The latest issue of AVweb opens with a story about how airplanes like my Cirrus SR20 are catching on fire, with the fires starting inside the wheel pants due to overheated brakes:
there are no design or equipment faults at work, and for Cirrus this leaves only “operator error” as the cause. Unlike many aircraft pilots may be transitioning from, Cirruses have a free castering nosewheel and are steered only with differential braking, plus some positive or negative contribution from the rudder
The Diamond Katanas in which I trained and the Diamond DA40 that I formerly owned both had the free castering nosewheel and as far as I know, no pilot ever managed to set one of those on fire. Cirrus chose to put the parking brake lever way down underneath the panel where it isn’t in one’s line of sight. That might be a factor (the Diamond parking brake is right up by the throttle). Otherwise, it is tough to say. To folks learning to fly the Cirrus: remember to push the rudder all the way in before resorting to a light tap on the brakes. If you feel that you must tap both brakes to slow down when taxiing, it means you’ve got too much throttle in.
I thought about you and the Cirrus when that article hit my inbox. No worries like that in my PA-28. How are you liking the Cirrus over the Diamond?
The Cirrus is fine. The blizzard of service bulletins is kind of annoying. I like the Avidyne glass cockpit more than the steam gauges I had in the DA40, though of course the new DA40s come with the G1000 (I’m helping a friend pick up a new DA40 on Jan 12 in London, Ontario). Passengers, including the dog, prefer the Cirrus.
The Cirrus does not solve the “I have no idea when I’ll be able to get back to Boston” problem that I had with the Diamond. Need to talk my friends into sharing a Malibu or an Eclipse jet…
Caveat: I have never flown either aircraft, and I do not know the exact size of either fleet (Cirrus and Diamond) currently flying in the USA (and nobody, including the FAA and the NTSB, knows the number and type of hours flown by those planes). However, a quick search of the ntsb.gov accident database will suggest that the accident rate of Cirrus is much higher than the one of Diamond. Actually, I have been able to find only one fatal accident of a DA-40 (according to the NTSB the pilot was attempting to land when the airport was below approach minima). That compares with at least ten fatal accidents of Cirrus planes; some of them a bit hard to explain (unrecoverable spin…etc.). There is a good comparison/review of both aircraft in aviationconsumer.com (you need to be a subscriber).
My gut feeling is that Diamonds are better designed (brakes included). However, Cirrus planes sell far better than Diamond’s. As the personal computer sales show, not always the better design is the sales leader.
I am in no position to comment on the technical aspects of this post, but I can vouch for the aesthetics of this particular Cirrus — its most endearing feature is the 75 pound Samoyed strapped into the back seat, looking quite serene. Seeing said Samoyed offering his paws to be placed into his harness (designed for seatbelts in cars, but fits airplane belts just as well) was definitely the favorite part of today’s take-off for my three-year-old, Philip’s youngest nephew.
Still not brave enough to go up for a flight, but am happy to provide transportation back & forth to Montgomery County (MD) Airpark when “Uncle Philip” comes to visit.
— Philip’s sister Suzanne