Newbie looking to upgrade to Cirrus
Hello,
I am finally close to completing my PPL, and have thus been considering my options for recreational hire, and possibly CPL hour building if I decide I want to work towards the fATPL. I am currently flying the PA28-161 (having flown the first half of my course on the Grob 115A).
One of the options available to me after finishing is buying into a Cirrus SR20 group. I have sat in the cockpit as the manager of this particular FTO showed me the various features of the plane, and found myself very impressed with the setup (most of all the side-stick control and avionics suite).
However, I am concerned about a couple of things (other than the cost!).
Firstly, being a new PPL (looking to hopefully pass with around 55 hours), would my lack of experience be an issue? There is a policy of having to complete at least 10 hours instruction in the aircraft before I can hire it, and of course an instructor wouldn't sign me off to fly if they do not believe I am competent enough to do so anyway, but I am thinking more long-term. I have seen reports that the Cirrus has a comparitively poor safety record with a particularly high incidence of stall related accidents, could it be that the level of handling skills required might be pushing it for a low houred pilot?
Secondly, it seems that there have also been problems with the door mechanisms, leading to issues with doors opening in flight more commonly than typical for light aircraft. However, most of the reports that I found are not that recent, could it be this problem has now been fixed by Cirrus?
Would appreciate any feedback on these points!
Thanks,
Odai.