SixPapaCharlie
May the force be with you
- Joined
- Aug 8, 2013
- Messages
- 17,546
- Display Name
- First Officer 6PC
As a Grumman pilot, I just wanted to chime in and say, yeah, it's all true.
Those guys are dangerous.
Those guys are dangerous.
As a Grumman pilot, I just wanted to chime in and say, yeah, it's all true.
Those guys are dangerous.
I'm not a Cirrus owner but I think they get beat up because there is a little bit of jealousy for the plane and the means that those owners have to even own one. I do think they tend to get into trouble more often because of the confidence the chute may provide them. So to me, it is somewhere in the middle. It is remarkable technology and I wish all legacy aircraft could be retrofitted with it reasonably. I know it is wishful thinking.
PricelessOf course. a few years ago at Oshkosh they suddenly launched a bunch of powered parachutes. I got on the radio and announced the Cirrus mass arrival.
For me it's absolutely not jealousy as it doesn't check all the boxes of what I need a plane to do. For me it falls into the over-reliance on gadgetry that erodes the actual skills of a pilot, the initial lack of training early on (the pull early pull often mantra that Cirrus has since gone away from), and it doesn't help that a lot of them seem to have EXTREMELY thin skin which then just makes them a target. We can have high wing low wing tail-wheel nose-wheel and throw humorous jabs at each other. Give Mooney pilots crap about the tail being on backwards and come out smelling like a sardine, Grumman pilots crap about needing former SAC bases to operate from, needing Warren Buffett expense account if you own a Beech, and Piper and Cessna pilots grief for flying boring ass planes. But say one bad thing about a Cirrus or the pilot and holy hell it's like the entire Sahara got dumped into their vaginas. The owners group even put out an article on how to deal with people that give you crap. Really? That's not helping your cause at all.
Dude, it's translucent!![]()

Mooney people are right up there too.. if I hear "roll cage" one more time or some brag about going 300 knots on 2 gallons an hour and "I've had 9 basketball players and two great danes in it and they were very comfortable" I'm going to vomit.thin skin
I've never had a Mooney pilot try to turn around in my driveway, drive into my ditch and then insist on destroying the wheel pant trying to get it out before anybody else noticed rather than taking the time to get it out without more damage. But I have had a cirrus pilot do it. Had to have cost him $5k. That thing was destroyed. But a Mooney probably wouldn't have been damaged at all, and would have used less fuel to power out of it too, because the gear is tougher than anything else out there and it burns nothing.everyone thinks what they own is the best. I think it's as simple as that. Cirrus challenged what aviation was and brought something fresh.. and unlike most of the vaporware out there they actually got successful at it, it challenged the status quo. Why did the TTx fail? That plane was superior in just about every way..
Mooney people are right up there too.. if I hear "roll cage" one more time or some brag about going 300 knots on 2 gallons an hour and "I've had 9 basketball players and two great danes in it and they were very comfortable" I'm going to vomit.
I think some of the difference is that while we call Cessna's boring and Mooney's have the tail on backwards the knocks against Cirrus are more often pointed at the pilot vs the plane.. and sometimes uncovers a deeper culture war of "rich = bad"
Having said that, people who privately own 172s are good sports for quietly dealing with all the "why would you pay so much money to fly a slow dumpy trainer" crap
I'm happy they produce aircraft and don't close like Mooney. That being said": Most transient Cirri in my area avoid the Class C and land at our field for fuel. They blow up the student pattern with the "10 mile straight in" ... if they join the pattern, they're practically running over the C-152s doing their max 90 knots on downwind. We also have a drop zone south of the airport that gets penetrated only by that make and model ...![]()
hahahahait was a Piper pilot, maybe his Cirrus was in the shop
sadly many simple aren'tif you're competent
I wonder how many folks do the CSIP course.. I'd wager the folks doing stupid pilot tricks haven't done the course unfortunately. The capability can be tempting for many. Get your license on a 172 and get thrown in an SR22? People like speed. But doesn't give them a right to be ****olesI'm happy they produce aircraft and don't close like Mooney. That being said": Most transient Cirri in my area avoid the Class C and land at our field for fuel. They blow up the student pattern with the "10 mile straight in" ... if they join the pattern, they're practically running over the C-152s doing their max 90 knots on downwind. We also have a drop zone south of the airport that gets penetrated only by that make and model
Not sure I agree. I've flown with several and we have a growing number on our field. It feels much closer to the "forked tail doctor killer" days of Bonanzas: the plane seems to attract intelligent, rich, high-achiever individuals who don't necessarily have the time to become/stay proficient. And they tend to have a lot of self-confidence. All generalizations/stereotypes but I do think there's truth to it, to a meaningful degree.It’s the same cultural phenomenon as anything new that challenges tradition or prior respected generational thinking.
For me it's absolutely not jealousy as it doesn't check all the boxes of what I need a plane to do. For me it falls into the over-reliance on gadgetry that erodes the actual skills of a pilot, the initial lack of training early on (the pull early pull often mantra that Cirrus has since gone away from), and it doesn't help that a lot of them seem to have EXTREMELY thin skin which then just makes them a target. We can have high wing low wing tail-wheel nose-wheel and throw humorous jabs at each other. Give Mooney pilots crap about the tail being on backwards and come out smelling like a sardine, Grumman pilots crap about needing former SAC bases to operate from, needing Warren Buffett expense account if you own a Beech, and Piper and Cessna pilots grief for flying boring ass planes. But say one bad thing about a Cirrus or the pilot and holy hell it's like the entire Sahara got dumped into their vaginas. The owners group even put out an article on how to deal with people that give you crap. Really? That's not helping your cause at all.
Not sure I agree. I've flown with several and we have a growing number on our field. It feels much closer to the "forked tail doctor killer" days of Bonanzas: the plane seems to attract intelligent, rich, high-achiever individuals who don't necessarily have the time to become/stay proficient. And they tend to have a lot of self-confidence. All generalizations/stereotypes but I do think there's truth to it, to a meaningful degree.
There are probably jackasses among pilots of just about every type of flying machine but they do seem over-represented in the Cirrus group. Around here, if the pattern is boogered up it sure seems a Cirrus is involved out of proportion to the number of them around. And, frankly, some seem like they want to be jerks just to be jerks: I was #2 behind one in my gyro and when he landed, instead of waiting in the runup area at the far end for me to do my thing he turned around and came back SLOOOOOWLY, with no radio call when he finally exited. I had actually beaten him to the pattern and gave way to him and that was the "teamwork" response (as seems typical and noted above, he was on an extended Final while I was on Downwind). Fortunately it was an excuse to slow-fly and fortunately nobody was behind me. But that seems typical: most everyone around here lets people go ahead to taxi to runup, etc. out of courtesy. Not sure I've seen a Cirrus pilot do that. In fact, if I wait in the runup area to let them come taxi down (in my fixed wing) they're more likely to come down, turn around, and take off ahead of me rather than wait their turn. So, to me, there sure seems to be a strong sense of entitlement among many of them, proficient pilots or not.
Calling someone an incompetent entitled a**hole pilot is on a different level than pointing out that Beech replacement parts are expensive or that a 182 is a little boring. That might account for some of the differing reactions.
I am training myself to be a cirrus pilot - so i do 10 miles straight in
i am also a jackass - so based on the inputs on this thread... i will fit right in![]()
Ok...we’ll all pee ons you.I fly a Cirrus, you are all peons to me.![]()
everyone thinks what they own is the best. I think it's as simple as that. Cirrus challenged what aviation was and brought something fresh.. and unlike most of the vaporware out there they actually got successful at it, it challenged the status quo. Why did the TTx fail? That plane was superior in just about every way..
Of course they do 10 mile straight ins, the autopilot won't fly a pattern!![]()
Ok...we’ll all pee ons you.![]()
Finally the voice of reason!!!!
.........and their claim that every parachute pull is a 'save' opens them up to justifiable criticism.
Because many times a chute wasn't needed to make a "save." It's like saying a seat-belt saved your life when you hit a parking curb at 3mph. No, it actually didn't.
Paul Berterelli’s article about planes with chutes commented on a couple cases where the chute failed to deploy when asked to and the pilot still managed to land safely. So if it had deployed would that have been a save? I think notWhy?
There is no fricken way you can know that, none.
Stop being an entitled incompetent a-hole pilot then.
I have yet so hear/see a brand C(metal)/B/G/M/P get ****ed off about having to fuel their own plane, declaring an emergency in VFR when the magenta line disappeared, or being so stuck up that they won't fly without air conditioning. But I have seen it from the Cirridiots.
Yesterday I did a 94 mile straight in. But I was the only one dumb enough to get bounced around in the heat, so I didn't cut anyone off.![]()
…But say one bad thing about a Cirrus or the pilot and holy hell it's like the entire Sahara got dumped into their vaginas…

You better live a clean life dude. When you get to the Pearly Gates, if they send you 'down', your Purgatory is going to be in a Cirrus making a straight in that lasts for Eternity.
everyone thinks what they own is the best. I think it's as simple as that. Cirrus challenged what aviation was and brought something fresh.. and unlike most of the vaporware out there they actually got successful at it, it challenged the status quo. Why did the TTx fail? That plane was superior in just about every way..
Having said that, people who privately own 172s are good sports for quietly dealing with all the "why would you pay so much money to fly a slow dumpy trainer" crap
Our last trip was 1,000+ nm each way. Not only is that ~3 hours faster in cruise, plus I get to cruise altitude faster, and I only had to make one stop. That flight would have taken so long in a 172 we would never have done that and flown commercial instead. Now, it was also the longest flight other than a couple I've done on my own, but 500-700 nm is common for us. If your goal is to putter around on the weekends, or sightseeing, then yeah, a 172 wins hands down. No contest. But don't even start to compare the speeds, because then you're talking about travelling and again there's no contest, but the results are flipped. And how many times have pilots crashed the plane when the field was "made" and it was fatal?Having hit a curb at 3mph without wearing a seatbelt, I know for a fact the seatbelt did not save my life.
Early on there were more than a few reported chute pulls where the Cirrus was in gliding distance of an airport, all the pilot had to do was pilot.
Having hit a curb at 3mph without wearing a seatbelt, I know for a fact the seatbelt did not save my life.
Early on there were more than a few reported chute pulls where the Cirrus was in gliding distance of an airport, all the pilot had to do was pilot.
Do you remember the pulls? I hadn't heard that. But to your point, about piloting, if for some reason a pilot loses his **** and stops piloting, and I think that happens more times than we can know, it's an option.
Oh man, Cirrus pilots and fuel. Was doing a Lifeline flight and rather that fly an hour north to meet the 1st leg pilot and then back to the SW to get the patient to the final destination, I suggested we just meet at my field for the drop off since it was only 5 miles different for him to fly to my home drome. Holy hell, I have never seen someone get so upset that they had to put their own fuel in the plane. "Airnav said this was assisted serve, why isn't there anyone to fill up my plane?!?!" "Yeah, if the manager(s) are here they might help you, but they aren't here right now." He was soooooo put off by having to fuel his plane it was comical. Entitled much?
Ewww, that's for the "little people".