Cirrus SR-22 Skywatch Problems
|
We purchased a new Cirrus Designs SR-22 (#1307, N2428E) last month. The skywatch has
never worked properly. It consistently shows airplanes too far to the
left (when the traffic is in front of the SR-22.) This is not
acceptable. It is dangerous. For example, in this photo the traffic
appears to be well to the left of course. It is, in fact, almost
directly ahead.
 We have had this plane in the shop twice attempting to have the problem fixed. At Banyan Avionics in Fort Lauderdale, they calibrated the antenna. This had no effect. At Autopilot Central in Tulsa, they calibrated the antenna again. They said it was "out of calibration." They also fixed some grounding problems on the antenna, checked the input heading, and some other stuff. The skywatch is still wrong. The following pictures were taken on 3/28/05, on the ground at Claremore, Oklahoma. The skywatch has similar problems for traffic in the air (at least for traffic in front of the plane. We cannot tell how accurate it is for traffic behind.) The target in these photos is actually on the taxiway next to the runway, same as the SR-22. The target should appear the same distance from the runway as the SR-22. You can see that it is rarely even close. Autopilot Central and L3 claim this is acceptable performance for the Skywatch. We strongly disagree. This is dangerous. We have another skywatch in a PC12, and it encountered none of these problems when we performed the same tests with the same target aircraft on the ground. We have owned yet another skywatch in a TBM-700, and experienced no errors such as these. This is not normal operation for a Skywatch. [ Note from 2007: We have had our plane in the shop several times and many weeks trying to get this problem fixed. Cirrus is either unable or unwilling to fix the skywatch. I have heard lots of "reasons" from them, such as "It's normal," "It's because the SR22 does not have a metal frame," "They all do that," and "It's within spec." All these excuses are untrue. If you buy a Cirrus, you should test the Skywatch. They apparently are unfixable if they don't work accurately out of the factory. ] |
|||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |