iAviate Open House

This morning we went down to Norfolk for the iAviate open house. They had a collection of Cirrus aircraft in their hangar and on the ramp nearby. One of the SR22 GTS aircraft was on external power so they could demo the avionics inside the hangar. I was blown away by the quality and fit-and-finish of the SR22 GTS interior. It looked better than even the nicest car interior I've seen. Here's a video K took while I was sitting in the right seat of a GTS. In that video one of the iAviate folks talks about a chute deployment that an SR22 had in Pennsylvania (though I think it could be a recent Alabama incident).

One thing to notice in the interior picture to the right is that they have done away with the analog engine instruments that used to live on the right side of the panel. That area houses the A/C and a glove box compartment now. The engine gauges are all glass in the new SR22s.

They were giving SR22 demo rides to the very serious potential clients of their newly offered "fractional shares" program. They also appeared to be taking people up in a Symphony 160 which my instructor described as being very similar to a 2-seater C-172. Since I already had the privilege of an SR22 ride with Charles I didn't bother them with a request for another.

We got the pricing info for the fractional program, which was about what I expected except for a monthly maintenance fee that seemed a good bit higher than I thought it would be for a 1/8 share.


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