Questions And Comments

If youre flying along and reduce power while maintaining the established pitch attitude, what happens to airspeed? It starts decreasing, right? To maintain the desired airspeed, wed want to pitch the nose down, wouldnt we? Depending on how stable the airplane is in its pitch axis, it may naturally pitch down, without pilot intervention; if its unstable, its pitch may not change. This behavior depends on how the airplane is designed and loaded. All the Cirrus AFM/POH is saying is that a good short-field technique requires touching down at the minimum airspeed. To achieve that objective, coordinating power reductions and pitch attitude is necessary for optimum performance. As it is in any airplane weve ever flown, including the Cirrus models. That said, some airplanes require a different technique. For example, airplanes like the Seabee or Lake amphibians-with their single pusher engines mounted on a pylon-respond opposite to other singles when power is adjusted. Instead of the nose wanting to drop when power is reduced, in these airplanes it may want to rise.

Key Takeaways:

• The instruction to lower the nose to maintain approach speed for short-field landings in a Cirrus SR20 is standard technique for most aircraft and is directly from the aircraft's POH, not unique to the Cirrus.
• Clarifications were provided on IFR GPS regulations: an out-of-date database can be used for en route navigation (but not approaches), and WAAS-certified GPS units can serve as a sole means of navigation without requiring alternate systems.
• Parker Hannifin ceased manufacturing vacuum pumps due to a lawsuit following an aircraft crash, rather than a high frequency of product failures, despite NTSB findings not faulting the pump.

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