[Jeroen]

Many of us will have fiddles around with various car configurator out there on the Internet. Obviously, always a car you won’t be able to afford, a Porsche or maybe a nice Range Rover.

Well, in order to satisfy our guest for things we can’t afford, the American Airplane company Cirrus has now come on line with an airplane configurator!

https://configurator.cirrusaircraft.com/

The Cirrus SR22/20 has been the best selling single prop engine for several years. I have flown many times on them. It is still my favourite plane to pilot!

Cirrus also makes a single engine jet plane, the vision jet, also included in the configurator. Believe it or not, but in terms of numbers ordered/produced, the Cirrus Jet is by far the most successful business jet over 2022. Outselling everything else, big and small.

All Cirrus aircraft come equipped with a ballistic parachute. It all goes wrong, if you don’t know which way is up, or down, you pull a handle, a chute shoots out of the aircraft and deploys and lowers the complete plane and it occupants to Mother Earth!

So dream away, think you are the owner/pilot of one of these beauties and fly away!

Jeroen

[ryzen7@5800u]

It's a life goal of mine to own and pilot a SR22T. This is an excellent way to stay motivated and keep the dream alive!
How is the SR20/22 to fly?

[Jeroen]

Originally Posted by ryzen7@5800u

It's a life goal of mine to own and pilot a SR22T. This is an excellent way to stay motivated and keep the dream alive!
How is the SR20/22 to fly?

Great ambition!

I loved flying the SR20/SR22.

Of course, it is a very luxurious cockpit to start with.
It is also compared to most other single prop engine planes a big and relative heavy plane. So you need to adjust for that.

I found the side stick controls very convenient and took no time to get used to. It has one drawback which I found out too. The Cirrus has an excellent autopilot which I used a lot too. But one day on a 3,5 hour long flight it broke down. Whatever I tried I could not get it going again. Not a big thing I just hand flew the plane. But it does mean your left hand/arm doesn’t get any relieve for the duration of the flight. On a normal yoke, such as in the Cessna, or a center stick, such as on the Diamond you can at least alter flying with either hands.

It is a very stable plane. Compared to a car it is a bit like a GT.

Transitioning from a Cessna 177 Kardinal was fairly straight forward. Because the Cirrus is bigger and heavier it takes some getting used to. You also need to start planning ahead further. With the Cirrus, especially the turbo version I found myself also flying a lot higher. (Although not required perse, I got my high altitude endorsement as well).

The Cirrus automation is quite complex compared to most small Cessnas and other trainer aircraft. I choose to get my initial pilot license on a very traditional, steam gauge cockpit, as it is known. A trusted Cessna C150. I wanted to learn to fly the analogue way and then transition to Digital and glass.

I am quite the nerd and I am also very familiar with the Cockpitsystem of the Boeing 747-400. If anything the Cirrus Garmin systems are more powerful and easier to use. But it does take a while to get fully proficient. I spend a couple of afternoon sitting in the Cirrus in the hangar with exterior power on, just fiddling endlessly with all the buttons and fancy functions. Trying out endless scenarios. In order to get the most out of all the automation, operating it, knowing what it can do must become completely second nature. If it doesn’t, it might start to confuse you inflight and that icannbe a huge distraction. People have killed themselves that way.

Being able to start using jet streams, or at least the strong wind in the 20-25000 feet altitudes, can make a huge difference on your trip fuel, range and or travel time.

To get the most out of any Cirrus I would always recommend to get an IFR rating as well.

I got all my licenses and did most of my flying in the USA. There is no doubt in my mind the USA is the best country in the world to learn to fly and to fly as a private pilot.

When we moved from Delhi back to the Netherlands I did rent a Cirrus SR20 for 4-5 hours. I had not flown for 4 years, so all my licenses had experience. I had to fly with Certified Flight Instructor of course. But he was very good and let me handle the plane all by myself. My eldest son Luc came along for the ride.

https://youtu.be/PQQkAYZvWHc

Since ai have rented a Cirrus a few more times when I was back in the USA on business as well. Good fun, but not the same as being fully proficient and up to date with all your licenses and medical certificates.


Good luck with your Cirrus aspirations!

Jeroen

[WD-42]

Back in 2008, a few friends and I had flown into Oshkosh.

Visiting the Cirrus pavilion I saw the Cirrus Vision Jet and wanted to have a look at it, but observed that they were prioritising the people who looked like potential buyers, which was fair enough. Being the shy grad student that I was then, I just hung around trying to get a chance to take a look.

This tall gentleman in a white polo comes by, stands next to me, and starts chatting with me asking how I liked the airplane. He introduced himself as an engineer with the company (didn't give me his name), and being an aero engineer myself I start chatting with him about the design process and the decisions and trade-offs they made while designing the jet, how similar it was to their ST-50 prototype and so on. The gentleman spent a good ~15-20 minutes talking to me explaining the ins and outs of the design, and then invited me and personally gave me a tour of the jet. I was quite excited that a Cirrus engineer spent so much time with me a simple grad student, and all the info I got from him on the design process was a gold mine for a student specialising in aircraft design. All the while chatting with him, I had this niggling feeling at the back of my head that I knew his face from somewhere, but was struggling to recognise him. As the tour of the jet ended it suddenly struck me that this might be Dale Klapmeier, and as we stepped out of the jet, I asked him if he was indeed Dale, and he just gave me a confirmatory smile. I told him I was very honoured and privileged that he had spent that much time chatting with me, and showing me the jet.

Just then one of his salesman came to him, and said there was a potential buyer who wanted to meet him. Before he left, he gave me his card, and told me to call him when I graduated. I did email him a year or so later when I graduated, but never heard back. But, thanks to the recession and disagreements between their majority shareholders and the Klapmeier brothers, Cirrus was going through a change of ownership, management, lay-offs, and a lot of change, and I chalked it up to him focussing on that big stuff and not getting a chance to reply. Thorough gentleman though, and I really enjoyed that chat, and tour of the jet, totally made my day.

[Jeroen]

Originally Posted by WD-42

Back in 2008, a few friends and I had flown into Oshkosh.

Visiting the Cirrus pavilion I saw the Cirrus Vision Jet and wanted to have a look at it, but observed that they were prioritising the people who looked like potential buyers, which was fair enough. Being the shy grad student that I was then, I just hung around trying to get a chance to take a look.
.

Great story! 2008 was the year the Vision jet first flew and was first introduced at Oshkosh. I visited Oskosh in 2009 and the subsequent three years there after. It is by far, the most impressive airshows I have come across in all my many years visiting air shows all over the world. The fact that you can actually fly in, on your own little plane makes it very specials.

I have visited the Cirrus factory in Duluth once. Very impressive, very knowledgeable and easy going folks. But no mistake, you need to bring some serious money to buy even the cheapest Cirrus. We are talking $ 750000 plus easily!

That is a lot of money. Second hand these planes keep their value quite well too. I have not flown the vision jet. But I have flown both the SR20 and 22T.

I had several friends who owned Cirrus aircraft and used it for business purpose. One of them had ten hair saloons across Kansas and Missouri. He used to fly from city to city visiting them all. I often went along. Great way to build hours and get experience visiting new airfield. Great memories!

Jeroen