Buying a Cirrus

Second opinion before the deposit, from someone who flies these airplanes for a living and has no stake in which one you pick. Flat fee, quoted up front, independent of whether you train with me afterward.

Who this is for

• First-time buyers who have decided on a Cirrus and now face a hundred listings and a lot of confident opinions
• Pilots who have not decided and want an honest comparison against the Bonanza, the Mooney, the Diamond and the rest
• Owners moving up: SR20 to SR22, normally aspirated to turbo, an older panel to Perspective+ or Touch+
• Engineers, physicians, founders and other people who research everything and would rather pay for a straight answer than guess
• Anyone who has been told by a dealer or broker what they should buy and would like to hear it from someone who is not paid on the sale

What we work through

• Mission first. Where you will actually fly, with whom, how often, and in what weather. The right airplane falls out of that, not the other way around.
• Model and generation. SR20 vs SR22 vs SR22T, G3 through G7, Avidyne vs Perspective vs Perspective+ vs Touch+, FIKI or not, air conditioning, oxygen. What each one costs to buy, to insure and to keep, and which differences matter for your mission versus which are marketing.
• Used vs new. The real trade-offs at today's prices, what depreciation looks like by generation, and when the factory airplane is the better deal.
• Reading a specific airplane. Logbooks, damage history, engine time and how it was flown, avionics and software currency, CAPS repack and line cutter dates, the service bulletins and ADs that matter, and what a thorough pre-purchase inspection should include. I will tell you which shops to use and what to ask them.
• The first year. A realistic operating budget: fuel, insurance, hangar, annual, reserves for the chute and engine, databases and subscriptions. Nobody tells first-time buyers this part and it is where most of the regret comes from.
• Insurance and training. What underwriters will want from a pilot with your hours, what transition training they will require, and how that changes the airplane you should buy.
• Structure. Sole ownership, a partnership, a club, or a lease-back to a school or a 135 operator. The tax and liability questions go to your CPA and attorney; the operational ones I can answer from experience.

How it works

It starts with the free intro call, where I find out where you are in the process. From there the advisory is scoped as a flat fee for a defined piece of work, typically a mission and model review with a written recommendation, and, if you are already looking at specific airplanes, a review of each candidate and a plan for the pre-buy. Travel to see an airplane is extra and agreed in advance.

Three things are fixed. The fee is quoted before we start. It does not change based on which airplane you buy or how much it costs. And it does not depend on whether you come back to me for transition training afterward; many clients do, some do not, and the advice is the same either way.

What I am not

I am not a broker, a dealer or a sales rep, I do not list or sell airplanes, and I do not take referral fees from shops, brokers or anyone else. I am also not a mechanic: the pre-buy itself is done by an independent Cirrus service center of your choosing, and my job is to make sure the right one is doing it and asking the right questions.

Common questions