Cirrus SR22 Checklist

What the Cirrus SR22 is

The Cirrus SR22 is a four- or five-seat, single-engine composite airplane and the highest-performing member of the Cirrus SR line, in continuous production since 2001. It is the big-engine sibling of the SR20: where the SR20 carries a ~200-215 hp powerplant, every SR22 runs a Continental IO-550-N of 310 horsepower, making it one of the fastest and best-selling piston singles in the world. It is fixed tricycle gear, fuel-injected in every generation (no carburetor and no carb heat), steered on the ground by differential braking on a free-castering nosewheel, and flown through a side yoke rather than a center stick. Two features define how you operate it. First, the fuel selector has LEFT, OFF, and RIGHT positions but no BOTH, so you actively manage tank balance in cruise rather than setting and forgetting. Second, the Cirrus Airframe Parachute System (CAPS) — a whole-airframe parachute — reframes the entire emergency philosophy: for a genuine loss of control or an unsurvivable situation, the trained response is to pull the handle, not to fly a conventional recovery. The line spans generations commonly labeled G1 through G6, all normally-aspirated versions sharing the IO-550, with the separate turbo-normalized SR22T as its own animal. Who flies it: owner-pilots stepping up into a fast, IFR-capable cross-country machine, flight schools and clubs standardized on the type, and renters building glass-panel and Cirrus-transition time. This template centers on the mid-generation G3/G5-era normally-aspirated SR22 with Garmin Perspective glass; if you fly a turbo SR22T or an early G1/G2 Avidyne airplane, some engine-management and avionics steps and several V-speeds differ and should come from that serial’s own POH.

The SR22 is a lot of airplane behind that Continental 550, and like its little brother the whole emergency mindset comes back to one question: is this a CAPS situation or not. I built this card around the normally-aspirated G3/G5 with the Perspective panel, since that is what most people are renting or buying used, and I deliberately kept every CAPS speed and altitude number off it — those are the numbers you confirm against your own POH and a Cirrus-standardized instructor, not off a printout. Print it, add your tail number, and treat the parachute as trained, not as a gimmick.

Normal procedures

The normal flow runs preflight and walkaround, before-start, engine start, taxi, run-up and before-takeoff, takeoff (normal and short/soft-field), climb, cruise, descent, before-landing, after-landing, and shutdown and securing, with a G3/G5 V-speed table. Two type habits shape the card: the LEFT/OFF/RIGHT selector with no BOTH means active tank management, so the fuel selector recurs at before-start, run-up, cruise, descent, before-landing, and shutdown; and because the IO-550 is fuel-injected there is no carb-heat line, and the airplane steers on the ground with differential braking on a castering nosewheel rather than a nosewheel-steering linkage.

Emergency procedures

The emergency section, like the SR20’s, turns on one decision: is this a CAPS situation or not. It covers engine failure on the takeoff roll, engine failure after takeoff, engine failure in flight with a restart attempt, engine fire, electrical fire / smoke in the cabin, a CAPS activation flow, and an alternator/electrical abnormal, with the reflex memory items in bold. Two honest caveats apply. Every CAPS number — maximum demonstrated deployment speed and minimum deployment altitude — is left off by design, because they vary widely by generation and a wrong number is worse than none. And the bold memory items reflect standard training doctrine for the type rather than a verified transcription of your revision’s boxed items, which have evolved across POH revisions. This is a training aid to verify against your POH and sign off with a Cirrus-standardized CFI, not an approved procedure.

Verify it against your POH

The research behind this template flagged several things that genuinely vary by generation, serial, and operator. Check these against your aircraft’s approved POH and a Cirrus-standardized CFI before you rely on the card:

• Engine and generation — normally aspirated vs. SR22T. This card is the normally-aspirated SR22 (Continental IO-550-N, 310 hp). The turbo-normalized SR22T adds wastegate/turbo engine-management steps not on this card. One stray source cited a “Lycoming IO-390, 215 hp” for a G6 — that conflicts with every other reference and is almost certainly a source error; the SR22 line is Continental IO-550 throughout. Confirm your exact engine.
• CAPS deployment speed and minimum altitude. Maximum demonstrated deployment speed (Vpd, cited anywhere from ~140 KIAS on earlier airframes to ~185 KIAS on later ones) and minimum recommended deployment altitude are safety-critical and vary by generation and serial. No number for either appears on this card by design — confirm both against your POH revision.
• CAPS decision-altitude doctrine and altitude loss. A ~2,000 ft AGL decision threshold and specific altitude-loss figures (roughly 400–1,100 ft depending on attitude, airspeed, and generation) circulate in training material but were not confirmed here against a primary CAPS guide. Settle these with your instructor or COPA before treating any number as fixed.
• Exact memory-item list and wording. The bold memory items on this card reflect standard training doctrine for the type, not a verified transcription of your POH revision’s underlined/boxed memory items, which have evolved across revisions. This is the single highest-priority thing to sign off with a CFI.
• V-speeds, especially Vfe. The flap-limit speeds showed an unusually wide spread across sources (likely 50%/100% flap-detent differences across generations). Confirm every number against a single POH for your generation, not mixed secondary sources.
• Fuel capacity and drain count. Usable fuel figures ranged from roughly 81 to 94.5 gallons depending on generation and total-vs-usable definitions; the card assumes ~92 gal usable on later airframes. Confirm the split and the exact number of fuel drains for your airframe.
• Short- and soft-field flap settings and speeds. Cited generically here; the exact degrees and numbers differ by generation — verify before flying them as fixed figures.