I'm torn. I love the Cirrus because of its advanced panel, high performance and safety features, but it only has four seats. My family numbers five, and they are getting bigger, so cramming them all in a Cirrus - as I admit to having done in the past - is a little tricky, albeit legal. For this simple reason, I have done most of my family flying in 6-seaters. Starting with a 1965 Cherokee 6 (VFR from the Netherlands to the west of France, no less - more on that in a different post), and recently in a 1975 Piper Lance with 310 horses under the hood. I nice plane, but old, with a dilapidated panel (ok, it had the Garmin, but that was it) and an increasingly suspicious number of maintenance issues. Not exactly the gear you want to fly your beloved wife and wonderful sons around in, I'd say. Cram them into the Cirrus again and hope they don't kill each other in the back seat? Find a newer 6-seater for less than $280 per hour? Good luck with both.
Luck, as it tends to do, seems to now have presented itself in the form of the Diamond DA50 SuperStar. What a wonderful plane! Five seats, without a third bench, a 3-panel G1000 panel that makes me drool, and a FADEC controlled 350 horsepower engine that can pull this thing through the air at 200 knots! Who doesn't want one, especially if you need to transport more than 4? I'm very bummed that I had to miss Oshkosh this year, and didn't get to see this beauty in person...
In short, I can't wait to find out more about this plane, and am actually secretly looking for possible partners to go and get one! This would be the ultimate plane for me, no other wishes (promise!). Unfortunately, our friends at Diamond haven't given a firm indication of price yet, so we won't know how much for while. My guess is around $600k: a little more than the SR-2 G3, and a little less than a fast 6-seat Piper (like the $775k Matrix, with the $573k Saratoga II TC just below, but slower). If you know anyone interested in a 3 or 4 person partnership in the Chicago area, let me know!
Until (and, more likely, unless) I get access to one of these babies, I'll continue to be torn between the cool Cirrus and old, crappy 6-seaters. Oh well, we'll just have to get checked out in both then, don't we?
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Update (March 2008): I found a 6-seater for rent at less than $280! A beautiful 2004 Saratoga, with Avidyne glass panel, right at Palwaukee (now Chicago Executive). Winter weather has been lousy, so I haven't flown it yet, but I have high expectations!
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