Have I pointed out that these are strange times? Well, they are. As we're in the middle of a huge economic downturn, companies like Cirrus and Cessna and Diamond and, yes, even Mooney, are doing some serious cutting edge development of their products, or cooking up new products altogether.
For Cirrus, that means a brand new SR22, and you heard it here first (I think). Well, the "new" SR22 is actually the existing SR22 but with a couple of new innovations.
First, it's got a certified (or to-be-certified. . . 2Q 09) flight into known icing system. It uses a beefed up, technologically marvelous new TKS system with dual tanks and triple pumps, new strips and cool MFD system display, ice lights, and more, to create an amazingly sophisticated system.
Look for a full report on it in an upcoming issue of Flying.
The airplane I flew was also outfitted with the Perspective by Garmin cockpit. If I didn't gush over it enough in my article over last year, let me just say again, wow. A fabulous system that puts so much power in the tip of the pilot's finger that it makes single-pilot IFR a whole new game. Great stuff.
And, the airplane has enhanced vision. It's not Gulfstream style cooled sensor stuff, but it works, and it works pretty well. It's not going to see through thick clouds on approach, and it will never go into a HUD and let you descend to 100 feet on approach, but it serves to help greatly at night and to see things more clearly in some reduced visibility conditions.
The whole package is a prime example of the remarkable innovations that Cirrus has either come up with ton their own or shepherded into existence.
Indeed, the airplanes that were top of the line back when I started flying in the height of the boom back in the late 70s pale in comparison, in terms of safety features and performance to this remarkable set of wings.
And the (un) scary thing is, they're only going to keep getting better.
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