Cirrus Design now offers a system to escape icing and a maintenance plan with one fee that covers everything but fuel and oil for two to three years, depending on the warranty period selected. Cirrus founder Alan Klapmeier said he expects the new offerings will be attractive to those who have never been in aviation before and Cirrus owners who want to upgrade.
In addition, Cirrus now offers an X edition with a luxury interior to capture especially those customers presently outside of aviation that expect a more pleasing interior. The new package includes a snappier paint scheme, Alcantara leather, decorative carbon-fiber insets on the panel, and stitching on the glare shield and yoke coverings.
Klapmeier emphasized that the system for removing ice—expected to be certified this spring—during an inadvertent encounter requires special training for customers who purchase it.
“You never want to stay in icing conditions. You want to find some way to get out,” Klapmeier said.
The system will use an eight-gallon tank of deicing fluid (flowing at 2.5 gallons per hour) to coat the wings, windscreen, and tail surfaces, including the horns of the elevator at either end. The stall vane is heated, and ice lights allow inspection for ice at night. A traditional slinger-ring dispersion system provides ice protection for the propeller.
The CMX maintenance program is purchased in 100-hour increments and is available for the first two or three years, depending on the warranty period selected. It allows customers to forecast maintenance costs. First a registration and signup fee of $2,900 for an SR20 or $3,900 for an SR22 and Turbo models must be paid. After that, 100-hour increments at $3,179 to $3,667 per increment can be purchased. Klapmeier said he may tweak costs for flight schools operating an aircraft 600 hours in a single year.
The models are now available as S, GS, and GTS, with the GTS being the most fully featured. SR20 models now range from $269,900 for the entry level aircraft to $369,800, while the SR22 ranges from $380,650 to $530,100. The Turbo model comes only in GS ($525,915) and GTS ($598,500) models. Models shipped to Europe are $2,000 to $3,000 more.
