Like early models of many well-known airplane types, the first Cirrus SR22s felt lighter than they do today. In part, that’s because they were light, and in part that’s because Cirrus has learned over the years how to make an airplane be both substantial feeling, which we pilots like, while staying light.
They also felt very different from most other light airplanes because they were, well, different from them in many important regards. They used side-yokes, as I mention in the main story, differential braking and a rudder/aileron interconnect (gone on today’s models), all of which gave it, for better or for worse, a distinctive feel.
