Avionics
Cirrus Adds Auto Radar to Vision Jet G2+
Radar upgrade simplifies building a picture of thunderstorm activity
Auto Radar help pilots see what's happening in thunderstorms
This photo captures three views of the thunderstorm cell at the Vision Jet G2+'s 2 o'clock position. The pane on the right side of the left display shows the Auto Radar depiction, with white indicating turbulence. One the right moving map, the SiriusXM Weather overlay shows the satellite weather feed, which is delayed by a few minutes. That same cell looks relatively benign on the overlay. Outside the right window, the rain can be seen pouring from the bottom of the cell. (Photo: Matt Thurber/AIN)

As we maneuvered toward McGhee Tyson Airport’s Runway 23R in Knoxville, Tennessee, a trifecta of thunderstorm information gave us a clear indication of how we should thread the needle to avoid a large cell hovering near the airport. We were flying a demonstration of the new Auto Radar feature now available in new-production Cirrus Vision Jet G2+s and eventually as an upgrade to in-service G2 and G2+ jet singles.

We could easily see the gray shaft of rain plummeting downward from the cell’s cloudy base at our two o’clock position, and obviously, we wouldn’t want to fly through that. But at the same time, the Cirrus Vision Jet G2+ we were flying showed additional highly useful information on its two cockpit displays.