Plane & Pilot 2017 Buyer’s Guide: Single-Engine Piston Planes

Newcomers, upgrades, and old favorites: 20 piston singles for 2017.

Plane & Pilot

Tuesday, January 31, 2017 at 08:13 AM ET

Verified

Key Takeaways:

The market for piston singles offers a diverse range of aircraft, from utility trainers to pressurized six-place screamers, including significant updates to existing models and new certifications.
Modern piston singles heavily feature advanced avionics, with Garmin's G1000 NXi/Perspective+ and G3000 touch-controlled suites being prominent across many models, enhancing safety and user experience.
The Cirrus SR22 G6 remains the best-selling piston single, distinguished by its updated avionics and standard whole-airplane recovery parachute system.
Key advancements across the featured aircraft include improved comfort, increased speed and range, enhanced safety features (like anti-icing and synthetic vision), and better pilot/passenger amenities.

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Cirrus SR20

The original certificated Cirrus, the lower-powered SR20, gets the same G6 treatment as the SR22. New in 2017 is a Lycoming four-cylinder, 210 hp IO-390 engine. The SR20 is in most ways the same airplane as its more powerful sibling. But it’s a significantly less speedy airplane than the SR22, just 155 knots compared with better than 180 for the normally aspirated ’22. The ’20 is the de facto beginner’s Cirrus, but still an airplane that will go a long way, with a range of around 650 nm, and do so pretty quickly at 150 to 155 knots, and with the same comfort as the SR22—it features the same cabin with almost all the same options available, including the 60-40 flex seating that provides an extra seatbelt in back. With the new engine, the SR20 will have a 100-pound higher max takeoff weight and a boost in useful load, too.

Niche: Fixed-gear personal

Base Price: $389,900

Competitors: Diamond DA40, Tecnam P2010, Piper Archer

Cirrus SR20 Specifications

Learn more at Cirrus Aircraft.