High-Performance Single (SR22-class)
A fast single with a clean wing: quick on the way down, so plan ahead.
The High-Performance Single approximates a modern composite four-seater. It cruises much faster than the trainer and climbs strongly, so a mission that takes the trainer an hour is over much sooner.
The price of speed is a faster approach. The clean wing keeps flying when you want it to stop, so you have to start slowing down earlier than you expect.
It is the aircraft to choose when the flight itself is the point. The cruise is smooth and the climb is quick, so you spend more time flying and less time waiting. Plan the descent first, then enjoy the rest.
Key Numbers
- Role: high performance / single piston
- Approximates: SR22
- Unlocks at: level 2
- Maximum takeoff mass: 1,542 kg
- Stall, landing configuration: 61 kt
- Stall, clean: 68 kt
- Flaps may be used below: 104 kt
- Normal operating limit: 178 kt
- Never exceed: 204 kt
- Rotate at about: 80 kt
- Approach at about: 80 kt
Speeds are indicated airspeed in knots as the simulator models them; the real type is only the thing this aircraft approximates.
How It Flies
- Reduce power well before the airport. Descending at idle is easy, losing speed on a long final is not.
- Flaps are your brake: use them in stages and trim as you go.
- The stall is sharper than the trainer's. Respect the stall warning light and keep the nose down in turns near the ground.
- Set the speed with the throttle before you add flaps. The flaps add drag and lower the nose, so set the speed first, then the flaps in steps.
- Trim after each big change of power or flaps, so the aircraft holds the speed you chose without your hands on the controls.
What To Practise
- Fly a 100 nautical mile mission and arrive with the engine at idle, already slowed for the pattern.
- Practise a stabilised approach: same speed, same descent rate, from 1,000 feet down to the runway.
- Try a short-field landing at a small airport and stop before the last third of the runway.
- Fly a descent from cruise to the pattern with the throttle at idle and the speed under control, and count how many miles you need.
- Fly a steep turn at a steady height and speed, then roll out on the heading you chose before you started.