I finally decided to get checked out in a modern airplane, a 2015 Cirrus SR20 equipped with the Garmin Perspective avionics suite. This is as modern as light general aviation airplanes get these days, with Garmin’s synthetic vision, GFC 700 autopilot and FMS control panel, Max-Viz enhanced vision and, of course, the famous and still-controversial Cirrus Airframe Parachute System (CAPS).
The checkout was with CalAir, a Cirrus-only flight training, airplane rental and management company based at Hawthorne Airport just south of the busy final approach corridor to Los Angeles International Airport. CalAir’s fleet is well maintained and in excellent condition, and the operation and its instructors are serious about safety and proper standard operating procedures, something that is sadly missing in much general aviation flying. I also have to credit CalAir owner Jonathan Lucas for a quick response to my website query about transition training. His was the second local Cirrus training company I contacted via their websites; the first company never responded to me.
Matt Thurber, editor-in-chief at AIN Media Group, has been flying since 1975 and writing about aviation since 1978 and now has the best job in the world, running editorial operations for Aviation International News, Business Jet Traveler, and FutureFlight.aero. In addition to working as an A&P mechanic on everything from Piper Cubs to turboprops, Matt taught flying at his father’s flight school in Plymouth, Mass., in the early 1980s, flew for an aircraft owner/pilot, and for two summer seasons hunted swordfish near the George’s Banks off the East Coast from a Piper Super Cub. An ATP certificated fixed-wing pilot and CFII and commercial helicopter pilot, Matt is type-rated in the Citation 500 and Gulfstream V/550. Based in the Pacific Northwest, Matt and his team cover the entire aviation scene including business aircraft, helicopters, avionics, safety, manufacturing, charter, fractionals, technology, air transport, advanced air mobility, defense, and other subjects of interest to AIN, BJT, and FutureFlight readers.
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