Believe it or not, we are actually interested in your life story. As you surf through COPA, you will find out our life stories . . . and they are varied.
By the time you join us at the upcoming COPA Migration in June (https://www.facebook.com/M11COPA?ref=hl), (Cirrus Owners & Pilots Association > Forums), you’ll know hundreds of COPA members and Cirrus pilots. Be active. Be involved; LEARN: SHARE.
Great! Now you’ll have the experience of “drinking from a fire hose” with all of the information available on the member’s side of the Forums. Also be sure and check out COPAPedia for knowledge in condensed form. (Log in with the same credentials as logging into the “regular” COPA boards.) Please post questions for the group; you will see that we are very responsive and we’ll do everything we can to help.
And, by all means, go fly the airplane!
Welcome. Be sure to read the article on changes by serial number. You didn’t mention a price range. Depending on what you are willing to spend you might want to fly both a 20 and a 22. The climb difference is huge and a 22 is nice to operate up high due to the climb rate.Take your time and get what YOU want. It’s a fine airplane.
Good luck with your 22!
Sorry about your budget- it’s going to get all messed up.
But if you test fly a 22, you’ll buy one. Very zippy airplanes, those 22s.
And welcome to COPA, home of the bossiest owners on the planet. Lots of good information, whether you thought you needed it or not. For example, look over the Canada thread presently running. You’ll be wanting to go there next summer, because it’s a quick easy trip from WI. And you’ll find Rob Apens has listed every single thing you need to know and do to get through customs and eAPIS, coming and going.
Put it in a favorites file til you need it next year, and your $65 was already well spent on something you weren’t even thinking about just yesterday.
Then read the Lean of peak stuff.
See? You are already saving so much money, a 22 is completely reasonable.
Let us know what happens next, and have fun.
Thanks! Turning on the fire hose tonight. Can’t wait until June.
Tony
Hi Tony, Welcome to COPA. I owned a Piper Dakota prior to buying my 2002 SR22 four years ago. I have zero regrets.
IMO, most a the pilots who badmouth the Cirrus have little or no time in one. It’s a great plane and probably the best “bang for the buck” used airplane on the market right now.
The unexpected “icing on the cake” for me was COPA. There are ~3000 pilots/ friends here. It’s not only a great support network but also a lot of fun! Glad you jumped in.
Niel,
Great advice and information. I know it seems strange but I really needed today’s help. I expected 2 or 3 posts in response. The amount of help I have received today was worth more than I ever thought was possible. As was mentioned earlier, ALL of the nay-sayers were not owners. One was my A & P (whom I respect greatly) so you can imagine my concern. I will immerse myself in COPA as I search for my Cirrus. If all goes well i’ll be flying one within the month.
Ramp appeal…I have NEVER been on a ramp, saw a Cirrus and walked away. Oh yeah, I (and everyone else, it seems) have Cirrus envy.
Thanks!,
Tony
Thanks Roger! I am in Wisconsin. What a great idea to use COPA to find a local sr20 pilot. Thanks for the offer. Hope to see you at a Cirrus event!
Thanks Eric!
The $65 was not the issue, rather the idea that I was an outsider. I thought it would be more respectful if I didn’t join until I owned a Cirrus. I was wrong. Thanks for your help and offer. I may take you up on that phone call!
Tony (Proud COPA Member)
Now reopen a new thread as a member, welcome!
Given that you are buying used there is really no advantage to getting a 20. I flew one for about 4 months and really missed the 22. I previously had an Archer 3 and it was a wonderful " trainer". The 22 performance is so much better and safer that you will love it. $10k might be a little light in budget… Some annuals are that much, but the base is about $2800 if nothing needs to be done. Performance costs and it’s well worth it. Your missions will expand and you will love the plane… We all do.
There are more systems on a 20 and more on a 22 so it just cost a bit more to keep it right. Enjoy the ride!
Tony,
I have a SR20 hangared at KOSH, if you have any questions or want to check it out let me know. Welcome to COPA.
Ben
Hi Ben
How’s the upgrade going?
Tony,
Welcome to COPA. If you think your inquiry got a good response in the guest section just wait until you try to get info on the Member’s Side!
I wonder how many Cirrus aircraft your A&P has taken care of? Many, especially older and very experienced mechanics have little experience with 1) composite structures, 2) highly electrically dependent aircraft, 3) parachute systems and 4) lean of peak operation.
It is important that you use an A&P who is familiar with Cirrus. As already mentioned Wisconsin Aviation is excellent. The H2O town location is highly experienced with Cirrus and you could get a good instructional flight with Jim Quinn or Eileen - I’ve flown with both of them and they know the airplanes. Another Wisconsin resource is my instructor, Matt McDaniel. He is based at KMKE and is the finest instructor I’ve ever flown with. He knows the aircraft. He knows the avionics, and, most important, he actually knows how to FLY!
As a data point I got my SR22 11 years and 1 month ago. It has about 1700 hours and I’ve never had a major issue with it. It is excellent for long trips (yesterday I flew from APA (Denver) to DPA (Chicago) in 4+35 and still had just under 2 hours fuel left when I landed. It also is a great plane just to fly for fun. I can go up for an hour, bore holes in the sky, go nowhere and use only 12 gallons of fuel if I throttle back.
Of the 6 airplanes I’ve owned (PA32, M20, BE35, BE55, BE60 and SR22) the Cirrus is by far the most reliable and the most economical - if you can ever use that word to describe an airplane.
Again, welcome to COPA.
Very good move on joining COPA. There’s a wealth of info on this site and some great people here always ready to help. Just wanted to give you a sense of my experience with being a (relatively) new cirrus owner. I purchased my airplane (a 2002 sr22) through cirrus certified and couldn’t be happier. It was my first airplane purchase so I was quite nervous about it and having the comfort of a warranty period (albeit a short one) definitely gave me the warm fuzzies. my plane did have issues in the warranty period, a couple of which were big ticket items, like the MCU (a significant component of the electrical system) and the engine driven fuel pump. All these items were covered by cirrus with no problems. last year, which was a bad year for me in terms of maintenance - my aileron trim motor failed, burning out the autopilot computer, which had to be replaced) my total operating cost, including fuel was a tad over $20000. again, i’ve got a '22 so owning a '20 your numbers may vary. overall, my direct costs of fuel and maintenance tend to be approx $1/nm. this year i have the parachute repack coming up in december and that will add $11500 to the cost. the cirrus is, in my opinion, easy to hand fly in proper trim and a very stable ifr platform. even with my multiple maintenance items last year, it was down for a total of about 4 weeks the whole year. overall the dispatch reliability of the plane is better than 90%. if you decide to buy, i would recommend the cirrus certified program, based on my experience, and i think you will enjoy the plane very much! Good luck!
Thanks!
Tony,
Having owned a 2003 SR20 for three years (300hrs) and starting a flying club that owns one. I could help answer a few of your questions.
I’ll lead off by saying “It’s an Airplane” you own one already and understand things break, you’ll need to shell out cash to fix them.
With that said; the 20 is a great plane if you don’t need to go too far and carry too much especially on a hot day in WI. Our last IO-360 lasted 1700hrs and we’re well over 1000 on the new one. As far as flying without an AP, yes; it’s touchy to trim, yet once you do it flies like most any airplane. Something you’ll get used to. I’ve personally flown over most of the US without issue. 9.2 GPH LOP @ >11K works pretty well. I trained and received my instrument rating (w/o AP btw) and so did a few others in our club. I’d buy a 2 blade prop if you can find one. They seem to climb better. As far as your budget $10K, It really depends on the Bird you buy and how much the past owners have fixed. If you browse through posts, you’ll find many references to Electrical, Engine and Airframe issues. I’d spend some quality money for a very deep pre-buy done by a Cirrus Service Center close to you. In Wisconsin, I’d use Wisconsin Aviation Watertown.
This is all imho… for more info, feel free to email me: scott@tcons.net
Tailwinds,
Scott
Thanks Scott! I do plan to have an exhuastive pre-buy done. I would rather spend a little now than a lot later. All of the things I have discussed with people so far are things that I would normally expect. The things that were scaring me (which have turned to be falsehoods, or at the least, greatly exaggerated) were the items that I mentioned…Oh, and the plane is covered in bondo and it falls off the plane regularly!
The Prop might be a deciding factor but honestly, if everything else fits my wants and needs I will take the 3 blade…and it looks cool too!
Thanks again!
Tony,
Welcome. I joined Cirrus in 2009, and have learned a lot. I had 530 hours then and now closing in on 1300. I have loved the SR20, but would upgrade to a 22 in heart beat. That said the N8148M, will most likely be the first and last plane I will ever own. So far I have flown it in over 30 States from Key West to Cape Flattery Washington. I has been a lot more expensive than I expected, but I still think it was all worth it. I’m not a good judge of cost of maintaining any plane except this one, I just know it is more than I want to pay. But my safety is paramount, and I rest a little easier at night knowing that I have Savvy to help out with maintenance issues, and want to put a plug in for them. I see them a great insurance policy. While I can’t say that Savvy has save me a lot of money, I’m pretty sure that if I stop using them something will go wrong and I will need their expertise.
I think the SR20 is very easy to fly with or without the autopilot. I like the low wing airplane, but I don’t think the visibility is as good for taking pictures outside the airplane. I think it would be nice to be able to stick you camera out the window.
Good luck with your decision, but if I was in the market today, I’d probably get another SR20, if I was the single owner, but would probably team up in a 22 if I could find the right guys.
Good luck,
Richard