With this talk of the dangers of Cirrus airplanes what do you guys think when comparing Diamond aircraft to Cirrus. They seem to be somewhat similar regarding looks and design. I'm very new to this and have not flown either. However, the school I will be attending have a good number of Diamond's. Does anybody have a good or bad opinion of Diamond's?
Cirrus and Diamond are similar inasmuch as a pomegranate is similar to an apple. Yup, both fruits. Both usually red.
Diamonds are one of the safest, most forgiving trainers around. Cirrus are not. It's not that Cirri are bad aircraft, per se. I think it's more where they started from, what their goals were, and therefore, who ended up flying them.
Among the two planes' differences is that diamonds were built to be aerodynamically safe. "Pilot-proof" if you will. They relied on good, ol' fashioned aerodynamic design to create an aircraft that is, for instance, very recoverable from a spin. Cirrus either could not or would not design an aircraft that is spin-recoverable. That's why they were forced to add the parachute. I'll hand it to Cirrus in the Machiavellian Marketing Department; They would do great on Wall Street. They deftly took a major flaw and turned it into a major sales coupe for those ignorant enough to be beguiled by that sort of technique.
For a skilled, proficient pilot, who likes to travel with a couple bags and land at airports with Signatures or Atlantics, a Cirrus is not a bad aircraft. For a new, low-time, or low-proficiency pilot, well, the accident record shouts more loudly than I can.
Strikes me that Diamond looked at composites and said, "Hey, we can build an aircraft that's really strong, really efficient, and really safe."
Cirrus seemed to look at composites and say, "Hey, we can build an aircraft that looks like a BMW."
Design and performance differences aside, the biggest problem with Cirrus is the same one that plagues the BMW upon which they were designed. It ain't the plane.
What's the difference between a Cirrus and Porcupine?
Will Cirrus continue to sell? Did millions of Americans buy houses they couldn't afford to impress friends they didn't like? Shiny, baby. Shiny.