On my way back from first-ever experience at Oshkosh, confirming my view that a mass meeting of airplane enthusiasts and a mass drive-in of Harley Davidson owners are really not that different. But that is a theme for another day. Also having a reminder of the pitfalls of our beloved hub-and-spoke airline system: the total time it will take me to get from Oshkosh to San Francisco, allowing for the drive from Oshkosh to O’Hare and the three-hour delay of the United Airlines ORD-SFO flight, is way more time than it would have taken to fly a SR20-type plane direct.
Without going into all the details, I think anyone interested in Cirrusology would have taken a positive impression from the show. Other companies had splashier news to announce. Eclipse had a mockup of its plane. Lancair was talking about its “highway in the sky” flight-control equipment – which if it catches on, presumably will be must-have for all companies, from Cessna to Cirrus. As Ian Bentley pointed out wryly, “All we have to say is that we’ve just delivered the 53rd plane.”
But here were a few little observations. I welcome elaboration by any other members of the tribe who were there:
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The organizational meeting for the Cirrus Owner’s Association was positive, I thought. Chris Jones talked about high practical value of having recurring training programs – based on the fact that every Cirrus owner’s competence and safety record affects rates for all the other owners. Chris Baker of Wings ALoft, who on small-world grounds had been my IFR instructor in Seattle, talked about WA’s development of a curriculum. Alan Klapmeier talked about new planes, existing plane, finance, and so on. It seemed a good start.
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The ARNAV booth was right acoss from Cirrus’s. Mirabile dictu, they showed displays with all kinds of stuff on them – engine data, stormscope, weather radar, you name it. I asked them: OK, when will this stuff be available. They answered with variations on “real soon now” – but I got the impression that they and Cirrus were getting serious about expanding the power of this thing.
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Paul Johnston and Tony (last name I forget) from Cirrus gave a forum about the history, technology, and performance of the parachute that I found very interesting and that got an appreciative response from the sizeable audience, which did not seem all to be made of Cirrus owners.
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Cirrus has put out all sorts of paraphernalia --hats, key rings, tshirts, high-end briefcases. These things are clearly priced in a way meant to raise some production capital for the company. Still they look very nice.
That’s it from me. I hate United Air Lines, but I have approximately 5 zillion miles with them so can’t afford to go with anyone else. JF