On 19 Jun 2006 17:33:01 -0700, "Robert M. Gary"
wrote:


Roger wrote:
Speaking of safety... I understand that the accident rate for the
SR-22 is about half that of the rest of the GA fleet and for
fatalities they are even better.. Any one have the specific numbers
on that?

Gee, that's not what I heard. I heard they have the worst record of the
high performance fleet. The thinking is that there are a lot of 100 hr
pilots flying across the country in these new "safety" machines.

Heard and see...That's about what Cirrus is saying about their fleet
at the training sessions and again I ask, does any one have specific
figures, or a place to find them such as accidents per 100,000 hours
and fatalities. They've only been around about 5 years for the oldest,
but are outselling everything else so there are already a lot of them
out there.

As to the SR-22 if you want insurance you can afford they have a very
serious training program complete with recurrency.

However, for those who want safety and "economy" the Diamond DA40,
featured in this months "Plane&Pilot" has good performance, good fuel
burn, modern cockpit, competes directly with the Piper Archer and
Cessna 172 with better performance, has good handeling
characteristics, descends slower in a full stall than the SR-22 under
a chute (quoting from the article), and has a full glass modern panel.

But to answer the OP's original statement, the DA40 has docile stall
characteristics and a relatively slow approach and landing. Wing
loading is about 17# per sq ft. and with and injected 180HP engine
behind a CS prop it'll maintain close to a 1000 fpm climb to 8000.

Plus they have been selling over a 100 a year stateside.
Cheap it's not, but then neither are the new 172s and Pipers.

If I had the money and were interested in staying with relatively
simple planes this would probably be it.

Roger Halstead (K8RI & ARRL life member)
(N833R, S# CD-2 Worlds oldest Debonair)
www.rogerhalstead.com

-Robert