Jim Campbell at ANN has written a couple of incredibly damning pieces about what has happened at Cirrus since Alan K. was forced out in 2009; part one is here:

http://www.aero-news.net/index.cfm?Cont ... 8315522d4&

Part two focuses on the history/collapse of Cirrus' relationship with Patty Wagstaff, which was so traumatic for Patty that she's taken a flying job with Cal Fire to get away from "the sponsor game" for awhile:

http://www.aero-news.net/index.cfm?Cont ... 27ee95a7a&

Certainly the dishiest aviation stories I've read in a while.

Patty is flying the air show circuit regularly.

She flew for us here in April, and she is already booked back here for our 2012 show in March.

VERY disappointing how Cirrus handled things...

I am not sure how much weight I would give to both of those commentaries considering the source.

I doubt if L3 had $150 million invested solely for the development of the new SR22 platform. If so, figuring the avionics at $100k in a new SR22, that would be 1,500 aircraft sales just to cover the development costs. That does not include the actual units themselves.

I'm sure L3 would not be that crazy to invest $150 million for the 22 and if they invested in a Vaporware (tupperware) jet then that is even crazier.

No mention was made of the embarassing affair with Wagstaff at OSH in 2008. Maybe Cirrus was just a little upset about that?

Cirrus pulled advertising from Ann some time ago.

The inside tells me that this was a significant piece of revenue to Jim.

Since he has not had a good thing to say about cirrus.

We need all brands to do well, so GA does well now and into the future.

It is my opinion, and only an opinion, that the author is a psychopathic liar. If he says there are bad things afoot at Cirrus, there may be bad things, good things, or no things at all. If Cirrus recently stopped advertising with him, I believe that is more relevant to the story than Cirrus's business is.

It is my recommendation that you ignore him completely.

CIAGA just closed their purchase of Cirrus. Cirrus is now owned by a Chinese company.

When the rumor origionally started, Cirrus denied.

- There was a contract dispute between Cirrus and L3, it went to the level of suit and counter-suit, but that is not exactly unusual when corporations have disagreements and I wouldn't make an issue of character out of it.

- Cirrus, like everyone else in general aviation, went damn near broke in 2009. For a time, they got their municipal landlords in Duluth and Grand Forks to waive their rent payments. Would we really have been better off if the respective cities had evicted Cirrus ??

curious what's the basis for calling him a liar -- that seems like a pretty strong conclusion. i don't know him or much of anything about him except that he broke the story about AOPA management giving themselves a big raise while coming up with ways to sell us more crap nobody needs. but to conclude he's a liar is a pretty strong statement so maybe i'm missing something. i do know that Cirrus treated L3 and a lot of other vendors (and customers) badly late in the game but i also know that at least one of them, Avidyne, was an awful vendor so i don't know how to interpret that. What am I missing?

as an aside, if Cirrus can't turn a profit building airplanes, who can?

Look up the story of 'Zoom' Campbell.

There is actually a court order that attests to his mental issues. I'll have to look up the document when I get to a PC.

http://www.ousterhout.net/zoom.html

now i see. doesn't necessarily make him wrong but does suggest certain limitations as to credibility. couple of real classics in the story.

This is the NTSB hearing transcript from back in 1980:

http://www.ousterhout.net/zoom/se-4661.html

I think by now he has stopped suing people who mention this document . It details a pattern of pretty wild incidents. He seems to have mellowed over the years, but those Cirrus hit-pieces make me wonder whether his 'issues' are coming up again (iow he is off his meds).