I received an email from the Grumman Gang 's Ron Levy "FWIW, when I saw Marty Weinhous at AOPA last June shortly after he got his SR22 and sold his Tiger, he said that he really had to have the additional payload and speed, but it was at a price: “It flies like a Cessna.”
I find that hard to believe . Having a couiple hundred hours in Tigers & Cheetahs - as lovely handling that they are - when you add the roominess & speed of even my lowly SR20, there is no comparison.
Ron is having a senior moment or two.[:)] I never, never, said the above. And I wasn’t at AOPA last June.
What I did say, in June 2002, was something like the SR22 is a grown-up Tiger (meaning more power, speed, range, and better avionics). I also said something to the effect that they had similar flying characteristics except that the Cirrus is “heavier” in roll. He said, in return, that the Cirrus was not a grown-up Tiger, but a senile Tiger.[:(]
We agreed to disagree. By the way, Ron is a terrific safety director for the American Yankee Association (type club for Grumman aircraft).
I love my Tiger (still for sale, BTW) and have many, many hours in AA5’s and AA5B’s.
I only have about 8 hours in Cirrus’s so far, but my first impression was the comparitive heaviness on the controls. Then again, the Tiger has always seemed “toy-like” to me, but in a good way, if you can imagine that. A serious travelling machine, but still very sprightly on the controls.
The Cirrus gives me much more of a “big airplane” feel. Part of it is the relatively heavy controls, part is the higher wing loading and part is the more modern avionics and autopilot. It punches through turbulence in a much more solid fashion.
Now, it only they’d put a sliding canopy on the SR22 it would be (almost) perfect!
Marty,
It’s conceivable that a former Grumman pilot might think that a Cirrus “flies like a Cessna” — but only if s/he were transitioning from a Grumman with somewhat higher performance than the Tiger (see accompanying image).
If that were true, it would be one of the slowest airplanes in its class!!
Come to think of it though, since the only airplane in its class is a Lancair Columbia 300/350, which is a bit faster, then it is the slowest in its class. Never mind.
