Well hello again flying friends and welcome to another edition of...
Now today's edition of flyday facts is a little bit different we're not just sitting at
home in my office we're actually back in Tango Delta Sierra because what I want
to do today is talk to you about one of the things that most people question the
first time they ever see a Cirrus aircraft. The thing that often raises the
most controversy with other pilots before they fly in a Cirrus for the first time.
Yes that's right it's time to talk about the Cirrus side stick or
side yoke or yokey side stick or whatever you decide to call it. So let me take you
through what it is how it works and exactly how do you arm the missiles on
it pew-pew pew-pew pew-pew.
So let me take you through exactly how this thing
works let's put 600 feet on the altimeter.
So first things first just like most other aircrafts and the training aircrafts
that you're used to the Cirrus side stick is duplicated on the other side of
the aircraft and if I make a movement say I make a movement to the left here
that's also reflected over the other side if I move to the right the same
thing happens Now the basic operation is exactly as you'd think pull back to go up
push forward to go down left and right. Now one of the questions that often gets
asked is where on the Cirrus do I trim the aircraft? There's nothing down here
in the central panel this is where you'd normally have it in a Warrior sometimes
in some aircraft it's up in the ceiling but you don't have it there so how
exactly do you trim the Cirrus? Well it's actually dead easy the trim is all done
by this missile guidance system looking button up here and you can probably see
the markings here - down up left and right this four-way trim means that not
only can you trim forwards and backwards for your elevator but you do have left
and right so you have aileron trim as well. So then if you're trimming using
this you might be thinking well how do I actually know where abouts I'm trimmed for
example how do I trim for takeoff? Well that's where you move down to these
markings here and these markings actually show you how the aircraft is
trimmed. If I pull the trim tab back what will happen is the aircraft will then
start to trim itself backwards slowly until you get to the point which is
marked T.O. or takeoff. What about ailerons well the same thing happens
here you have a left and right indicator and all you do is you trim to the left
for example in this case and the yoke will move across and once
it gets in the middle let go and you're trimmed for takeoff. Now as well as the trim
tab the only other button we have to worry about is this one. You can see PTT
this is the push-to-talk this is how we communicate with air traffic control. Now
the other thing to note about the constroll stick, constroll stick... now the other
thing to note about the control stick here in the Cirrus is it's actually
spring-loaded which means that whenever it's trimmed whenever you make an
adjustment in the control stick and then let go it will release itself back to
the position it was last trimmed out. For example here when the side stick's
trimmed out at this point if I pull back and then gently let go you'll see it
releases back to its original position. Same way as if I push forward and then
let go, same thing. Ailerons are the same.
Now some people don't like that but to be honest I love it I think it's really good it
means that when you're properly trimmed out if you go through a little bit of
turbulence say there's a pitch up movement and you need to push manually
the control stick forwards all you do is get back to the right levels slowly
release and you know it will go back to the last position it was trimmed out.
And so there you have it that's the Cirrus side stick it's not that complicated
after all it's actually really straightforward especially here in the
SR20. I really like using it let me know your thoughts down below my question
today for flyday facts is have you flown the side stick and if so do you prefer
it to the central control yoke? Let me know in the comments below what you
think. And that's it for another flyday facts thank you very much for watching I
hope you found that useful if you're not a member of the channel already and you
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you're enjoying the content otherwise have a great weekend thanks as always
for watching and I'll catch you again soon