Tom,

It's not ideal but on a couple of trips where we took the whole family we just shipped stuff. Take in the plane the things you can't live without for a day or two. Drop by the UPS store on the way to the airport headed home and ship it back. Cheaper than a bigger plane by an exponential factor.

Useful load is just shy of 1100 but it has all the bells and whistle so if someone wanted to do without FIKI, Turbo, 12 inch screens second AHRS etc.... useful load can be around 1200. Full fuel is 92 gallons. So that puts max payload around 548 with full fuel. Might not work for everyone but it works for me. We had luggage and a 35 lb power supply in the luggage compartment and 3/4 full TKS tanks so probably put us to within 75 lbs of full gross. I suspect that Tom would have never guessed that we were that close to full gross by the way it flew. The 315 HP turbo engine and 1/2 flaps (standard) take off makes it leap off the runway. Even with the LOP climb we were managing 500 f/t min with an indicated air speed of 130kts.

Aviation wise, the small stature of my family is a blessing. My wife might weigh 100 lbs fully clothed and my kids take after their mother. So I can still take everyone and full fuel and 75-100 lbs of luggage. This will certainly change over time and there may be future trips that I either need to limit fuel or payload......or make 2 trips. I will just have to deal with that when and if that time comes.

Tom is right. The climate control is a thing of beauty. The only problem I see with it is that because my wife will know how to control it and it is on the copilot side, she will ultimately be the one in control of it. She prefer's it warmer and I prefer it colder. It was easier in my A36 to simply tell her that the heater didn't work very well.

Another nice feature is the fuel gauges/sensors. They are very very accurate. This really helps with with determining weight and balance. Even without using the totalizer, I can know to within a couple gallons how much fuel I have on board and where that fuel is. I will admit that this fuel system has made me very lazy in keeping track of my fuel burn on paper.

Overall I like the plane A LOT. Yes there are some limitations. Yes other planes can do more. Yes there are some advantages to owning a Bonanza (the most highly modified plane in the fleet) such as tip tanks etc.... But there are also a lot of things that a Cirrus can do better. There is no one plane that can fit the bill for everyone. It is all about compromise. I couldn't be happier. Happy enough to have put 90 hours on it in 2 months.

Don,

This wife thing is a head scratcher. My wife never wanted to fly in my Bonanzas. Now, with the Cirrus she asks frequently "can you take me to...". The only downside is that as I look for a jet A burning pressurized plane she keeps asking "does it have a chute?".

Wow!

That two nice things to read today on Beechtalk. I can go home a happy guy.

Don,

This wife thing is a head scratcher. My wife never wanted to fly in my Bonanzas. Now, with the Cirrus she asks frequently "can you take me to...". The only downside is that as I look for a jet A burning pressurized plane she keeps asking "does it have a chute?".

Can you comment on how the side yoke feels? I've never even been in a Cirrus, but I've read in several reviews that the yoke doesn't give you feedback because it uses springs. For example:



from http://philip.greenspun.com/flying/cirrus-sr20

I don't know what this guy is talking about.

Chris,

I think there was a time that Cirrus was putting interconnecting springs between the ailerons and the rudder. Kind of like the bungies on the Bonanza. They are not doing that anymore and I don't know how many were produced like that.

I can tell you that the side stick is a non-issue. Took about 10 minutes to get used to it. Very intuitive. Kind of like the stick between you legs in your L-39. Intuitive.

The side stick frees up quite a bit of space up front and makes the cockpit feel very roomy. Somewhat like the copilot side of a Bonanza with the throw over yoke.

I think it depends on the year of the Cirrus. I'm not an expert on the variations within the fleet, but some Cirri have an interconnect between the ailerons and rudder. It uses a spring arrangement and it dulls the control feel. I've flown an SR22 with the interconnect and an SR20 without and it's a night and day difference. The SR20 without the interconnect felt light and nimble. Like a sports car. The SR22 did not. It was very noticeable. So; model year apparently matters WRT control feel.

I also just had my first ride in an SR22 (G3 tho), and was also impressed. http://www.baron-pilot.com/2016/05/an-s ... -last.html

Like most 4 place aircraft, it's barely a 2 place with full fuel.
What really baffles me is that my wife and kids still prefer the Cirrus over the 421...there's something about it that resonates with them.
This is an 850 NM trip with 1 stop...

Lots of comments about the spouse on this thread...

I have gotten to know Dale K pretty well and he told me several years ago, they were not designing an airplane for a pilot, but for a pilot's wife...

They understood that the final decision maker would be the spouse and the reason why the Cirrus had a big moving map was because his wife was convinced that he had no idea what he was doing or where he was.... The solution was to install a big moving map on the right side of the cockpit so his wife would know where they were and she could tell him where he was and where to go at any given time...

It seems to have worked.....

The way I interpret this is that the sales rep is going to:

1. Find you a 2008 or newer G3. (OK that is his/her job)

2. Find you a wife that thinks all of this is a good idea. What a sales person!

That's interesting! I'd never heard that before. In my experience they met that goal.

I've had employees and friends say the same thing as well, so maybe the broader target group was 'any non-pilot passenger'. But what did Cirrus do, specifically, that appeals to non-pilots?
Is a big map the main thing, or the view, or? To the people I've asked, the chute isn't a factor, but maybe it is subconsciously.
I'd really like to understand this.