Safety was one of the primary design goals of Cirrus Aircraft when designing the SR20 and later the SR22. After 15 years, more than 5500 aircraft delivered and over 6 million fleet hours, this goal is finally being realized as Cirrus’ fatal accident rate has been below General Aviation for the past two and one-half years. This is quite remarkable when you consider the type of mission for which our aircraft are typically used. Our goal at Cirrus is to now keep the accident trends flying in the correct direction.
Cirrus Aircraft has always built airplanes with an extremely high safety potential. Features such as our advanced avionics and autopilot, ice protection, envelope protection, a spin resistant wing and of course CAPS™ have contributed to increasing safety while also increasing the capability of the aircraft. However, for these features to be truly effective, pilots must train to use them correctly.
Cirrus has been involved with flight training since our first aircraft delivery in 1999 and has been a pioneer in many areas, including our complimentary transition training and our revolutionary Cirrus Standardized Instructor Pilot (CSIP) program to familiarize instructors with the aircraft and standardize their instruction. Cirrus’ transition training course was also one of the first to be accepted by the FAA’s FITS (FAA-Industry Training Standards) program for its widespread use of scenario-based training.
Just as Cirrus Aircraft has revolutionized general aviation aircraft over the past 15 years, Cirrus is now planning to revolutionize the flight training industry. Cirrus Approach™ is our revolutionary take on the flight training industry, consisting of an increased awareness of CAPS, an improved instructor network, modern and engaging training material and most importantly, incentives to conduct regular training.
Pilots know that regular recurrent training has an enormous positive impact on the proficiency and safety of pilots, but we also know that it is difficult to make time for this training and the training itself is often repetitive and basic in nature. Cirrus is changing the way pilots think about recurrent training and what it means to be a proficient pilot. Instead of currency being a specific major event or two over the course of a year, pilots enrolled in Cirrus Approach™ will be able to choose from a menu of smaller courses and classes that will be fresh and engaging which will most importantly, keep pilots current and proficient.
I encourage you to take a look at our training program to learn more and follow the instructions to access a sampling of our new content. There is much more in development, but this will give you a sense of our new approach to flight training.
Fly Safely!
Travis Klumb
Director of Flight Standards, Operations, and Customer Experience at Cirrus Aircraft