Cirrus Thoughts

[Bill Greenwood]

I don't own a Cirrus, but have had a few hours flying them and have several friends that do own them, and they are certainly in the news.
They are a success as for as marketing, me must have half dozen at our airport, only one or two new Mooneys or Beech. They are like flies in the summer.
Just from a recent flight, I was surprised at the rapid acceleration on takeoff in his turbo SR22, seems more than my turbo Be 36. In cruise, about the same speed around 175k seems he was using a little more power than I do.

I haven't seen any data, any actual figures, but my impression is a lot of Cirrus buyers are relatively new pilots, don't think folks are selling their Bonanzas to get one. I think the Garmin price is $50, 000 with ofd
His has a G1000. and man there is a lot of techno gizmo facts there. I don't know how to use all that or what it all means, but if you do it might come in handy.

Looking at Consumer Reports, April 2019, the safety record has improved over last few years. One notable weakness seems to be a high percentage of crashes are fatal, compared to say Mooneys. I don't mean when the chute is pulled, I mean other crashes, such as bad landings and go arounds.