Originally Posted by
SkyHigh
One of my flight students just bought a brand new Turbo Cirrus SR22 GTS Perspective. He wants to get an instrument rating so last week I went up with him for the first time in his new plane. Though I have plenty of background with modern automated aircraft systems I don't have any experience with the new generation of flat screen plastic general aviation planes.
I was expecting to be impressed but got totally blown away instead. The Cirrus perspective is better equipped than any airliner I know of. Along with all the usual flat screen magic like synthetic vision and highway in the sky stuff it even has an infrared camera so that in low light, fog or whatever you can still see the runway.
The seats were comfortable. The cabin was quiet. All the automation felt natural. The entire package comes together into a form that must be close to what divine inspiration intended for us when the concept of aviation was born. It is like a magic carpet ride. So far, the only thing that I can say for certain that it can not do is to leave the atmosphere and enter low earth orbit.
I want one !!
Jim
Skyhigh -
I totally agree. I had been carrying around a picture of the Cirrus cockpit for many years now and they are only getting better. Recently I had a chance to see a little bit of an Avidyne system in a Piper Matrix. I believe that is the same system that is found in the Cirrus. I only saw some features demo'ed on the ground but I can't wait to actually fly an airplane with this type of avionics suite. The Hornet cockpit used to be called a "Star Wars" cockpit because it was so advanced - well....it is more than amazing what is available in general aviation (at a price!)
USMCFLYR