I am new to this and am VERY GRATEFUL to you Cirrus owners and your responses.
I have narrowed my choices to the C400 and the 22Turbo (like nearly everyone else).
My concern is the Avidyne system. I am hearing (even from the salesman at Cirrus) that the Avidyne pane will probably “go out” on me and he told me of customers who had 3 panels go out. On the 3rd failure, Cirrus replaced the panel.
WHile I applaud the customer service, I am buying this plane for efficiency reasons (to fly between LA, Palm Springs and Las Vegas) and don’t want to have problems such as this that makes my plane unavailable. Can you please tell me the problems I can EXPECT with the 22 (avionics and otherwise).
I am hearing that the Cirrus people DO STAND BEHIND their product and rectify problems. I just want to know how many and what type of problems to expect.
Finally, G1000 v. Avidyne. I am hearing that Avidyne may go out of business and that the G1000 product is so much more mainstream…pros and cons of each??
I have flown both the G1000 and the Avidyne systems. I have had a PFD for over a year now; no failures. earlier ones had a lot of problems but the principal issue seems to be swapping out for bad units. If you PFD ever goes out and you get it properly repaired, it seems to be more bullet proof in the long run.
As far as the company going out of business, I have heard nothing to that effect but any company CAN go out of business. Given the volume of units out there, I would suspect someone would buy them out if that happened just like the old ARNAV company.
I like the look of the Avidynes better than the G1000 and the “buttonology” is much easier with the Avidyne too.
We’ve had our Sr22 for over 500 hours with no failures… Even with a failure you would have the Garmins to get you there. Haven’t heard that Avidyne is going out of business. As an owner I am confident there will be continued support. We have been very happy with the Cirrus.
I have a buddy who has owned a G-1000 182 for over 2-years, and he thinks my Entegra is much easier to understand. He has also had his fair share of shop time.
I had a few PFD issues in the 1st 150 hours that my SC finally convinced Avidyne deserved replacing. Since then I have over 1400 hours without a problem (knock on wood).
Guessing either choice has potential for issues, but I would choose Avidyne again. Good luck with your final choice.
Anyone who’s owned a plane with a six-pack will acknowledge that they, too, sometimes malfunction.
In the 500 or so hours I had 1360C, I had one PFD malfunction and one MFD malfunction*, neither requiring repair and neither resulting in a problem in flight.
not including p-static Emax resets, of which I had a few.
I’ve owned both the G1000 and the Avidyne systems. The Avidyne has come a long long way from 2003, when I took delivery of the certification 350 with the Avidyne system. From what I can tell, reliability has gone way up.
I think the G1000 is a much better system but I don’t think it is less reliable at this point than the G1000.
Avidyne is not going out business. They have plenty of products to sell and are well funded.
If you are buying new, I would wait a few weeks to see if anything is introduced at Sun 'n Fun.
One of the advantages of the Avidyne is that you can download logs of all the engine characteristics (EGT, CHT, OAT, Oil T and P, latitude and longitude etc etc). Useful for diagnosing faults or proving where the pilot has been!
I have no experience with the G1000, but I like the Avidyne for functionality, and you still have 2 Garmin 430’s as backup. Garmin is, I am sure , the “better” company and has greater resources. But I would be more swayed by that there are about 3500 SR’s out there, and a lot has been learned during that process.In addition, the SC’s are up to speed at this point.
I have about 400 hrs on my '22 and no problemo’s anywhere (except Alt 1) so far. I might add that the Columbia I flew, was more resonsive flyer, more sportscar like, if you know what I mean.
HI Andrew—you will hear it all on COPA—that is one of the good things about COPA.
We have had our SR22 for 18 months–no problems, awesome plane, I love the Avidyne! and I have personally found my interaction with all of the Cirrus folks in all departments to be “world class”!! And that is from the CEO on down to the guys & gals that sweep up at night! You are getting into GA at a great time!! ENJOY!!
Yes there are problems with Avidyne, but these are overall rare, but can be major headaches if its your plane. Keep in mind that the COPA site is very active and a great way to communicate, but like most things negatives outway the positives. Although I have a friend who’s '07 SR22 has been down since Jan 15th awaiting PFD repair (1st one came back defective). It’s too bad that Avidyne can’t get it together to send out loaners or exchange them quickly as most of the down time issue would be solved.
Also there are almost 3500 SRx’s and I think <400 Columbias (some with Avidyne) so it’s hard to get a feel for actual complaint frequency. I would speculate that in any day there are more Cirri in the AIR than Columbias on the planet. The G1000 has some maintenance advantages in that some of its components are modular and can be field changed etc. It is generally much harder to get fully skilled with, especially for the occasional user. The Avidyne system is more like a built in laptop computer…anything goes wrong you have to send the whole (PFD) in and all the components are together. But when it all works it is a dream plane/pannel.
i’m a new cirrus owner – an SR22 G3 Turbo – and while i love the plane overall, i’ve had numerous issues (rigging out of whack, cowl paint already cracking, engine/manifold pressure consistently exceeding red line during takeoff despite proper warm- and run-up, radios squeaking excessively, and more).
the biggest issue i’ve encountered is with my PFD. while i acknowledge that any piece of electronics can and most likely will (at some point anyway) have issues, the difference between good, great and marginal companies is the manner in which they respond to those issues. Thus far, my experience with Cirrus and especially Avidyne is less than impressive. Avidyne appears so overwhelmed with issues that they have placed several “stoppages” on returns. we’ve been waiting for more than six weeks to get an RMA so that we can send back the PFD. we finally got it sent back and are now waiting for it to return. Calls to Cirrus have gone unreturned – i’ve personally left a couple of voicemails for them and my mechanic has as well. Sort of unbelievable to me that Cirrus wouldn’t bother to return a phone call from one of its customers …