"Jay Honeck" wrote in message
news:vighc.35327$yD1.101224@attbi_s54...
But
it's the only airplane I've ever flown that I can say I truly hated and
couldn't wait to be back on the ground.

Wow, you're the only person I've ever heard say *THAT* about the Cirrus.

What didn't you like about the way it flew?
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"


It seemed heavy on the controls requiring a lot of thumb action on the trim
to make it bearable. The stick is too far to the side making it similar to
trying to fly using your door handle. It's more natural to have your hands
towards the center, like a center stick or yoke, instead of having just one
way out to the side. I find the side stick gives you a very detached and
somewhat helpless feeling. Like enjoying the ride is more important than
the actual flying. If the electric trim failed, imagine reaching across to
get your right hand on the stick. Thank god for the parachute, because I
wouldn't want to have to horse that thing through some emergency maneuver.
The feeling I get flying a Cirrus is the same I can get if I played MSFS
while sitting in a lazyboy. In these things PIC means "pilot in cirrus"
because you sure as hell aren't in "command"

The glass panel, however wiz-bang cool, is more distracting than it is
useful. And no, I don't want to look down at my knees to see the analog
backups. Maybe if I learned on something like that I'd be used to it. The
big moving map is great, I've gotta shoehorn one of them into my Musketeer,
but gimmie a panel full of dials for my primary instruments anyday.

It's possible for them to make it more friendly to pilots who want to be
more active in flight, instead of catering to the
ijustgottapilotslicenseandmyothercarisamercedes crowd. But they go where
the money is. I'm sure not all Cirrus owners are the Tom Cruise, Top Gun
type, but all that I've met are. Maybe this has something to do with the
accident stats.

If I win one in a raffle I'll trade you even for your Pathfinder. ;-)