The Cirrus Combined Throttle/ Prop Control

The Cirrus Combined Throttle/ Prop Control

- Rob Mark

There’s something to be said for simplicity when teaching people to fly or merely checking out in a new aircraft. Simplicity was Cirrus’ motivation behind this month’s feature, the combined throttle and propeller control that’s standard on both the Cirrus SR20 and SR22.

In complex aircraft, a throttle controls engine acceleration, while a separate blue propeller lever adjusts the pitch of the propeller through a propeller governor. Together, they create a given power setting, and that’s how, in the Cirrus, the old throttle control came to be known as a power lever.

On their first glance into the cockpit of a Cirrus, some pilots might think the single black leather wrapped handle on the throttle quadrant is connected to a turbine engine because there’s no blue propeller control knob nearby. The mixture control next to the engine control is the only real giveaway that under the hood sits either a 215 hp Lycoming or a 315 hp Continental reciprocating power plant.