The figures published in "AOPA Pilot" may be high, for various reasons I
won't go into. You might want to Call NationAir, an insurance broker which
carries a lot of Cirrus policies. Call the St. Louis office at (877) 475
5860. If you ask for Karen Caudle or J.T. Helms, they should be able to
give you some estimates, based on your experience level.

As to the unsolicited advice you've received on whether or not to buy a
Cirrus, I'd like to add one more piece: Don't believe everything people say
on Usenet (including my advice, which is why I'm giving you references to
verify it). My unscientific estimate is that at least 95% of Cirrus owners
are delighted with their airplanes. There seem to be some disgruntled
non-owners in this newsgroup, however. Go figure.

If you're not already a member of the Cirrus Owners and Pilots Association,
you can join for $50 a year. You can read the unvarnished truth about the
plane there -- warts and all. If it convinces you that you wouldn't be
happy with a Cirrus, it will have saved you way more than $50 in grief. At
any rate, you can get WAY more than $50 in good advice for aviation in
general (not limited to Cirrus) there. You don't have to be an owner to
join. You just have to pay the 50 bucks

http://www.cirruspilots.org

Best of luck in your endeavor, whichever type of plane you buy. There are
no bad types of general aviation airplanes -- just good and better.

-Mike

"Doodybutch" wrote in message
...
I was thinking about upgrading to a Cirrus if I could scrape the money
together. They're really nice, if you haven't checked one out.

An acquaintance of mine told me that the insurance on these aircraft is
much higher than comparably priced singles because of the ballistic
parachutes. Apparently, once it's deployed the airplane is totaled and
there have been a number of deployments.

I would appreciate it if someone knowledgeable would comment on this.

Thanks,

DB