Question for pilots: What options to order on a Cirrus SR-20?

by philg

I ordered a Cirrus SR-20 yesterday, to be shared with a friend.  I’m still looking for the ideal Malibu to purchase but this gives us something fun to fly around New England, is very cheap to operate, and I may want to use it to do flight instruction.  I’m currently working on my CFI/CFII ratings and think it would be fun to teach instrument flying on 14-day cross-country trips with guys who want to buy a Cirrus but lack the instrument rating or the time in type that will comfort insurers (the Cirrus has a terrible fatal accident record, which is ironic because it has been marketed from the start as an especially safe airplane with its emergency parachute, etc.).  So the question becomes how to equip this airplane.  It will probably be resold after 3 years so that I can always be teaching in a plane that has comparable avionics to the new ones.  Therefore we don’t want to go overboard on cramming this simple airframe with Boeing 757-grade avionics that won’t earn their value back on a resale.


We were thinking of the following options:



  • leather seats (the dog needs his comfort)
  • 3-blade prop (smaller diameter ergo lower tip speeds ergo lower noise for the dog, who doesn’t wear headsets)
  • MFD upgrade to 5000C so that we can get the weatherlink
  • weather datalink
  • Emax engine monitor
  • 3rd year extended warranty including avionics

This leaves us with a plane that is $260,000.  We decided against the Stormscope because we don’t intend to fly anywhere near thunderstorms and the NEXRAD datalink should be good enough.  We decided against the Skywatch system because it is $21,500 and we think that in the long run we can swap the transponder for a Mode-S unit for maybe $2000 (Cirrus doesn’t currently offer this option) and get the TIS feed from the FAA RADAR.  We decided against the $11,500 ground prox warning system because we think that the Garmin 430 will give this to us by mid-2005 with a cheap upgrade.


The open question is whether to spend $19,000 extra for the double Garmin 430s and the fancier 55X autopilot and flight director.  The stock SR20 comes with a backup Garmin 250XL GPS that is VFR-only and has no VOR or ILS receiver and only a 5-watt radio transmitter.  Its autopilot does not have altitude preselect and can’t fly an ILS approach.  With the upgrade you get two identical GPS/VOR-ILS/COM units and don’t have to learn a different user interface.  If you do get stuck by yourself in ugly weather you can have the autopilot fly an approach while supervising and adjusting power.  And the flight director is awfully nice for when something goes wrong with the autopilot’s servos but you’re still in the clouds.


Thoughts from more experienced pilots?


[Update:  Thanks for the advice from all commenters.  We decided to go for the dual-430s, the fancy autopilot, and flight director.  Cirrus tells us that the plane will be delivered in mid-May, i.e., about three months after we placed our deposit.]

18 thoughts on “Question for pilots: What options to order on a Cirrus SR-20?”

  1. As recent SR22-G2 owner @ BED, I suggest the following options for the ’20s. Must have: MFD upgrade, dual 430’s, 3 blade prop, weather datalink, EMax. I have no experience with the brand new Flight Director, but others who have used an FD think it is a must have. I do not recommend the Stormscope as it gives a lot of false positives and you can get more accurate information from the datalink (besides you shouldn’t go anywhere near thunderstorms anyway). The Skywatch can be very useful in the busy Northeast airspace – alternatively you can use a Garmin 330 with mode S and save some money. I like the Skywatch when out of mode S coverage. The CMax is not a good value for the money. While it is very convenient to have the plates integrated with the MFD display, it cannot be used in lieu of paper plates and is not as good as an EFB with JeppView/FlightDeck. The TAWS/EGPWS is also probably not worth it if most of your flying is on the East Coast though I have been very reassured by it during mountain flights I’ve taken. Be sure to get the 3 year warranty upon purchase especially if you will be providing training.

    You might want to consider a leaseback with AirShares at BED – they are a quality outfit.

    Let me know if you want a demo ride in my ’22.

    And finally be sure to join COPA – the Cirrus Owner and Pilot Assoc. http://www.cirruspilots.org – a tremendous source of information.

    -David N97RJ @ BED

  2. Wrt accident statistics, Cirrus and Cessna have identical accident rates. See http://www.aopa.org/asf/asfarticles/2005/sp0502.html The TAA Report should be available soon as well. The sad news is that pilots are dying in TAA aircraft the same they always have – by stupid decision making, irrespective of new information and situational awareness available inside the cockpit. The single most important safety factor in a plane is still a well trained pilot. -David N97RJ @ BED

  3. Hi, Philip. I have zero experience with Cirrus, but I very much recommend the high-end S-TEC autopilots. I have a Model 60-2 in the Bonanza, and it’s by far the best a/p I’ve ever flown with. I love the vertical-speed control, altitude level-off, and I’ve flown an ILS in actual IMC using the autopilot when my vacuum pump failed. *That* made me really glad I had an autopilot independent of the vacuum system. Also give serious consideration to the GPS Steering option (GPSS). Fully coupled turns and procedures independent of the HSI. A great gadget and not at all expensive.

  4. Why not stick with the single IFR GPS & add a conventional nav/comm with GS receiver (KX 155?). ..this should save you some money without losing anything operationally.

  5. There are a few reasons to have dual 430’s. 1) Most Cirrii are configured that way, so for providing training, it’s a better environment for the student, 2) with dual 430’s you can take advantage of all the 430 features such as cross-fill. 3) In the specific case of the Cirrus, additional information from the second 430 can be displayed on the PFD. 4) It’s nice to have a second IFR capable GPS on board for redundancy, especially since you get spoiled navigating by GPS. Backup by VOR is still always possible and recommended. 5) A second 430 allows you to do “what if” scenarios in flight for re-routing, fuel planning, nearest page, etc.

    While complicated and clunkly in user interface, the 430 is an incredibly useful tool in the cockpit. It’s much more than another radio and VOR.

    -David N97RJ @ BED

  6. The S-Tec autopilots are excellent. I had an S-Tec 60-2 in my Tiger, and now a 55X in my Skylane. The GPSS feature is terrific and definitely good to have.

    As for traffic on your MFD, consider getting the Garmin GTX330 Mode S transponder. I’ve had mine for a while now, and it works great. In my plane, it displays on both the GNS430 and the MX20 MFD.

  7. Phil – Curious why you are buying new. I have seen SR-20’s for as low as $180k. Just curious.

  8. Johnny: A 5-year-old SR20 can indeed be had for $180k. But it is a very different airplane from an SR20-G2. A 2005 airplane has all-glass flight instruments instead of steam gauges, for example. So if one is supposed to be training people to fly a fresh-from-the-factory Cirrus one should be doing it in a plane whose airspeed indicator, for example, is a linear tape rather than a 1920s-style dial. The new plane is probably quieter and has a warranty, etc. The new plane is all-electric and has some different emergency procedures from a used SR20, with its vacuum-driven gyros.

    With a Malibu one really doesn’t want to buy new ($1.2 million) when a 5-year-old plane is half the price. But with the Cirrus the premium for owning a new plane, when you factor in the warranty, is maybe only $10,000 per year and that will be split with my partner.

  9. Hey Phil: this is a bit off topic. I’m not a pilot. I only claim to have some common sense, a small amount. I read the malibu accident reports, lots of LG and Engine failures. This plane sounds fundamentally unsafe. This doesnt sound like a tradeoff of performance for safety. I get scared reading about the deaths and serious accidents a la “wing sheared off” types of accidents. Would rather have you around for another 30 years…

    Those new generation jets sound like fun, the Eclipse perhaps?

    $.02 worth…

  10. Phil: Being a software guy myself and pilot I find it hard to justify the extra $80k for what boils down to a couple of PC’s mounted in the panel. Being fairly new to aviation myself, I have only recently gotten over the cost to overhaul or purchase factory new engines based on circa 1950’s technology for $16k – $25k. ;-).

    If you don’t mind sharing, how much were you able to sell your Diamond Star for?

  11. Johnny: Airplane prices are painful indeed. I guess I’ve gotten used to it after three years. You have a situation where 99% of yuppies are afraid to get into a Cessna (or even to go to the 7-11 without being wrapped in a 7000 lb. SUV). That leaves a tiny market and airplanes are essentially handmade plus we have the FAA obstructing everything with mountains of paperwork (those two PCs in the front panel for an experimental airplane don’t cost that much more than two PCs for your desktop). If we were back to the 1960s and 1970s when airplanes were mass-produced I’m sure that metal airplanes would be made in China and would cost 2X what a car costs. I got a good deal selling the DA40 because the new ones, with their fancy glass panels, are a lot more expensive!

    dc: A landing gear failure in a Malibu is not going to be fatal, except to the insurance company maybe. The engine failures generally announce themselves a few flights in advance with a big increase in oil consumption. Mostly the Malibu is very unforgiving of casual maintenance. You need to have a thorough visual inspection done at every oil change, as opposed to in a Cessna 172 where you could probably go 100-150 hours very safely without doing more than the minimum oil change and re-cowl. The “wing sheared off” accidents in the Malibu would have been just about as likely in an Eclipse jet, though maybe not quite because the Eclipse can get higher and possibly out of bad weather. You have lowish experience pilots getting too close to thunderstorms and icing and losing control of the airplane. It is hard to paper over risk-taking behavior with technology. There is a recent medical study that shows that better HIV drugs have just led young people with HIV and with HIV-infected friends to have more sex. Oh, that reminds me that I have two helicopter lessons scheduled for Thursday in the R22… 🙂

  12. A few questions come to mind Philip. Why did you get rid of the DA40 finally? Was it all the maintenance problems that you had? Also, I am surprised you passed on the CMAX approach plates in the SR20? Any specific reason?

  13. Ravi: The DA40 was a great plane and rock-solid for my last year of ownership, really the perfect airplane for the low-time pilot that I was and for someone who is a visibility junkie. The SR-20, however, has more comfortable seats and is quieter inside, esp. if throttled back to DA40 speeds, which is very important for the dog. Also if I am going to be an instructor I should know how to teach in the plane that everyone is buying. Cirrus is the most popular 4-seat airplane and therefore there are a tremendous number of people who want to learn how to fly it. The CMAX plates I heard were not very good. You have to scroll to see a whole plate. You still need the paper to be legal. Maybe if we trade this plane in we’ll get the next one with CMAX.

  15. The stormscope is useful if you travel outside the USA often. I live in southeast Florida and travel to the Bahamas and Caribbean often. A few miles outside the US border, the XM weather stops.

    CMAX is really nice. It was hard to read at first, but I’ve gotten used to it and now routinely fly approaches with only a couple of minutes of study of the screens beforehand. I’ve got paper plates in the plane to be legal, but I don’t really look at them anymore. It also switches to airport diagrams on the ground automagically. On the other hand it is somewhat expensive and the annual data is not only expensive but must be updated every two weeks. I’ve heard that the certification may be changed soon to allow them to be legal without paper backup.

    P.S. I am an SR22 pilot.

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