The more I fly the Cirrus SR20, the more I’ve come to appreciate Cirrus’s exemplary approach to safety. I don’t fly the SR20 that often, but before a recent IFR proficiency flight, I used the Cirrus Flight Operations Manual (FOM) and Cirrus Online Training portal to prepare. I studied the precision and non-precision approach chapters online, then went over the procedures and cockpit flows outlined in the FOM. The preparation clearly worked because the flight went well, and I learned more about using the complex and capable Garmin-based Perspective avionics suite in the SR20.
A chance meeting at last week’s Bombardier Safety Standdown got me thinking about FOMs. I was discussing safety issues with two flight instructors from a college flight training program, and they told me that they had developed their own FOM-like procedures for the aircraft they fly. They had to develop their own cockpit flows and processes because like most light aircraft manufacturers, their manufacturer doesn’t publish an FOM. When I showed them the Cirrus FOM on my iPad, they were amazed, having never seen anything like it.
Matt Thurber, editor-in-chief at AIN Media Group, has been flying since 1975 and writing about aviation since 1978 and now has the best job in the world, running editorial operations for Aviation International News, Business Jet Traveler, and FutureFlight.aero. In addition to working as an A&P mechanic on everything from Piper Cubs to turboprops, Matt taught flying at his father’s flight school in Plymouth, Mass., in the early 1980s, flew for an aircraft owner/pilot, and for two summer seasons hunted swordfish near the George’s Banks off the East Coast from a Piper Super Cub. An ATP certificated fixed-wing pilot and CFII and commercial helicopter pilot, Matt is type-rated in the Citation 500 and Gulfstream V/550. Based in the Pacific Northwest, Matt and his team cover the entire aviation scene including business aircraft, helicopters, avionics, safety, manufacturing, charter, fractionals, technology, air transport, advanced air mobility, defense, and other subjects of interest to AIN, BJT, and FutureFlight readers.
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