Flew an SR22 yesterday

I was contacted with an offer to test fly a Cirrus SR22 so yesterday I
did. I arrived at the airport and found that there was "ground school"
going on up in the FBO's classroom. The son of the demo pilot had a
program on his laptop that had a picture of the cockpit systems.
Details on each system could be brought up by double clicking on it.
This included V speeds, info on the autopilot, trim system, etc.
Apparently the local university came up with the software. We listened
to the explanation of the systems and asked questions while we were
waiting for our flight. We also got information on power settings and
speeds to be used in the pattern. When my time came three of us
climbed into a brand new (~20 hours) silver SR 22. When all of us were
situated the demo pilot gave a tour of the flight systems pointing out
the most important items that we would have to be watching as we flew.
These were the various tapes for the flight displays and the location
of various switches, rotation speed, climb speed etc. The first pilot
fired it up and we taxied to the hold short line. While we were
taxiing the demo pilot went thru the check list on the MFD. That was
pretty nice - each item changed color as he checked it off. A 172 left
before us and when we were cleared to go and got into the air I heard a
male voice saying "Traffic Traffic". The demo pilot said that the
TCAS (his word) was showing the plane that had just left. We were
climbing at 1000 fpm with 4 on board. 310 HP really makes it go! We
turned to the east and the call outs stopped. He then demonstrated the
auto pilot/flight director - very nice. We climbed to 2700 and the
speed was up to 160 kts when we called Willow Run for permission to
land. The person flying over controlled a bit at first, but made a
pretty nice landing. He stopped the plane and we held on the runway
and switched to the next pilot. He did a loop in the pattern and made
a nice landing also. By this time I was getting nervous. Would I
bounce it in when my turn came? We switched out again and I settled
into the pilot seat. I was surprised how high I seemed to be sitting.
I really like the 4 point belts. I exercised the controls, checked the
boost pump and mixture then poured on the coals. I really had to use a
lot of right rudder to keep to the centerline. Rudder authority was
good as soon as the power came on. 70 kts and I squeezed the stick and
we were in the air. I pitched up about 7-8 degrees and we were
climbing out at 120 kts or so. I climbed to 2300 and turned toward Ann
Arbor. I was about half way there and the demo pilot had me reduce the
power to 30%. (There is a window and bar that shows engine power on
the primary flight display.) I was cleared to land and realized that I
was a bit high and fast. No problem, I pulled the power back and the
plane came right down. I leveled out and held it off and when the
mains touched I thought that I had landed flat. About a second or two
later I felt the nose wheel come down. I mentioned this to the demo
pilot and he pointed out that the cowl slopes down quite a bit and that
makes some people think they are landing flat. I taxied off the
runway and the flight was over.

I have some observations about this airplane. First off it is very
easy to fly. I thought that the side stick would be an issue, but it
turned out to be no big deal. Once I got used to the sensitivity and
the electric trim it felt very natural. In fact I had no problem
trimming for hands off flight, something that I often have a problem
with in a new plane. I have flown planes with a stick before (Katana,
Decathalon, and Pitts) so I may have an advantage here. I did ask the
other pilots what they thought about it and they agreed. The other
thing that struck me was how easy it is to slow down. Just pull the
power back and the speed bleeds off pretty quickly. I was high and
fast coming in to land and ended up touching down just a little long.
All in all it was really fun to fly. The other thing that sticks out
about this plane is the flight displays. I could see how it would take
some time to get up to speed. My plane still has steam gauges with
only a hand held GPS so I might be behind the curve here. Lots of
things to keep your head down in this plane..... I would rather go
from using gauges to glass than learn glass only, YMMV. All the
information available and automation makes it almost too easy to fly.
I would REALLY like to find one under the tree next Christmas!

Regards,
Jerry