AOPA has announced that its 2009 "Let's go Flying"  sweepstakes winner will take home a 2005 Cirrus SR22.  Read here for the details.

I have long said the Cirrus is like Apple Computer.  Anyone who owns and loves Macs knows what I'm talking about. Cirrus builds innovative, great-looking products that push technology.  Cirrus blends form and functionality. Just like Apple.  The Cirrus is a premium airplane that helped revitalize piston aircraft manufacturing and became the best selling single-engine plane in the U.S.  It was the first certified aircraft with a whole-plane parachute system, at a time when competitors laughed at the idea.  It introduced an entirely new cockpit to GA pilots (the glass cockpit).  And it proved that a plane made partially out of plastic would be a technological triumph.  If you go on the factory tour in Duluth, you'll see that the plane is literally built by putting it in a giant over to meld it together.  It's the easy-baked oven of airplanes!

Yeah, I dig the Cirrus.   Between the SR22 and the lower power SR20, I have close to about 100 hours. Which is not a lot.  But it's enough to know that it's my first choice of airplanes. That's not to say I don't like other planes.  I used to fly the Diamonds and learned on Pipers.  And Cessna still builds workhorse aircraft.  But Cessna's recent purchase of Columbiua (a Cirrus look-a-like plane) shows that Cirrus has grabbed the imagination of GA pilots who can afford a plane in the mid- six figure dollar range.

A Cirrus is a technologically advanced aircraft.  They call it a TAA.  That's why most schools and insurance companies require a 10 hour checkout.  And it's expensive to rent.  In New York, you can pay more than $250 an hour.  If you own it, operating costs for the SR22 come in at about $150 an hour, depending on fuel charges.  It also busts through the air at 180kts true.  So it can be a handful.

The Cirrus is a cool plane.  Need more evidence of this?  Angelina Jolie flies one.

-Andrew Schmertz

This entry was posted on Monday, December 29th, 2008 at 9:31 am and is filed under Airplanes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.