AIR SAFETY

BY TOM INCANTALUPO | Newsday Staff Writer

October 13, 2006

Pilots who fly the Cirrus SR20 defended it yesterday, insisting that it was safe and that while complex - with the latest in communications and navigation equipment - it was no more difficult to fly than other single-engine planes if the pilot is properly trained and accustomed to the aircraft.

"I know numerous people who have learned to fly in this aircraft," said commercial lighting sales executive John Dolan, 64, of Babylon, who flies an SR20, the same model in which Yankees pitcher Cory Lidle died Wednesday. "It's a matter of getting good competent instruction and it's like anything else; if you use your head you're going to be safe."

Dolan says he bought his Cirrus four years ago for its superior performance to the Cessna he had and that he has about 900 hours at the SR20's controls. "It's no harder to fly," he said, "but it takes a little more getting used to because it's more technically advanced."

Developer Tony Hack, 44, president of Hack Real Estate Associates LLC in Bayside, trained for 20 hours earlier this year with officials of Minnesota-based Cirrus after buying his SR20. "The plane is very complicated, but if you know how to use the equipment, there's no way in hell you're going to crash the plane."

Unusual, though no longer unique, features of the four-seat, piston-powered SR20 and the similar but more powerful SR22 are their instruments, which feature color graphics on large screens. Mike Radomsky, 54, a Las Vegas private pilot who heads the 2,000-plus member Cirrus Owners Association, has particular praise for the 10-inch flat panel screen that indicates the plane's altitude. "You can see it in your peripheral vision," he said. "It's much like having a window to the outside."

A unique feature of both aircraft is their parachute system, designed to let the plane descend softly to Earth if there is a malfunction - a feature Lidle and the flight instructor aboard with him apparently did not attempt to deploy Wednesday.

The Federal Aviation Administration says there are 597 SR20s and 2,029 SR22s registered in the U.S., including 15 SR20s and 43 SR22s in New York State. Besides Dolan, the 15 New York SR20 owners include eight on Long Island and in Queens, all corporations.