![]() ![]() In through the glass doors and announce myself… I was signed in and given a name tag. I pulled the little rental car into the lot and took a space right up against a fence with a gaggle of Cirri parked right on the other side. The next morning I pulled onto airport road, using the little xeroxed map they had given me to get to the factory, and there loomed the CIRRUS hangars past the trees. my biennial flight review a week earlier) In the terminal I collected my suitcase and rental car, and resisted the temptation to drive to Cirrus now… I didn’t want my first contact with the company to be me getting cornered by security at midnight while I snooped around the hangars…Ĭoncerns swirled around my brain that whole night at the cheesy Econo-Lodge as the freezing winds whipped outside… Could I fly the plane? (I had never flown a Cirrus)… Did they get the money? (I had wired the full price of the plane that morning, but to the right account? The wire address sure had a lot of digits, and was under the name of some bank I had never heard of, not Cirrus)… Would it LOOK OK? (the only pictures of the Centennial Edition at their web site made the plane look an ugly brown-orange… I THINK it was only the sunset making it look that color but could not be sure)… Would I have the courage to fly the plane without insurance? (I never buy insurance, but things happen in an eyeblink on some of those landings in gusty wind conditions, and the plane costs almost four times as much as my house)… Would I be able to function with no sleep? (I usually work until 4 am, and sleep until noon… but would obviously report to Cirrus at 9 am for pickup)… Would I be able to fly at all decently? (I had flown an airplane ONE TIME in the last THREE YEARS. ![]() My plane (which I had never seen, in person or by photograph) was on that ramp, or inside one of the mammoth hangars, but in the darkness I could not pick out any plane with tail number N8141Q… the airline ticket to the Cirrus factory was one-way only… About TWO DOZEN of the curvy little speedsters sat parked around the ramp, their sleek little shapes visible only in silohuette and from glinting ramp lights. Sure enough, the hangars were right there to the side of the taxiway, well lit in the night and the simple word titling them understating their true meaning: CIRRUS DESIGN CORP. It was maybe 10 or 11 in the evening, and the bitterly cold air of Minnesota in October was blowing just outside the freezing window of the airliner. OK so my face was pressed up against the window of the airliner as we taxied down the taxiway late at night in Duluth Minnesota. Thanks to all the people that have contributed to X-Plane to make this possible! I include especially Sergio Santagada, Ben Supnik, Robin Peel, Michel Verheughe, Dave Spotts, Anthony Booher, Stephane Marel, and Yvves Cuttat.īelow find photos and journal entries on the initial pickup and cross-country flight as I fly the plane back home to South Carolina, seeing friends along the way. OK the day has finally come! I just picked up a new Cirrus SR-22 Centenial Edition from Cirrus Design in Minnesota. ![]()
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