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The Sirius uses 85% carbon
fiber construction, with the balance being fiberglass. The
TL factory has years of working with carbon fiber with the
low wing Sting light sport aircraft. The addition of the
Sirius now gives customers the option of purchasing an
aircraft with the Sting heritage in a high wing.
In addition to being a high
wing the Sirius has been specifically designed for the U.S. market,
and U.S. pilots. It has one of the largest cockpits in the
light sport aircraft field. The control systems are all made
up of pushrods using ball bearings which gives a very light
comfortable feel. The control system can also come in two
forms. The first is a standard yoke style of control, while
the second uses a stick that can be operated easily by just
one hand. Both systems originate from a location just below
the dash, which means there is no control linkage to climb
over when entering or exiting the plane.
This also means that pilots
that are currently flying a 172/182 will feel right at home,
and pilots use to flying with a center stick will also be
quite comfortable in the Sirius. Speaking of comfort the
seats are quite comfortable and include a nice support in
the lombar area. The rudder pedals can be adjusted very
easily to accommodate different size pilots, by the
repositioning of a single pin. Bill also indicated that this
adjustment can accommodate the tallest or shortest pilots,
"we try to build the airplane and fit the aircraft to the
pilot before he leaves us."
SportairUSA has found that
the people that are looking at their planes want a "complete
aeroplane". Things like terrain avoidance, traffic
avoidance, 696 full screen GPS, a Garmin panel, with an SL40
radio, a transponder, and a 12 volt auxiliary power under
the pilots knee are standard equipment. All of the circuit brakes on the panel have
easily read labels and are group together for ease of
recognition.
The doors can be opened in
flight below 60 knots. The all composite door construction
helps dampen an already the already quite
cabin. The doors have comfortable arm rest supports and air vents
built in. When closed they have a two pin locking mechanism,
which has a safety to prevent accidentally opening. Fuel is carried in the wings, and each wing has a
highly visible site gauge marked with the amount of fuel in
the tank.
The four position flaps are
electrically operated a pilot just touches the button and
the flaps will automatically go to the next flap setting, or
if held will deploy or retract completely. The pilot can
also operate them manually by simply holding the switch
until the desired setting is reached. With fuel on board the
Sirius has a seven hour range.
Power is supplied by the
Rotax 912 100 HP aircraft engine. With this power the plane
lifts off at 35 knots, climbing out at 65 knots, cruise is
110 knots true airspeed at 75% power, stall with any flap
setting with the engine at idle will only result in the
craft bobbing action, it never breaks through to stall.
For more information
www.sirius.aero |
