That's a good question. I tend to think it's the material, not the
design. Cirrus actually is a stable airplane, I just found it too
twitchy. I think the airframe is so slick that it's very sensitive to
minute air disturbances, while most metal a/c are "dirty" enough to
ignore them. However, without experience in other composite a/c it's
just a guess... I'd love to hear what other pilots would say...

-Toly.

"John T" wrote in message ews.com...
"Toly" wrote in message
m

Piper's ride is solid and predictable, and you can relax and enjoy the
ride, while Cirrus is too slippery and manually flying one demands
constant control inputs to the point that it wears you out very soon.
I have suspicion this may be true for most metal vs. composite
aircraft.

Is it "metal v. composite" or different design considerations in the
respective airframes?

Don't get me wrong. I haven't so much as sat in a Cirrus much less flown
one, but it seems that the Cirrus was designed as a higher performing
airframe than the Piper models you mentioned. I'm just wondering if the
Cirrus designers sacrificed some stability to achieve that performance.