IFR flight with Cirrus SR22 Turbo

Short business trip to Lille

Last weekend I made a short trip from Rotterdam airport (EHRD) to Lille (LFQQ) in a Cirrus SR22 Turbo aircraft. The total flight time was only about 40 minutes and I was flying this trip together with my wife to visit Lille. Lille is a great city and for us Dutch people who regularly drive to France for vacation or business, we have a tendency to drive past Lille when on the highway as it looks like an industrial city and not very appealing when driving by. The city centre was actually a great surprise. My motive for going to Lille was the opening of a business-branch in Lille, but we took the time to see the city as well. It feels a little like little-Paris. It has the nice shops and city centre, but can be overseen. The people in Lille are also more relaxed and patient on the streets and seem less in a constant hurry.

One of the culinary highlights of Lille is l’Huîtrière. A seafood shop in Art Deco style with a restaurant behind the shop.

Video setup

This is a video I shot while flying to Lille using a small GoPro Hero 3 Black Edition action camera inside which was held by my wife, a Nflightcam +2 Contour camera with the aviation filter for the front view mounted on a suction cup mount  and a GoPro camera mounted below the wing. The Nflightcam camera aviation filter is a Neutral Density (ND) filter and hides the prop distortion. The new GoPro Hero 3 Black Edition camera provides nice HD quality video.

Both the Nflightcam as well as the new GoPro Hero 3 action cameras can be connected with an audio cable to your aircraft audio stack. Instead of plugging your male plug headset into the female plug audio connectors in your aircraft, you stick one of the 2 headset plugs into the audio cable coming from your camera, then that cable is then plugged into the audio connectors in your aircraft. This way, the communication going on on the radio is caught by the video camera.

The video I shot was basically shot for pilots to show them (a) how an actual flight under instrument rules (IFR) goes as well as (b) to give them an impression of the advanced glass cockpit inside this aircraft type (Garmin Perspective G1000). Non-pilots generally prefer to see the outside view, but there are lots of other videos around showing that already.

Video of flight to Lille

Flight information

Some information about this flight:

  • Flight of approximately 40 minutes from Rotterdam (EHRD) to Lille (LFQQ)
  • Aircraft is a Cirrus SR22 Turbo with 315 HP
  • Glass Cockpit is the Garmin Perspective G1000
  • This flight was under instrument rules (IFR) instead of visual rules (VFR)
  • The approach was a GPS approach, also called the RNAV (GNSS) approach into runway 08.

Most of the flight I flew on the autopilot which allowed me to focus more on other tasks than possible when hand-flying the aircraft. I still regularly hand-fly aircraft to make sure that this skill is not getting too rusty, but the autopilot is great in this specific aircraft and I prefer flying it on the autopilot as much as possible.

CAPS and FIKI aircraft features

This Cirrus aircraft is equipped with a parachute system (CAPS) which can be deployed in case of an engine failure after takeoff above 500 feet above the ground and in the landing phase above 1000 feet above ground.

Cirrus SR22T aircraft
Inside view of the cockpit

Another feature of this specific aircraft is that it is FIKI approved. FIKI stands for Flight Into Known Icing. Even in winter weather conditions, this feature makes it possible in many cases to still fly. Without the FIKI feature, the aircraft could end up in icing conditions and you would have to decide earlier not to depart due to bad weather conditions.