Don Tuite wrote:

A buddy of mine who flys big helicopters for Erickson has been looking
for a partly-completed Legacy kit. I don't know how the Legacy
compares to the Columbia, but here's an interesting story.

Legacy is 2 seats / 300 Knots (Check Reno race results)
Columbia is 4 seats / 200 Knots

http://www.airrace.org

The other week, he flew down to an airport near Fresno to talk to a
man who had a kit for sale and they had a long talk. What floored my
friend was the Legacy's engine-out rate of descent: 2000 fpm.

Short narrow wings, and not a very wide body...

This is a guy who's had numerous engine failures in 22,000 hours
flying big rotary-wing craft, and as a helicopter-driver, he considers
the club's Cherokee 235, which the rest of us regard a powered flying
anvil, to be a "floater," but 2000 fpm in a plane that comes over the
fence at 100 kt.struck him as challenging.

Piper 4 seater, nowhere in the same speed class as a Legacy that has 100
more horses...

He told me he'd decided to sacrifice a little speed and was going to
start looking at RVs

How fast does a Cirrus come down when the fan's off? I can't find the
data on the Web.

As fast as the chute will allow...

Lancair owners are invited to comment..

Lancair Super ES has better glide ratio. Not an owner but spent a good
bit of time in the right seat of a supercharged one that has managed to
keep its 3 blades turning...

I don't think Cirrus and Lancair spin the same props, but I could be
wrong...