This is my single engine four-seater Cirrus SR22 now many of you watching this will be
very familiar with Echo Yankee Zulu because you'd have seen me flying it over the years
on this channel but I've never done a detailed walk around outside and inside the aircraft to
show you some of the customizations that I've made over the years in Echo Yankee
Zulu [Music] the first thing I want to show you is this panel at the front of the engine
which you may see me using sometimes when I'm pre-flighting the aircraft
This panel allows me to do a quick inspection of the engine without having to take the entire
cowling off but it also gives me direct access to the oil dipstick so I can check the oil levels
in Echo Yankee Zulu before we fly it has a three blade hearts or constant speed propeller fitted to
the front of the aircraft to generate the thrust we need to operate the aircraft you can fit other
types of propeller 2 Cirrus sr-22s there are some around here like kilo Juliet November that
has a four blade prop but this one which is fine for my needs is a three blade Metal propeller.
One of the customisations I've made to the right wing on the aircraft here is we fitted a N-Flight
Cam Mount and this Mount is what I use for the GoPro which just screws in here to this metal
bracket on the right hand wing and that's the camera that gives you those take off and Landing
shots those shots going up and down through the clouds There's real environmental ones that I
like to include as part of the stories I share here on YouTube now the GoPro is a 360 degree
it's a GoPro Max housed in an aluminum casing that's attached to a metal bracket which then
screws directly into the metal bracket which is screwed directly into the wing so this you
can see I can move the whole wing of the aircraft just by holding onto the GoPro is incredibly solid
there is another Mount exactly the same as the one on top that's mounted Underside to the wing
which I can use for more downward facing shots I don't use this one very much now but we keep it in
place it really doesn't add anything to the drag profile off the aircraft but just in case I do
want to attach another camera to the underside I have this one in place if I want to use it
we added these two flags to either side of the tale of echo Yankees either when
I do sometimes get the question why do I fly two flags on this aircraft the one on top is
obviously the Australian flag and that just denotes the country in which this
aircraft was registered the one below is the Aboriginal flag and that's just my
way of showing my respect to the traditional owners of some of the lands and communities
that I tend to fly over and land in when I'm taking this aircraft in and around Australia
okay let me show you some of the changes then that I've made inside Echo Yankee Zulu [Music]
that's the most obvious change is the avionics in the aircraft now I've made a video about the
Garmin avionics upgrade in Echo Yankee Zulu I'll link to a playlist up above so you can watch some
of those most sr22s from the same era as Echo Yankee Zulu come with the avidyne avionics the
newer ones have the serious perspective which is basically Garmin devices so we've just gone
with a bit of a hybrid which is Garmin G500 TXI screens a couple of gtn 650 navigation units
and a gi-275 standby instrument to give me a more upgraded avionics experience here in the cockpit
also on the dash here we put in a mounting system for the GoPro that I use to film myself in the
cockpit this is what's called a RAM mount it just attaches to a ball joint which is screwed into the
dash itself it's really secure really stable so it cuts out a lot of the vibration but it also means
I can rotate the camera in multiple different ways so I can get a shot at the front a shot of
me during the flight all on the One camera without having to have multiple different cameras all over
the cockpit I do that for two reasons one because I'll be honest it's actually easier for me in the
edit rather than having two or three cameras in the cockpit so much footage to go through a lot
of data that I have to store but also the second reason is it really declutters the cockpit just
having the one camera rather than one on the dash one at the front one behind me over here maybe
it's just my preference but I like to keep a clean cockpit where I can talking of round mounts I have
one more which is back here which is the Mount that I use with a suction cup attachment for my
iPad I generally always have the mount attached to the window throughout the entire flight but
I take my iPad in and out because on sunny day sometimes it can suffer from overheating being
in the direct sunlight but it's generally always there especially for takeoff and for landing when
I need to be able to access maps and charts and I don't want to have to look down and then look up
and look down and look up all the time now hang it up hang it up just behind me here behind the
passenger seat I have this collection of emergency gear which is mounted on a hook so if I need to I
can just take it off the back of the seat and hook it onto me straight away if I need to exit the
aircraft quickly Personal Locator Beacon or a plb I have a light on here as well which I can use for
attracting attention there's a cutting tool I've my Garmin inreach mini as well which I can use to
press the SOS button and basically alert everybody of my whereabouts and a knife on the subject of
safety also on the back seat in another bright yellow easy to locate bag is my well it says it's
the safety gear this is another grab-and-go bag for me which is full of equipment which I might
need if I have to evacuate the aircraft quickly and I might be on the ground for some time or in
the water for some time before I get found let me show you actually what's inside this [Music]
top of the grab bag I have some warm gloves then also to keep warm uh beanie an emergency blanket
which is also reflective so I can first aid kit I've spare water there's one another one a head
torch spare batteries for the head torch lots and lots and lots of energy bars all vegan of
course oh there's some Panadol there as well a multi-tool just in case I need to stab some
bears or open some red wine and the fun part a flare kit containing a couple of different
flares for day or night usage now as well as showing you what I've got in this grab
bag another serious side is it gives me an opportunity to take it all out and test it
there we go just to make sure that everything works as it should everything's fully charged
there's no mold or anything growing in here it's ready to go if I need it
the other items on the back seat I have two one for me and just in case I have passengers life
jackets now of course these are in their packets but I would take them out and either wear them
if they're flying over water or have them on hand so passengers can put them on quickly if required
and attached to the back of the passenger seat I don't know where you can see these straps here
that are going across the top that's not part of the safety harness that's actually holding
an oxygen bottle the ox oh actually I forgot to mention as well so there's one more thing
on the back here I have a torch but yeah this is the oxygen bottle all I do in Flight is undo the
zip and I'm probably not going to take it all out because it takes a while to put it back
in but you can see all the oxygen lines in here and that's the top of the oxygen tank now those
lines Connect into this device here in the center console I'll just move the documents
out the way which is the delivery system for the oxygen so I put oxygen from the tank into
the red one the blue one comes out into the tube which goes into my nose if I turn it on
this clever device delivers oxygen to me based on my altitude so I don't need to
make any adjustments it will actually increase the amount of oxygen I need depending on the
altitude that the aircraft is currently at it's a really clever way of saving oxygen if you are
interested because I know some of you guys are interested in the equipment I use this
is from a company called Mountain High it's not sponsored I bought this entirely myself but the
entire oxygen system includes this what do they call it EDS I think it's electronic delivery
system the oxygen bottle all the tubing the bit that goes up your nose you plan to do
any high altitude flying and you might need oxygen would recommend the other thing on the
back seat is uh is this if you've flown with me for long enough here on YouTube you'll know
exactly what that's for if not you don't need to know compartment Where'd I put the keys keys
no that's car keys keys oh keys they roll my belt
I generally carry in here the cover that I use when I'm parking the aircraft overnight and I
don't want it to get any rain or dust or dirt or anything on it this is the vertigo covers
cover that goes on to Echo Yankee Zulu shocks for chocking the wheels of the aircraft to make sure
it doesn't roll away chocks or as my daughter calls them cheeses you can see why also carry
a life raft for when I'm flying over water now this lives in the baggage compartment when I
don't need it but if I was doing an over water flight this would be on the back seat of the
aircraft but for now just for storage I keep it in here covers to protect the air intakes
for the engine which to be quite honest are absolutely useless sitting in here they should be
a tow bar plus a small toolbox which has fuel drain an adjustable wrench spare fuel drain
window cleaner spare bits for filming spare tubes more tools you get the picture there's lots of
spares in here just in case I need any spares what is the collective noun for tie down ropes a jumble
maybe this is a jumble of tie down ropes which I'm now going to unjumble before I do any more filming
[Music]
see how much better is that tight oh there's a small window at the top of the baggage compartment
up here and what I've done is actually put a shade on there this is by a company called jet
Shades full disclosure they did send this to me for free but they said it to me about nine
months ago and I've been using it ever since but I've never actually spoken about it so thank you
jet Shades first of all but this covers the window and blocks out a lot of the UV light
that comes through but also blocks out a lot of the heat so if I come back to the aircraft
and it's been in the sun all day this actually keeps a lot of the heat out which is really good
it also just means that people can't look into the baggage compartment and see what's inside
here so yes thank you jet Shades and sorry that I haven't mentioned that for nine months
questions about this aircraft let me know in the comments below I'll jump in and answer as many of
them as I can and if you want to see what it's like to actually fly this aircraft then check
out this playlist of some of the adventures I've had in Echo Yankee Zulu over the years