Originally Posted by
BoilerUP
Cirruses are NOT dangerous.
I flew a SR22 in my previous job and have probably 700 hours in the thing - getting a "feel" for them is not an issue whatsoever.
For some odd reason people are terrified of doing slow flight and stalls in them, but I've done 45 degree banked steep turns in slow flight with substantial aerodynamic buffet and had no problem feeling out where "the edge" of stall was by the seat of my pants. Additionally, just like any airplane if you keep the "ball centered" it breaks in a stall benignly with little to no wing drop tendency.
The single biggest driver of Cirrus accidents is the aeronautical decisionmaking of the people driving the damn things...
I agree with your last statement. I have little doubt that YOU, BoilerUP, can flly the Cirrus with an excellent margin of safety. Nevertheless, read the NTSB reports and you get a theme.
Read this:
http://www.ntsb.gov/_layouts/ntsb.av...20100510X11536
or this:
www.ntsb.gov/_layouts/ntsb.aviation/brief.aspx?ev_id=20090218X62344
or this:
www.ntsb.gov/_layouts/ntsb.aviation/brief.aspx?ev_id=20080206X00142
or this:
www.ntsb.gov/_layouts/ntsb.aviation/brief.aspx?ev_id=20020502X00613
and there is a common theme, spun in by students and instructors alike. Prompt anti-spin inputs in a C172 or C182 will abort any spin, but Cirruses can and do snap roll into the ground. They should be flown in a significantly different manner accordingly. They can probably be used for primary training in a part 141 type program, but if you have students putting in opposite aileron, like this, well, I'd want to be in a 152.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WKIk-dqml6U
If you are interested, read a great article by Landsberg (ASF) back when the Cirrus was being approved, as the handling characteristics were being explored and some of this was predicted, as the Cirrus is far from "spin resistant."
Spinning In - AOPA
According to Stough and DiCarlo, "Both the Cirrus and Lancair were certified using spin-resistance certification standards; however, neither was certified as fully spin resistant." Cirrus, which had already made the decision to include a standard parachute system to solve other safety problems, proposed this as an equivalent level of safety. If the pilot somehow managed to get beyond the enhanced stall characteristics and into a spin, there was a way to escape.