#2 going with owner to pick up SR20

My father, Neil Paton, is picking up his SR20 on March 15th-16th (I don’t know what his number is). Since we are both pilots, I have decided to tag along. For the flight training, I will be sitting in the rear of the airplane. I have not requested to pay the extra $600 to get the training myself. It there anyone that would recommend against this, or should I get the in-flight training also. I can’t take much time off work, and the extra two days time would not be possible. Can I train in a separate airplane, and not the one my father is purchasing? How much value is there, by sitting in the back seat during his training? I was told that for insurance reasons, I can’t fly the airplane without an instructor, until I get certified in the airplane myself. For now, I don’t think I will be flying the airplane without him anyway.

This should be exciting, none the less. Only one more month!

My father, Neil Paton, is picking up his SR20 on March 15th-16th (I don’t know what his number is). Since we are both pilots, I have decided to tag along. For the flight training, I will be sitting in the rear of the airplane. I have not requested to pay the extra $600 to get the training myself. It there anyone that would recommend against this, or should I get the in-flight training also. I can’t take much time off work, and the extra two days time would not be possible. Can I train in a separate airplane, and not the one my father is purchasing? How much value is there, by sitting in the back seat during his training? I was told that for insurance reasons, I can’t fly the airplane without an instructor, until I get certified in the airplane myself. For now, I don’t think I will be flying the airplane without him anyway.

This should be exciting, none the less. Only one more month!

Our insurance policy (USAIG) requires “factory approved training” in order for a pilot to be covered. Check your father’s policy , and if this requirement is there, you will need the Wings Aloft training if you wnat to fly it yourself and have coverage. I’m not sure what you mean by “certified in the plane”, but if you mean a local checkout, tht is not sufficient for USAIG. In fact, your local CFI would not be approved for coverage without the factory training (Wings Aloft).

The factory does not provide aircraft in which to train–this is why the acceptance flight occurs first (with a factory pilot at the controls), and then the papers are signed and money exchanged, and then the training begins. Also, Cirrus does not actually do training; the training is provided by Wings Aloft, who must be made named insureds on the insurance policy.

I doubt that you will be able to receive training in anything other than your father’s plane, since it is unlikely that the few places that offer SR20s for rental will allow training in them (unless perhaps you join their flying club, and have 250+ hours and an instrument rating, which I’ve heard are minimums for at least one of those available for rent.)

Another possibility is to pay to have Wings Aloft send somebody out to your home airport to do training in your father’s plane. This will doubtlessly cost more than doing it in Duluth.

I also know of partners that have trained simultaneously in their plane in Duluth, so it is not out of the question that you could overlap your training with your father’s in the same plane. I imagine it will take longer, but I doubt it will take twice as long (certainly the ground portion will overlap, and the flight time is kind of a judgement call on the part of the instructors based on experience and progress.)

I ended up with 7.2 flight hours over two days when I did my training, but this was mostly because we were out having fun both days and weren’t in a hurry. If you and your father are both reasonably experienced pilots, I’ll bet you can probably both train up in a couple of days.

If you have tight time constraints, however, you should probably skip going at all, since delays, weather, squawks, and acts of god will conspire to complicate things.

Good luck, and above all, have fun!