One of These Is Not Like the Other

[AaronDC8402]

I had the opportunity of touring some of the Cirrus facilities at TYS yesterday evening. Since this is my home airport, I'm used to seeing lots of Cirruses, but something looked a little out of place yesterday. Can you spot the anomaly? In case not, I also uploaded a zoomed/cropped version to really give it away. 

We sat through a presentation by the VP of, I think it was, customer relations. Cirrus really is going out of its way to be the luxury brand in general aviation. Considering the initial cost and operating cost of a Cirrus, I'm not ready to have one over a Mooney. But, if I were considering new planes at new plane costs, I'd probably be a little less concerned with operating costs.

 

[Bob_Belville]

Curious, when you took a plant tour did you sign any non-disclosure agreement? Were you allowed to take pics? (Some ex executives have suggested that Mooney needed to restrict tours citing Cirrus policy as industry standard.)

[Joe Zuffoletto]

Years ago when flying from northwest Arkansas to Denver I had to make an emergency bathroom stop for one of my pax in Wichita. I put down at the airport where they were building Bonanzas. Somewhere I have a picture of my Encore on the ramp at the end of a row of about 30 brand new Bonanzas. They were very gracious hosts at the factory and gave my pax and I a nice tour. Nevertheless, I graciously declined when they asked me if I wanted to talk trade.

[Cyril Gibb]

We stopped in at the Beech Heritage Museum at KTHA (Tullahoma TN) on one of our trips last year.  Very impressive collection!  The buildings are a bit over the top.  They were less like a hangar and more like having planes in your living room as conversation pieces.  My favourite was a Beech Starship you can climb into.  Lots of memorabilia too.

..and the Jack Daniels tour nearby was pretty neat also.

 

[pinerunner]

Why do all the other planes there have their tails leaning back funny?

[Cyril Gibb]

Just now, pinerunner said:

Why do all the other planes there have their tails leaning back funny?

Poor quality control...

[AaronDC8402]

5 hours ago, Bob_Belville said:

Curious, when you took a plant tour did you sign any non-disclosure agreement? Were you allowed to take pics? (Some ex executives have suggested that Mooney needed to restrict tours citing Cirrus policy as industry standard.)

It's not really a plant in Knoxville. It's their fulfillment and maintenance center. All business operations are done in Knoxville now also, but plane building is still in Deluth, MN. The Cirrus guy showing us around said there are 800 employees at the assembly factory. That's a lot of man-power.

I didn't sign any non-disclosure directly with Cirrus. This was one stop of an event being hosted by the airport authority. However, we were asked to not take pictures inside the buildings.

[AaronDC8402]

The story I was told about the Ovation 3 being parked with the Cirruses was that the Mooney pilot's brother was being dropped off to pick up his new Cirrus. 

[N252WD]

I fly into KTYS often, but I never took a tour over there. Next time I come up I will see if you around, maybe go get a bit to eat.