2007 Cirrus SR-22 GTS Turbo N910B

You may wonder why there’s a picture of a jet included with the pictures of this plane.  It’s very simple – when I went to pick up my new Cirrus, I put a deposit down for the upcoming Cirrus Jet.

I bought this plane only 2 years after I purchased my first Cirrus.  There were several reasons.  First, this plane was turbo-normalized.  That’s technical talk for the fact that the motor was able to keep sea-level pressure in the manifold that greatly increases performance.  Normally aspirated planes lose power as they climb into less dense air, but the turbo-normalized plane keeps its efficiency all the way to cruising altitude.  Second – this plane had air conditioning, while the 2005 didn’t.  That’s not a problem at cruising altitude, but taxiing and waiting to take-off while you’re on the ground in Arizona can be really uncomfortable.  Lastly, the avionics on this plane were better than the ones on the earlier model.

When I went to the Cirrus plant to pick up the plane and receive my 3 days of transition training, the newly announced Cirrus Jet prototype was at the plant.  I was able to get a demonstration of the jet and climb around inside the plane.  I was very impressed.  It had a lot more room than my current Cirrus and was very comfortable.

Cirrus was advertising this as a “personal jet”, not even a “very light jet”.  They claimed it would be the lowest and slowest jet available, with a service ceiling of about 27,000 ft. and a cruise speed of around 300 knots. That’s about 50% faster than my current plane was.  I figured it would be a perfect solution for a pilot like myself.  It had the same landing characteristics as my current plane – cross the fence at around 75 knots when landing.  It would be something I could be very comfortable flying by myself.  When I ordered it, they were expecting that they would start delivering the Jet in 2010.