Life is a Cirrus, or "Spring Break for Pilots"

Got a chance to go to Sun N' Fun, the big airshow in Lakeland, Florida this week. It's a heck of an event -- airplanes everywhere, vendors selling things for pilots, an airshow over the runway in the afternoons featuring the Air Force Thunderbirds, and lots of seminars, forums, and stuff to look at.

While chatting with the Cirrus people today, I got invited to a little reception/dinner after the airshow at the main airport building. The featured guest was to be Dale Klapmeier, founder and Chairman of Cirrus. This guy is a legend in aviation, having basically built an new airplane company from nothing in the 1990's. The Cirrus SR-20 and SR-22 are both known for being entirely new composite designs that go fast, have modern comforts, and take advantage of every possible technological advance.

Klapmeier gave a talk in which he described the philosophy behind the highly successful Cirrus airplane. He said that, when he and his brother started out in the 1990's, they had four or five airplanes between them and his wife didn't want to go anywhere in any of them. Said he discovered that if your wife does not like or trust the airplane, you'll be driving a lot.

So, what did he and his brother learn from this? That they had better design an airplane with the primary goal in mind being to make the passenger, often a non-pilot spouse, happy and content. If the passenger is content, it is easy to please the pilot.

For example, the avionics in a regular airplane don't answer the questions his wife always had: where are we? when are we going to get there? do we have enough fuel? He said that as soon as they lifted off from the airport, with the airport still in full view behind the plane, his wife was already asking, "Where are we?"

So the entire design of a Cirrus was predicated on the need to answer those three questions in a way that is immediately obvious, as well as reassuring. When you look at the moving map screen in a Cirrus, even a non-pilot can see immediately where you are, and there is an indication of when you will reach your destination. And the fuel consumption and remaining amount is easily visible too.

Now, after developing the Cirrus, Klapmeier does not drive anywhere anymore. His wife wants to fly everywhere.

Must be the leather seats. And, the parachute. But that's a story for another day.

Cheers from KLAK,