I flew a 2013 SR22 Generation 5 yesterday. This plane is unbelievable. Makes my G36 Bonanza look like an old steam gauge Navion.

The Garmin Perspective is miles ahead of anything I've ever seen. Huge screens. Keypad. Synthetic Vision.

Twin Turbo

If you get too slow, it has a stick pusher. If you over-bank to 45 degrees, it corrects you back to 30 degrees.

Feels like I'm sitting in a new BMW. The interior is incredible.

FLIR Camera

All Cirrus needs to do is build a a 6 place airframe with barn doors. That's the only thing keeping the Baron and Bonanza alive at this point if they are truly still alive.

I keep getting emails from Beech about how "New and Improved" the company is. Yeah... right. I wonder is anyone over there has seen what's happening at Cirrus?

Nope. And the new G5 Cirrus is awesome. The extra 200lbs of useful load really makes a difference.

Tim

I have about 100 hours with the Perspective system. It is very nice. However, the Cirrus does not fly anywhere near as nice as a Bonanza. When someone makes an airplane that flies as nice as a Bonanza, then they are in trouble. Of course I may be biased.

This kinda stuff just doesn't translate to me. I'm a button pushing pilot.

I want my passengers to feel great when they see the plane they're about to fly in. I want to feel like I have the best of the best. I love how the Cirrus doors look. I love sitting in the the Cirrus. When you're walking up to it it just makes you feel like you're about to have a really cool experience.

My only complaint is the fixed gear.

I will wait until I see a 10 year old plastic Cirrus compared to a ten year old Baron or Bonanza. So, far the older Cirrus I have seen with a some hours on them look like a POS. Maybe they should just call them the throw away plane.

It's all about avionics nowadays.

Who cares how it flies when 95% of your customer base can't/won't hand-fly their way out of a wet paper bag? Cirrus targets a particular market. That's not a bad thing... They just know who the paying customers are.

Bingo!

"it flies so nice by hand" is a horrible sales pitch.

If you're selling an Extra 300, it works. If you're selling a commuter plane to the casual pilot who has relatively little experience, wants a lot of safety features that allow him/her to treat the plane like a car, and who has a boat-load of money? Hand-flying goodness is on the bottom of the list of priorities. Flying is nothing but a noisy video game to many new pilots.

Being a fan of the free market, I fully support Cirrus exploiting that segment of the market.

I disagree. That is what the Carbon Cub, Ciabrata and others are all about. And they seem to be doing well.

Tim

I think Cirrus is a great starter airplane. I wouldn't want one but for a new pilot would be a good choice.

Have they improved the seat comfort?

I really liked flying our 2004 SR22 G2, so I can only imagine how nice this 5 version must be.

But, I still love my old Bonanza..

Yes. They had nowhere to go but up. Problem is the !@$@##$$%#$^%73 FAA 23G crash worthiness requirements.

Tim

Who cares how it flies when 95% of your customer base can't/won't hand-fly their way out of a wet paper bag? Cirrus targets a particular market. That's not a bad thing... They just know who the paying customers are.

So what happens when the buttons fail? Pop the chute?

Craig