Across the North Atlantic in a Cirrus Vision Jet – Part 1

[hasegawa]

This is the beginning of a new adventure: a ferry flight with a single-engine jet across the Atlantic, from the USA to Europe. When the Cirrus Vision Jet was introduced, it was something new and innovative – and was promptly misjudged by many in Europe, where it was mockingly labeled the “Aldi-Jet” (Aldi is a German discount supermarket). But in truth, this aircraft was never aimed at the traditional business jet market.

In 2017, the Vision Jet was awarded the prestigious Collier Trophy for its achievements in advancing general aviation. Why? Because the Vision Jet is a true personal aircraft – intended for pilots stepping up from high-performance turboprops such as the Daher TBM, Pilatus PC-12, Piper Meridian, or even twin-engine piston or turboprop aircraft. It offers comparable performance in a jet platform, but with less maintenance effort, lower operating costs than “the big jets,” and an unprecedented set of safety features.

One of these is the Emergency Autoland system, which allows even a non-pilot passenger to land the aircraft automatically in an emergency. Another is the whole-aircraft parachute. While this doesn’t prevent the destruction of the airframe upon impact, it offers a realistic survival chance for the occupants – a remarkable step forward in aviation safety.

The scenario for this journey is a factory-new Vision Jet G2 being ferried from Cirrus headquarters in Duluth, Minnesota to its new owner somewhere in the European Union. Such transatlantic ferry flights are a real-world practice, especially for smaller general aviation aircraft.

So far, the journey has begun with legs from Duluth via Milwaukee and Mifflin County to Bangor, Maine – the traditional gathering point for ferry pilots heading east. From here, the classic North Atlantic route continues via Deer Lake and Goose Bay, then onward to Greenland, Kulusuk, and finally the big crossing to Keflavik, Iceland, before delivery to the new owner.

On the last leg from Mifflin County to Bangor, I used the opportunity to test how far the range of the Vision Jet G2 could be stretched. The automatic autothrottle system is designed for comfort, not fuel economy – and is especially wasteful during climb. The G2 can cruise safely at FL310, but reaching that altitude efficiently requires some manual care: initial climb at 2000 fpm to 10,000 ft, then stepwise manual power reduction while flattening the climb.

In cruise at FL310, I further reduced thrust manually and settled at 50 gallons per hour, giving me 152 KIAS / 253 KTAS / Mach 0.426. That is of course slow for a jet, but it worked. As a result, the flight took 2 hours 40 minutes instead of the 2 hours 17 minutes planned by the simulator. Included in that time was an additional delay: a go-around at Bangor after a botched approach in the fog, which cost both fuel and time.

[cowpatz]

That is an awesome challenge to undertake. An interesting choice of aircraft too.
It's almost like they finished building it and then thought "Bugger, we forgot the engine........lets stick it on here."

[Charl]

Yes... and a parachute. And, and...
Cirrus did to the light aircraft industry what Tesla did to cars.

Andreas, you stole my thunder there.
I have been pootling along the East coast of Australia in this plane.
It makes the point that I was grizzing about in another thread:
Time to get into the 21st century instead of dragging legacy bits and pieces into the cockpit in a mishmash of "New".

I'll just add this by way of demonstration since I had it loaded:

[hasegawa]

I'm on the road now. Today I completed two stages.
1. From Bangor in Maine to Deer Lake in Newfoundland.
2. From Deer Lake to Goose Bay.

But now I need to get some sleep. I'm exhausted. Pictures will follow tomorrow.