 feet and kids fly on airlines all the time with no issues. If you keep it at 8,000' or less, and climb or descend at 300-500' FPM they will be just fine.

Although as pilots we all love to just fly. Most pilots eat, sleep and breath flying. Kids love to fly too, but after a little while they get bored and antsy. We have found that bringing a portable DVD player or a small game system/iTouch are absolute life savers.
My son will sit and watch movies or play with his iTouch for most of the flight, which makes life much easier on mom and dad. Personally I think the iTouch is perfect because you can put App games, movies or music on it to keep them occupied for hours. Their battery life is also pretty good and they don't take up much room. My wife is also really good about bringing along small snacks. This also helps occupy time and keeps the kids happy.

The last tip on flying with children is to make them go potty just before getting on the airplane. Most of our GA aircraft don't have any kind of potty and there is just no way to relieve themselves once flying. They may feel they don't have to go, but if you don't make them go, then they will have to go about 20 minutes after take-off. When my first son was 2-3, we always just put a pull-up on him, so that if he had an accident it really wasn't going to be an issue.
Overall traveling with children is a lot of fun. If you take the time to plan and prepare for it, the entire event will be fun for everyone. Before trying a long cross country, try a short flight first to work out the bugs in your plan. Something will always pop up and if you do this, you won't mess up an important family vacation or business trip. Last summer I took my wife, toddler son and infant son all the way from Kansas City to Watertown, NY and then on to Maine and the Hamptons and then all the way back to KC. We spent some pretty long legs in the Cirrus, but because of our planning and preparation, it was a great trip for all.

Simulators for Flight Training

As a pilot and a Simulations guy at work, I believe that using flight simulators is extremely important! Simulators allow students to get better (and cheaper) use of their time and instructors can replicate emergency procedures and weather variations without putting students at risk. Although it should be noted that not all flight training can be done in a simulator and there is also something to be said for "the real thing." One great use that I have found for simulators is Instrument Training. I spent countless hours at home on my PC using Microsoft Flight Simulation X when I was working on my Instrument ticket. Even my instructor noticed how much quicker and more precise I was grasping the training than prior students. Now keep in mind that I also have a CH Yoke and Pedal system (about $200), but this makes the entire experience so much more realistic. I also purchased a book called Microsoft Simulator X for Pilots - Real World Training ($16-20 on Amazon). This is a fantastic tool for working on your flight training, especially for instrument work. It has lots of preset conditions that all you have to do is load it up and execute the training chapter. I found this to be a lot of fun, but also helped to bring up good questions to ask my instructor about. There are some limitations to using FSX and a real training simulator is an even better option, but I really got a lot out of my FSX. It is a great tool, but it is limited on what it can be used for to replicate actual training. Using it the wrong way can also instill bad habits or allow for negative training that can hurt your flight training. I would recommend discussing any simulator with your flight instructor and get their thoughts on what to use or not to use.

What started this posting, was a posting by our COPA safety guy Rick Beach about flight simulators for Cirrus aircraft. As it turns out there are far more of them than I had ever expected (See Below). These simulators are great and the one's that can replicate CAPS simulation are even better. I'm really hoping to try one of these this summer and to get some really good emergency training under my belt.