"C J Campbell" wrote:
What's the group-think on this one? Is Cirrus just good
at attracting crappy pilots? Or is there something else at
work here?

The pilot in the Florida incident had 600 hours in type,
an instrument rating, and was a co-founder of the Cirrus
Pilots Association. That hardly sounds like someone who
does not stay current or who flies only on rare occasions.

Yet I still don't buy the idea that there is something "wrong" with the
aircraft in a technical sense. Similar events have killed similarly
notable pilots of Bonanzas.

What's wrong is the whole mindset associated with owning a Cirrus, IMO.
Remember NASA's AGATE program and the gushing Atlantic Monthly article?
Cirrus Design got a big sales boost from being associated with the whole
idea of a "revolution" in GA. Technology was going to produce a new
world where light aircraft could be flown by non experts for regular,
reliable transportation. Incredibly, it seems many people have accepted
this preposterous notion and put their money down. Perhaps the
experience of owning a Cirrus reinforces the feeling among some pilots
that they have achieved the dream, and they are surprised, fatally, to
find that nothing fundamental has changed.
--
Dan
C172RG at BFM