AOPA Pilot - May 2013

AOPA Pilot

The press is taking notice of the new digital fuel level senders in the new Cirrus aircraft.

In this case AOPA Pilot and Tom Horne

Here the new fuel level  senders are being discussed with the integration to the standard Cirrus Garmin Perspective Panel.

We agree that accurate fuel level makes it much easier to manage fuel and payload 

The dialogue we started a year and a half ago 

That accurate fuel level in aviation will allow for a higher level of integration, and relieve pilot workload

These innovations are reaching the light of day and in now in production

Tank level balancing and enriched warnings are now reality

If You Trusted Your Aircraft Fuel Gauge?

How would you operate your aircraft

If you knew, at all times, how much fuel you had.

Hard to imagine, isn't it ?

Did you ever have that feeling that you might have put in the wrong fuel starting amount?

Did you really see fuel wash over the tabs?

Doubts about fuel level can creep into any flight.   

The statistics of fuel starvation, fuel exhaustion and fuel related loss of power events bear that out.  

But it is interesting to see that with a change in technology for fuel level reporting to Magneto Resistive Senders.

Some pilots are finding an opportunity to operate differently.

CirrusPilot

Commenter Dialogue:

I'm always surprised you do not fly your 22t topped off, were you taught to fly with minimum fuel? Maybe it's a West Coast thing, but my Cirrus SR22 is always sitting full and I fuel it every time it is at home.

Response:

Plane is hangared. Full tanks are heavier and the performance is affected. I carry 20g extra to a location like Vegas.

Oshkosh - EAA 2013

CiES Inc will be at OSHKOSH for the EAA AIRVENTURE  

We will be there...... but we will not be displaying our products at the show in a trade show booth.

We are demonstrating the system to several aviation OEM customers and potential customers.  If you are interested in the system and you are at OSHKOSH the early part of the AirVenture week - please reach out and contact us, we will be more than happy to demonstrate our system.

We continue to receive praise from our customers on the retrofit CiES Cirrus Fuel Level Kit

Noah Wood sent us this message yesterday

"Really happy with them. They are running really close to the totalizer. I posted a couple of shots on one of the COPA threads. I will post a couple of more on COPA after my next couple of flights.  I thought Clearstar Aviation in Addison did a good job on the installation.

I've noticed I actually prefer the digital display on the console to the tape on the MFD. Maybe it is force of habit. 

In my opinion, dollar for dollar, one of the best upgrades you can do to a Cirrus." 

Aviation Consumer - July Issue

CIES Fuel Level System in the News

" Gone are the mechanical fuel quantity gauges that used to live next to the fuel selector between the two seats. 

Instead, new fuel-level senders with electronic fuel quantity data is displayed on-screen, providing far more precision than most mechanical fuel gauges. 

The system helps keep fuel balanced between the left and right tank, periodically reminding the pilot to switch tanks with onscreen CAS alert messaging and warnings"                            


Aviation Consumer July 2013 

We like the reference to far more precision - that's the CiES byword

Customer Responses to the Retrofit Cirrus Aircraft Kit

WHAT ARE THE CUSTOMERS  SAYING

David McGregor

Folks I just picked up the plane this evening from Advanced Aviation in Lancaster PA. Joel Glover and his team did an outstanding job installing the new CiES digital fuel sensors despite a steep learning curve on this first ever install. ... I had a chance to run the system through its paces on the short hop from KNLS to KMMU this evening.
I must say my first impression is WOW ! A huge improvement. I love having the fuel flow quantity on the MFD now, but the icing on the cake is the redundancy with the new digital fuel gauge that replaces the former analog version. Really cool looking, but more important is the functionality. I really like how you can flip between fuel quantity and the fuel burn graph, really helpful for fuel balance.
I would HIGHLY recommend this a must have upgrade to your Cirrus. Get in line now and place your orders.

Jeff Bessett

I just picked up MY aircraft, N874T SR20 - G3 Perspective with the new CiES fuel gauge STC - WOW. team at Advanced at Lancaster PA did the installation on my aircraft - and

Lancaster Avionics next door - did the avionics (Perspective) so it DOES show up on the Garmin Perspective system.

I only have 30 minutes flying with this, however, I believe this to be a game changer for anyone that has worried about the accuracy of the fuel gauges in their plane.

Tom Conroy

My partner, Gary Price and I just picked up our Cirrus from Leading Edge Aviation where they installed the new digital fuel gauges. I cannot tell you how nice it is to have a tool such as accurate fuel gauges. By using these gauges, we will be able to accurately assess whether there is a fuel leak in the system as well as accurately managing fuel supply. The gauges warn you ( by turning yellow) when there is a fuel imbalance in excess of that prescribed in the POH.

On the return trip, we wanted to see if we could land with equal fuel in each tank. About 20 minutes from our destination, we noticed a 6 to 7 gallon differential between tanks, so we switched tanks, and when we arrived at our hanger, there was less than a half

gallon differential. For some crazy reason, that made our evening...

Cirrus Aircraft Factory Fuel Level

We have been supplying Cirrus Aircraft fuel level senders for over a year.  There have been no issues or in-field replacements.  Now that the senders have proven themselves day in and day out and showing excellent reliability and repeatability.  We can now start to exploit the advantages accurate fuel level can provide.   

In the Cirrus Aircraft Facebook post yesterday - one of these new features came to light.  

Cirrus wrote the following:

Since spring of last year, our aircraft have come equipped with fuel level sensors that read accurately at all levels. In fact, they are so accurate that we were able to integrate a fuel imbalance message on the PFD in Generation 5 aircraft. The fuel level sensors in most of our competitors’ planes only read accurately when the fuel tank is empty or full. For more on the astonishing innovations that make Cirrus an industry leader: 
http://bit.ly/YZO6rT

Better information =  "informed"  decisions

As always when you forget,  a careful reminder will get things back to normal

Customer Feedback - Cirrus Retrofit

Folks I just picked up the plane this evening from Advanced Aviation in Lancaster PA.

Joel Glover and his team did an outstanding job installing the new CIES digital fuel sensors despite a steep learning curve on this first ever install.

The next one (an SR 20 was already in the shop) should go a lot faster as the first is always the hardest.

I had a chance to run the system through its paces on the short hop from KNLS to KMMU this evening.  I must say my first impression is WOW !  A huge improvement.

I love having the fuel flow quantity on the MFD now, but the icing on the cake is the redundancy with the new digital fuel guage that replaces the former analog version.

Really cool looking, but more important is the functionality.  I really like how you can flip between fuel quantity and the fuel burn graph, really helpful for fuel balance. 

The CIES team even made sure it dims with the instrument dimmer.

I will get some more time this weekend (during the daylight) to run it through its paces, but 

I would HIGHLY recommend this a must have upgrade to your Cirrus.

Get in line now and place your orders, I am convinced you will not regret it.

If you want to eliminate all your fuel level issues, this is the only way to go.

Like you I highly recommend Advanced Aviation in Lancaster PA as the place to get it done.  Joel and his team are the defacto experts now for this upgrade.