Hail Columbia For Hot IFR
Contents
1. FLIGHT TEST Hail Columbia For Hot IFR Read the numbers and compare the slicker in the clag Lancair 400 to your IFR ride We say go for it But retool your old IFR habits in the process by Scott Dennstaedt onestly I wasn t sure about the Lancair kit plane appeal True the Columbia 400 isn t a kit plane but it was hard to dismiss the thought Then after flying nearly 1000 hours in Cirrus aircraft I wasn t con vinced that the Columbia 400 was any thing more than a turbocharged clone of the SR22 After completing my training to become a Lancair factory instructor however I can wholeheartedly say that the Columbia 400 is in a class all by itself In fact if there s an aircraft that clones the 400 it is the Columbia 350 Virtually identical airplanes if it weren t for the 400 s turbocharged engine a 310 hp Continental TSIO 550C engine that sports twin turbo chargers If that doesn t make you sali vate nothing will While there are no turbochargers on the 350 this airplane is still an Below Yes there is something other than a Cirrus The Lancair 350 or 400 equivalent to the 400 except it has a lower price tag Even if you re nota high flyer the maximum operating al titude for the 350 is still FL180 The overall vibration and noise in the cockpit of both aircraft are as Billy Crystal would say simply marvelous Both use inflatable door seals to help provide a comfortab2. Some controllers might insist that you re a homebuilt and will preface your callsign with Experi mental Whatever name you re called don t be offended just be pre pared to educate When approach control sounds confused about your pedigree What s a Lancair quickly give the essentials It s a single engine piston that ll hold 150 knots to the marker and can make the first turnoff A bit of an exaggeration perhaps but it gives the controller a clearer picture of your ability ifnot your charms All certificated aircraft should be in the ATC handbook 7110 65 Appendix A listing category and general performance but there s a good chance your controller won t know the odd ball stuff The control ler wants to know performance how fast can you go and can you use the short runway Later you can preen about how cool you look when you park beside the tower
3. display MFD are standard equip ment Along with dual Garmin GNS 430s and an S tec 55X autopilot The art of flying has evolved into the sci ence of buttonology and that means that you have four moving map dis plays in the cockpit One on each Garmin 430 one on the MFD and one on the moving map display underlay on the PFD s HSI Five if you count your portable GPS Avidyne has done a superb job in tegrating these elements The Garmin 430s are by far the most complex com ponent in the group and there s al ways room to learn some new trick with these units However the PFD with eight buttons and two knobs is intuitive and there are no deeply nested menus or complicated data entry required That doesn t mean there aren t any tricks to learn how ever The Columbia 400 utilizes a side December 2004 eIFR 1 stick to control pitch and roll How s flying with that side stick is another question I get asked by curious pilots while parked on the transient ramp My usual answer is that it takes about 13 4 seconds to feel comfortable with it It is really difficult to write an ar ticle about the Columbia 400 without comparing it to the Cirrus SR22 Even though they both utilize a side stick in my opinion the 400 controls provide a smoother and more intuitive com mand authority without being overly sensitive If I had to compare the two con trol systems control movements in the Cirrus operate much li
4. oxygen affects your body Control In The Stall At both the forward and aft CG limit the Columbia 400 is amazingly doc ile You can certainly tell that Lancair worked hard to make this airplane spin resistant With the stall horn blar ing during a power off turning stall at 17 500 feet you typically run out of elevator before you completely stall the wing Even in this descending con figuration the ailerons are still quite effective This is fine at 17 500 feet How ever in a forward CG scenario during landing it is extremely hard to overdo the flare in this airplane You ll typi cally run out of elevator just as you re touching down Like the Cirrus SR22 the landing picture is flat with little apparent flare necessary The key to a gentle landing is to carry power all the way to touchdown Lots Of Range With 98 gallons of usable fuel the range of this airplane is phenomenal At 12 000 feet and 65 percent power the range is nearly 900 miles before you begin to eat away the 45 minute reserve eeeeeeees FfF L E RESET Above The 400 lacks manual trim but instead sports a trim system top that almost looks too simple Masters cross tie starter and primerare logically clustered bottom It all makes for manageable IFR ops Including all the extras such as dual high capacity alternators twin turbochargers four place oxygen speed brakes and large fuel tanks the basic empty weight is 2500 pou
5. quest to keep your speed up when fly ing into a busy airport This is yet an other example of when it s nice to have speed brakes Fly the instrument or visual approach at the higher airspeed and when appropriate deploy the speed brakes and in a matter of sec onds you re at your normal approach speed Some pilots boast that speed brakes exist to make up for a pilot s poor planning or air traffic control blunders While this may be true in some instances I claim that speed brakes should be part of your routine instrument flying O For Four Since the Columbia 400 is certified up to FL250 oxygen is a must Currently the Columbia 400 is limited to 18 000 feet while Lancair finishes the certifi cation process to the final limitation of 25 000 feet The four place built in oxygen system option provides a clean approach to an already busy cockpit The Columbia 400 is not pressur ized so FAR 61 31 g Additional Training required for operating pres surized aircraft capable of operating at higher altitudes does not apply Flight level 250 is however a harsh and deadly environment If you plan to spend time in the flight levels in this airplane you should seriously consider physiological training including time Above You are here Or at least that s our dream and the Lancair reflects the reality of intuitive glass panel nav in an altitude chamber It really is nec essary to understand how the lack of
6. secondary VOR head in the event of PFD failure Ifthe PFD were to fail you lose your capa bility to fly an ILS VOR or localizer approach This means that you are essentially committed to a non preci sion GPS or RNAV approach prefer ably with direct routing Does the loss of the PFD constitute an emergency Certainly you should 4 IFR e December 2004 exit IMC as soon as practicable Con sequently a pilot should avoid wide spread low IFR because of this short coming Lancair s choice of installing the PFD and MFD in portrait mode leaves a lot of space on the panel to add this element along with their three backup steam gauges Stormscope And Weather I didn t include a Stormscope and uplinked weather gear in my wish list since Lancair did make some attempt to provide these options Interference with the alternator has caused them to discontinue this option for now Weather in the 400 is still courtesy of the Orbcomm solution Owners have complained that this solution doesn t consistently provide the weather Although with the announce ment of Avidyne s XM satellite radio weather solution it remains to be seen if Lancair will switch over to this as an option Training Considerations You should allow at least three full days of combined ground and flight training to become acquainted with this technically advanced aircraft How much training you ll need follow ing this initial familiarization depends largely o
7. d button on the stick a flight director makes a hand flown ILS a snap The 400 On Approach A technically advanced aircraft is not by definition an easy to fly aircraft You ve got to have a little bit of techno geek inside you to fully appreciate the possibilities This is especially true when flying an instrument approach Sure you can always brute force a sloppy approach But wouldn t it be nice if you could just sit back and watch You d think with all the electron ics in the 400 the airplane should ba sically fly itself all the way to the DA or MDA To some degree this is true The only things that must be managed manually are the throttle with mix ture and prop control and the flaps How hard can that be Two of the mistakes I routinely see pilots make are flying the approach way too fast and forgetting to extend any flaps on the approach They re a bit overwhelmed programming the avionics and forget all about the easy stuff they have to do manually One nice thing about the Colum bia 400 is that the flaps are slow to ex tend Even during a faster approach extending flaps doesn t cause any noticeable ballooning Ialways make it a habit to extend the first notch of flaps 12 degrees one mile prior to the final approach fix and I don t extend the second notch of flaps 40 degrees until the runway environment is in sight or I m ready to turn final from a circling approach Engine Monitoring Whe
8. ke a traditional yoke system pull back or push for ward to change pitch and turn the stick left or right to bank On the other hand Lancair went with a control that is more representative of a stick ex cept that it is mounted on the side and not between your knees Pop up Drag I used to own a Turbo Arrow IV and dropping the gear after my IFR de scent got me very close to my favored approach speed However in a slip pery airplane like the Columbia 400 with the gear already welded in the down position slowing it down quickly can be a challenge Without getting into the shock cooling argu ment chopping the power isn t al ways the best method to slow down Speed brakes on the 400 give you the option of slowing down at any air speed below V without the need for a huge power reduction Consider the case where you re level at FL230 and ATC issues a clear ance like this Columbia Two Three Bravo cross Gordonsville VOR at and maintain one one thousand altimeter two niner eight seven You look down at one of your two Garmin 430s and determine that this requires a vertical descent rate of nearly 1400 feet minute No problem flip the switch to deploy the Precise Flight speed brake system and ease back on the throttle a bit You can now descend comfortably to the required 2 IFR e December 2004 altitude keeping the engine warm without gaining excessive speed in the descent I know you ve heard the ATC re
9. le ride I can t ex plain this but the 400 seems a tad _ ee 6 If you buy a new Columbia 400 you don t have a choice glass is the only op tion 99 quieter and the ride a tad smoother than the 350 Glass And Side Sticks As a Lancair and Cirrus instructor I get asked a lot of questions about the glass cockpit Is it reliable Is it better than the traditional six pack How hard is it to transition to this new technology Now that I have several hundred hours behind these big screen TVs which were introduced about two years ago it is hard to imagine flying behind anything else especially in a high performance aircraft such as the Columbia 400 There will be a day in the future when we will look back and say Re member those glass cockpits we used to think were so slick Well we don t have to worry about that level of nos talgia for some time but just when you think that you have finally mas tered a partial panel approach com panies like Lancair and Cirrus throw glass panels at you and change all the rules Let s just say that designated pilot examiners are having a difficult time figuring out how to simulate in strument failures in these technically advanced aircraft If you buy a new Columbia 400 you don t have a choice glass is the only option The Avidyne FlightMax Entegra primary flight display PFD and FlightMax EX5000C multi func tion
10. n the amount of experience you have with high performance air craft and all the fancy avionics I cannot emphasize enough that stick and rudder skills are only a small portion of learning to fly this aircraft In the instrument world it is critical that you feel comfortable integrating the PFD GPSs and autopilot As you know the cockpit can get busy during the departure and arrival phases of an instrument flight Everything happens a bit faster and staying ahead of the airplane is testament to being profi cient Find a qualified CFI that knows the airplane and the avionics and train often Lots Of Orders Okay the good news is that Lancair has plenty of future business to keep the company strong The bad news is that this popularity has placed 120 planes on backorder as of this writing In the spring of 2005 they will stop producing 400s and will transition the line to building Columbia 350s which means that if you place your order now for a Columbia 400 it may be almost a year or longer before you get your airplane In my opinion this airplane is worth the wait Scott Dennstaedt is an IFR contribut ing editor and a nationwide Lancair factory instructor You can contact him at scott chesavtraining com You re A What It s pronounced Lance air not Langk air which sounds like a Finn ish charter service Either way ATC may not know what to make of you when you check on the frequency requesting flight levels
11. nds with a maximum gross weight of 3600 pounds While a full fuel payload of 500 pounds isn t all that impressive it does provide a great deal of flexibil ity for the pilot Backup Sparks Lancair made many good choices when designing this airplane In ad dition to the twin turbochargers the airplane has dual batteries and dual 60 amp alternators In an all electric instrument aircraft continuous power is paramount If one of the alternators goes off line you simply isolate the faulty al ternator and hit the cross tie switch This allows the remaining alternator to power all of the systems on the affected buss Moreover there s no need to start turning off equip ment to shed the current load Well that s not ex actly true you should at least tell the kids in the back seat to shut off their DVD player Flight Director I get goose bumps when I hear the words flight di rector I can t imagine a technically advanced air craft without one I don t know why Cirrus opted not to incorporate a flight di rector into their instantiation of the Avidyne PFD Fortunately Lancair didn t have the same vision The autopilot master switch al lows you to select between having the flight director activated or not There fore if you re really into punishment and don t care for flight directors you can easily switch it off but retain the ability to use the autopilot Even though there s no go aroun
12. ng the airplane it s nice to have the ability to fine tune the trim down to a gnat s eyelash despite the fact that most 400 operators will be using the autopilot for 98 percent of their flight On the other hand the electric trim system is actually impres sive It has a set of little lights lined up in a cross on the panel that change color to indicate an in or out of trim scenario for both pitch and aileron trim Lancair currently offers the Garmin GTX 330 Mode S transponder as an upgrade option The Mode S datalink provides the pilot with traffic alerts referred to as TIS as long as the flight is within 55 nautical miles of a Mode S radar site In my neck of the woods in the Mid Atlantic having a Garmin 330 is sufficient Even though the FAA has plans to extend the range of Mode S coverage for the existing radars there are not enough Mode S radars installed around the country as yet leaving large gaps in between busy terminal areas With a fast moving and high fly ing aircraft such as the Columbia 400 a Ryan 9900BX TAS or Goodrich Skywatch TAS should be an option for those pilots that fly in areas not yet covered by Mode S radar Don t de spair it is my understanding that Lancair is in the process of certifying the Ryan 9900B passive and Ryan 9900BX active TAS for the Columbia 400 Even with all the redundant sys tems in this airplane Lancair left out a very important backup instrument they do not provide a
13. ther you like flying lean of peak or rich of peak having a complete engine and fuel monitoring system is a benefit on those IFR journeys Heat and pressure destroy engines Avidyne s EMax engine and fuel moni toring system option gives you the ability to monitor each cylinder s head and exhaust gas temperature as well as the turbine inlet temperature of the left turbocharger There is a lean assist function that lets you get to your best economy or best power settings Fuel monitoring is also available for keeping watch on fuel flow and managing those longer than average flights Dear Santa My wish list is very long with this air plane but there are a few items I d like to see added a few of these are already in progress Except for pitot heat the Colum bia 400 does not have any kind of anti ice protection option With an aircraft that will be certified to FL250 an anti ice system is a must Lancair is work ing on anon certified anti ice system as we speak They ll be replacing one of their current alternators with a su per dee dooper alternator capable of handling the electric heated wing sys tem While this technology is not as effective as the weeping wing TKS anti ice option found on the Cirrus December 2004 IFR 3 SR22 when used properly it will be a good addition for inadvertent icing encounters I m still a fan of manual pitch trim which is missing from the Columbia 400 For hand flyi
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