What I thought of the Cirrus
Looking from the outside it's not much different except for the rather smallish looking rudder and those high aspect wings. The wings imply a higher performance capability.
Once seated inside my first impression was, Look at all the knobs! And there is plenty room inside. I thought the side stick was kinda' hokey, but I guess they had to put it somewhere. Actually, the stick felt very comfortable although a steep turn to your side (right turn for right seater/left turn for left seater) could be a wrist breaker, especially a steep turn with change in alt. I had my feet flat on the floor when I was playing with some turns and noticed no seat sliding in the turns. Pretty tight control coupling. I also like the large windows which permit relatively unobstructed viewing and the cockpit height above the ramp. Our TAS at 095 was around 155 Kts at 65% (171 Kts GS) I must say I am now sufficiently impressed by this plastic plane.
Joe and I discussed some of the things about the Cirrus which could be bad. F'rinstance, you're in a world of hurt should you have an elec failure. Everything is electric, even the trim, and no manual back up. Also, the A/P will climb you right into a stall.
We did two landings and both seemed heavy. I couldn't tell if that was the plane or the pilot. It seemed like the plane quit flying rather abruptly without any of the familiar indications of an impending stall. There were some other things but I think if a pilot is, you know, actually acting like a pilot instead of a pax in a tech advanced plane, he shouldn't have too much problem.
(I write this without today's accident in mind.) I think it would be very easy for a pilot to become complacent in this plane because they would overly rely on the advanced features of the Cirrus. Joe & I discussed that and concluded that the Cirrus accident record is because of pilot error, probably arising from their lackadaisacal attitude from relying on the plane to cover for PP pilot technique.
Would I fly one? Sure. Would I buy one? No, too much dough for what may be a life limited airframe due to the materials used. Would it take more hours to be proficient compared to another plane? I don't think so. I was initially apprehensive about the side stick but it really only took a couple minutes to feel very comfortable about being able to control the aircraft.
