Yesterday I gave two checkrides. The first to our own Martin Pauly who brought a flying club mid 90's SR-20 for his CFi-I checkride instead of his A-36 in the Morning, followed by a private student in a Cessna late 70's 172.

I don't fly Cirri very often, and the contrast was just mind-blowing.

Make no mistake, I like the stick and rudder characteristics of the -172 better. But that is where it ends. And the stick and rudder handling of the Cirrus is not horrible, it's just not as good as a Cessna.

But after that, the Cirrus wins on every metric. The heater works like a car, your feet are not cooking while your hands are freezing. The door closes with a feeling of security. Not since the -195 has Cessna built a piston single with a door that felt secure.

The seats in the Cirrus were even better than my Baron, and no comparison to the -172.

The visibility in the Cirrus for traffic and pattern work is excellent.

I could ramble on, and I will acknowledge that the Cirrus is not going to age as well as a 1959 C-172. But flying a similar mission in both airplanes in rapid successoin was eye-opening. It confirmed for me that when I can't afford to feed a Baron, or lack the proficiency to fly a hot rod twin, my B-55 P2 will most likely become an SR-22. It is a really nice traveling machine.

Oh my Doug you’ve done kicked the hornets nest now. I shall sit back and.

I've never understood the cirrus bashing....especially the bashing of it being equipped with a parachute.

Or how about: My wife gets up on the wing of an SR22 G5 looks inside and sees what looks like a BMW dash and seats, not a Frankenstein panel, thinks about the chute and says, "Yea, I like this." IMO we will see the day (soon) that the SR 22 has an auto land button as well as the chute.

Be interested to hear what Kim thinks about it.

Chuck,

Rabble rousing is my stock in trade.

And,

Mark,

The parachute is the trade-off for the second engine for flying over areas of low ceilings, or hostile terrain, or both, and long flights at night.

FWIW here is my SR22 review

viewtopic.php?f=49&t=96282

By way of background. I bought my F33C in 2003 and my Baron in 2008. I flew the F33C over 600 hours and have over 600 hours in my Baron. Throughout my flying life I have owned or flown basically every typical Piper and Cessna single engine.

I am a Beech fan and have the posts to prove it. I am still a Beech fan. However...

This airplane was a far better experience than I expected. I flew the NA SR22 with FIKI. Perspective plus? It had a yaw damper. I just have not flown in a modern airplane. Its fit and finish is solid. There was plenty of room in all directions. More room than my Baron, or at least the perception of more room.

My hangar mate Bill V. rode along in the back. Bill is a big guy (Cornhusker Football Player) and our Demo Pilot, Gary, is 6' 3" or so. I'll let Bill speak for himself, but I think he was totally comfortable in the back seat behind Gary.

Everything fit. Everything was "right sized." That's the best way I can say it. No reaching over here, bending over there, everything is right there. Start up was easy and the plane was quiet. I took my headset off and I could have had a conversation with Gary easy. With the Bose on it was almost eerie quiet. It was hot and humid. Turned the AC on and it didn't hang icicles off the ceiling, but I was totally comfortable. The AC passed the test. You can run it whenever you want.

Taxiing with toe brakes would take some getting used to. But I kept it pretty much on the centerline. Run-up and everything was easy and quick. Move the side-stick wherever you want and it doesn't hit your legs.

Take off acceleration was brisk. On the side-stick, Gary was very specific in telling me that limited control displacement had major impact. This is very true. The side-stick, intuitively, is a big adjustment. But, I will say I did not have any problems taking off, flying an approach, doing whatever on my first flight. I would have needed a few landings, but that is primarily due to the sight picture. There is no question in my mind I could transition to the side-stick with ease.

Airwork. The airplane is very responsive in bank. It seemed a bit less responsive in pitch. We flew around in the buffet, no problem. The electronic flight system is just nothing short of amazing. It keeps the airplane within its flight parameters. We did an overspeed and got up to 185kts indicated. You couldn't tell by sound as it was the same as when we were at 65kts.

[i]The ride was just as good as the Baron in the summer bumps. That really surprised me, but the wing loading is fairly similar.

The Perspective Avionics Suite is just nothing short of amazing. Smooth, but positive. I have spent the last 30 years flying with the same basic technology. Times have changed.

The list on the airplane I flew was $599 AMU. The real question is did it fly $599 AMU worth of good? I can't say that for sure. But, I have to take back a lot of the stuff I have said on BT regarding the Cirri. Those comments were based on lack of knowledge and simple Beech Brand Loyalty. It has given me some pause.

Another analogy used is this is a car that flies. It even lands like a car that flies. I am very happy I took the ride and appreciate Gary in his professionalism and fun.[/i]

Exactly. It's not a perfect solution for all emergencies, but it sure is a nice tool to have in the toolbox.

Oh boy, here we go. I can hear the keyboards revving up, can’t wait to see how many pages we get on this! I have $$$ on 7 pages.

BTW, Jamie Steele one of the primary brokers and dealers in the cirrus world posted the other day buyers should wait till 2nd qtr as they expect prices to drop back into reality. Everyone who has been in this market the past year has clearly seen the bubble. They also advised sellers to sell now. If she didn’t have so much credibility it would be easy to dismiss her comments as some sort of self serving thing, but she does in fact have that much credibility.

Just to emphasize that the comparison model was one of the earliest models ever made. The changes from that to even just the G2 versions of the early '00's were substantial (in terms of avionics and interiors, performance essentially unchanged). Loved my V35, but wouldn't go back from here.

If you have no need for altitude, the -20's are very cost effective machines.

As much as I loved my A36TN when I sold it my wife told me she was always uncomfortable flying alone with me or with the kids in case something happened to me. After the first of the year I am going to start looking for a replacement and I hate to admit but I suspect the chute will make her much more comfortable. So would an autoland feature but I am not willing to invest the cash to get that feature. I plan to take an intro ride in a Cirrus at a local flying club to see how I like it. I want turbo and TKS and they have one with both. If I like it I will probably go ahead and pay to go through their checkout process and rent until I buy.

If it was just me I'd buy another A36. But I want her to feel more comfortable so we can use the plane to travel when I retire in the next year or two.

Jamie sold my SR22 a few years ago; she is great.

Where would GA be if Cirrus had not existed the past 15 years??

you could buy 20 1959 172s for the price of a new Cirrus. Apples and oranges.

I like that they are both fast and a fixed gear, fixed gear is just one less thing insurance company can complain about when I get old.

Oh chute.....

Will be interesting to see how Pipistrel does with the Panthers, many of the same features as Cirrus with better stick and rudder manners from initial reports.