Continuing its successful partnership, Brazil’s Cirrus distributor, Plane Aviation, is once again displaying Cirrus Aircraft this week at its LABACE static exhibit. Plane Aviation signed up with Cirrus in 2005, after seeing the interest in the new composite single-engine SR22 at events held the previous year in Brazil in Araras and Itirapina, both in the state of São Paulo. It was the following year when the SR22 debuted at LABACE that the two companies solidified their relationship.
“To our surprise, we expected to deliver two or three or four airplanes in 2005 but we delivered 21 that year,” recalled Sérgio Beneditti, director of Plane Aviation. This week at the 17th LABACE, Plane Aviation is exhibiting an SR22 GTS and a Vision Jet G2.
This year's LABACE is the third time the single-engine personal Vision Jet has been on display at the show. The first delivery of a Vision Jet to a Brazilian customer took place in June 2019. With the show already being dubbed “LABACE da Retomada” (resumption) after a three-year hiatus due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Beneditti is looking forward to meeting customers again and responding to new interest in the sixth-generation (G6) SR series and the G2+ Vision Jet.
Launched in January, the SR22 G6 features a sleeker wing and tail surfaces and redesigned wheel pants, all of which reduce drag and bump top speed by nine knots. Pilots can also fly at the same speed as earlier models to reduce fuel consumption.
In terms of convenience and comfort, access to luggage is easier with the new remote baggage compartment lock. The SR22 G6’s entry steps are now illuminated, providing better visibility for safer boarding and alighting during low-light conditions. Inside the cabin, an all-in-one USB panel features USB-A and USB-C ports.
The most noticeable change to the G2+ Vision Jet is the Williams FJ33-5A turbofan engine’s optimized thrust profile, which provides up to 20 percent increased performance during takeoff. This is especially helpful in hot-and-high conditions. Passengers and pilots will appreciate the jet’s new Gogo Avance L3 air-to-ground connectivity system, although this works only in the continental U.S., parts of Canada and Alaska, and near the southern border.
Like all Cirrus aircraft, the Vision Jet carries the Cirrus Airframe Parachute System (CAPS), which can lower the jet to the ground in case of emergency. But the G2 and now the G2+ also feature Safe Return, Cirrus’s implementation of Garmin’s autoland technology. Designed as a layer of safety should the pilot become incapacitated, Safe Return will assume control of the jet single at the push of a button, navigate to the nearest suitable airport, communicate with air traffic control, land, and bring the aircraft to a stop.
The activation button is in the cabin for easy passenger access but pilots have the ability to disengage the system should a passenger inadvertently activate it. The system further provides visual and aural updates to passengers on location, remaining fuel, arrival airport, and estimated time of arrival.
Cirrus aircraft have flown more than 14 million flight hours, and so far 220 people have been saved during CAPS activations.