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Posted

A friend of mine has a Piper Arrow.  Nice plane but he wants to upgrade to a traveling airplane that does 160Kts plus.  He was hard over on a Cirrus SR22 and hadn't even considered anything else.  I talked him into a flight in my M20S today and needless to say it opened his eyes.  170 kts true on 12.2 GPH.  I told him he could get the same speed with a cirrus but he'd be burning somewhere north of 16 GPH.  

He has now expanded his search to Eagles and Ovations:-)  

  • Like 2
Posted

Was that flight with or without the 310hp, George?

One takes only slightly more convincing than the other. :)

One is an educated conversation.

The other, is a simple 'hey watch this' moment.

Best regards,

-a-

Posted

To me, the retractable gear is a design feature that cuts parasitic drag where parasitic drag needs to be cut.  You don't, for airframe fabrication convenience, cut parasitic drag by utilizing some highly theoretical airfoil, that leaves the gear hanging out, that when miss handled bucks your ass off head first into terra firma.  Give me Al's laminar flow airfoil, as lightly loaded as possible, gear up and with all the HP I can put in front of the fire wall - that's what makes a Mooney a winning ship.

  • Like 3
Posted

I had a PA-28-R201 t tailed normally aspirated arrow - 1981. Flight planned like 11gph and 137kts. Went to an Ovation and now go 175 on 12. Tell him he is on track, Mooney is the way to go.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

  • Like 1
Posted
18 hours ago, GeorgePerry said:

A friend of mine has a Piper Arrow.  Nice plane but he wants to upgrade to a traveling airplane that does 160Kts plus.  He was hard over on a Cirrus SR22 and hadn't even considered anything else.  I talked him into a flight in my M20S today and needless to say it opened his eyes.  170 kts true on 12.2 GPH.  I told him he could get the same speed with a cirrus but he'd be burning somewhere north of 16 GPH.  

He has now expanded his search to Eagles and Ovations:-)  

He has chosen wisely.

As Anthony said...wait until he gets a ride in the 310HP-equipped flavor...

At that point, he'll think a Cirrus is nothing but a high cloud.

  • Like 1
Posted

I have been doing an insane amount of research; These are just a few items i would drop in.

1. You really want the SR22-G3 or higher, otherwise you fuel burn is higher and it doesnt handle nearly as well - spoken from experience.

2. If you get the Turbo SR22, Expect to pay about 4k per year extra in maintenance costs. This is because you burn through cylinders and exhausts pretty regularly. If you dont believe me look at all the SR22's for sale on controller. Almost all of them have had a full top overhaul prior to the 2000hr OH time. You can also join copa and see all the people complaining about it. 

2a. Parts are really not that cheap; You cannot have it serviced at a Cirrus Service Center and use non Cirrus parts. It is not unheard of to hear of 8k-15k annuals. Average annual if nothing is wrong is about 4k.

3. To preserve your cylinders you really need to fly at 65-75% power at all times. Which means your TAS is actually a lot lower than you think you will get or you pay in cylinders. 

On the flip side.

You get a parashoot which could save your life. That parashoot needs to be repacked every 10years at a cost of about 15k. 

There are cargo conversions to take out the back seats. It adds a ton of cargo room and 30lbs of useful load. So if its just 2 people it works out really well. 

 

Posted

Not to chute a dead horse in the mouth, but just in case anyone is interested, "parachute" is a direct word from French, "para-" being a prefix that generally means to stop or fend off and "chute" meaning a fall, "chuter" being the infinitive form of the verb "to fall." 

So there, my college degree finally came in handy!

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