Fuji
I was hoping you would jump in here as you have a good knowledge of the type.
i sometimes wonder why the accident stats were high. It crossed my mind that having the ballistic shute may encourage pilots to fly more at night or in bad weather, taking on trips they would normally be concerned about with the thought that if all goes pear shaped they have the shute?
It would be interesting to see a breakdown of those stats? are they low time pilots? what was the nature of the accidents.
The very few times I have flown a Cirrus I also did not see anything nasty.
The earlier one we tested the roll rate on indicated that it may need more attention in IMC especially as it was also slippery.
I know the new ones had some wing modifications which have made them more stable in cloud.
Comparable performance is the mooney which is a doddle in cloud being rock solid. The Cirrus felt like without autopilot it would be hard work handflying over time in IMC ?
Pace