My trip to AvGeek paradise: Visiting Cirrus Aircraft’s Vision Center

Cruising at 25,000 feet above Tennessee's Great Smoky Mountains, I was fulfilling a lifelong bucket list item: sitting in the captain's seat of a jet. I was talking to air traffic control, monitoring the jet's progress and manipulating the jet's autopilot system. I did almost everything except actually perform the takeoff or landing of the aircraft, a Cirrus Vision Jet.

You might think there's a catch to this — perhaps I was describing an experience in a full flight simulator.

But nope, this was most certainly real life.

The flight capped off a day at what can best be described as an AvGeek paradise: a visit to Cirrus Aircraft's Vision Center at the McGhee-Tyson Airport (TYS) in Knoxville, Tennessee.

Minnesota-based Cirrus is known for producing some of the best-selling general aviation aircraft on the market, and the manufacturer uses the Vision Center as its customer headquarters, where it performs aircraft deliveries and training. During the visit, I got the full experience: flying an SR20 simulator, experiencing an aircraft delivery, learning about how Cirrus works with customers to produce bespoke aircraft customizations and meeting the team that produces videos — instructional and promotional — for the company. And yeah, they let me fly the (real) plane too, a single-engine Cirrus Vision Jet.

Flying the (simulated) plane

After picking us up at our hotel in a sleek Audi Q8 — joining me was Mimi Wright, a colleague on TPG's social media team — our guide for the day, Nadia Haidar, brought us to a simulator bay, where we spent an hour flying an SR20 fixed-base simulator around Knoxville. The SR20 is a single-engine piston propeller plane that helped catapult Cirrus to commercial success 25 years ago. It's now the company's entry-level model. Believe it or not, United Airlines is a recent customer for the training version of this model, deploying it to train the airline's next generation of pilots at the United Aviate Academy in Goodyear, Arizona.

Here, I actually did perform a simulated takeoff and landing as an instructor pilot coached me. Departing Knoxville's runway 5R, I climbed to 4,500 feet, then performed some turns in the area, impressed at how responsive the aircraft was to my sidestick commands (Cirrus aircraft don't use traditional control yokes; a sidestick is ergonomically similar to the joystick you'd use to play a video game). I capped off the flight with a simulated instrument approach, where we couldn't see the runway until 500 feet above the ground. My landing won't win any awards, but we made it in one piece.

Then, Mimi took control, and she didn't land the plane. Instead, we ended the flight with a (simulated) parachute deployment. Cirrus' planes come with a Cirrus Airframe Parachute System system. If an aircraft is in danger, you can deploy a parachute that brings the plane to a landing similar to that of a space capsule. More than 250 lives have been saved thanks to a pilot's deploying the CAPS when in danger, Cirrus says.

The Vision Jet features another safety system: Garmin's Safe Return autoland, which, at the push of a button, will automatically find the nearest suitable airport, inform ATC of the plane's intentions and land the aircraft. It's designed to be used in case the Vision Jet's pilot becomes incapacitated.

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More: Inside one of the world's cheapest and most efficient private jets

Delivery or dance party?

Our next stop was the delivery center.

Back in the Q8, we were driven a few hundred feet into a darkened hangar where a brand-new SR22T, the company's high-performance single-engine piston plane, awaited us. We were there to see what an aircraft delivery was like.

These are boom times for the company, and aircraft production has a long lead time once an order is placed. Of course, customers are also sinking significant amounts of money into these planes, and a high degree of customization is available to allow owners to make the plane theirs. Some customers even purchase their planes as they're first learning to fly.

So, it would be an understatement to say that these aircraft deliveries are emotional events for new owners — and the company wants to make the experience feel special.

Along with an impressive light show, the company will also play some of the customers' favorite music for them. For us, "Jumpin' Jack Flash" by the Rolling Stones was playing. (I felt like I was at a dance party — the only thing missing was a smoke machine.)

Once the lights come up, the new owners perform a walkaround acceptance inspection to check for any possible defects. The aircraft are built in Duluth, Minnesota, and a company pilot ferries them to Knoxville for delivery. Following that, a customer acceptance flight takes place, where customers make sure everything feels right. Then, the formal handover happens.

The company does as many as six of these fancy deliveries per day, with additional aircraft being handed over more informally. Time in the delivery hangar is at a premium, the company said.

Bespoke customizations

For its deepest-pocketed customers, the company will customize its product line to their heart's content through its Xi program.

We were shuttled to another building where we checked out the Xi design studio, a room full of different customization options.

Different-colored rudder petals. Tail emblems and unique paint schemes. Even a picture of a piece of cheese embossed in the aircraft's leather for a hardcore Green Bay Packers fan. It's all part of the Xi process.

Customers generally come to Cirrus with rough ideas about what they want and are paired with an account manager whose job it is to make those ideas a reality. The Xi process plays out over a few months and involves an in-person meeting with the Cirrus team — including dinner — which allows the team to get a good sense of a customer's personality and what, exactly, will be the perfect customization for them.

Bespoke is the keyword here; I lost track of how many times that word was used during this part of the visit. Cirrus aims for its Xi aircraft to have just 10% commonality with other aircraft. In other words, the company wants each plane to feel unique – something the high degree of customization allows. Simultaneously, Cirrus is attempting to grow Xi while keeping its designs unique and special — which can be a challenge.

Even if you don't shell out the extra money for a special Xi design, Cirrus prides itself on having a product line that was designed around pilots and customer feedback. For example, some of Cirrus' seats feature built-in phone and headset holders.

A flight of a lifetime

We then met our pilot, Travis Wellik, for a flight on the Cirrus Vision Jet, Cirrus' unique single-engine jet. Travis is a flight instructor and about as skilled as Vision Jet pilots get, having developed the training program for the type, which began deliveries at the end of 2016.

Nadia mentioned that I'd be able to sit in the right seat of the Vision Jet G2+'s flight deck — a spot traditionally occupied by the first officer (though the aircraft doesn't need one; it's certified by the Federal Aviation Administration for single-pilot operations). Then, Travis arrived and sweetened the deal: he'd let me sit in the left seat — the captain's seat. I was over the moon.

I'm probably one of the biggest AvGeeks out there and had never flown a plane before. I do have countless hours of experience flying high-quality simulated aircraft on a home computer, and virtually communicating with air traffic control. I also hold an FAA aircraft dispatcher certificate.

All of that came in handy for this flight.

I offered to take on ATC communications for the flight, and after I copied and read back our flight plan clearance — typically one of the wordiest and most complex types of transmissions out there — I seemed to have earned Travis' trust. Under his watchful eye — yes, this was perfectly legal — he even let me taxi the jet to our departure runway.

OK, I didn't actually fly the takeoff or landing. I left that to Travis. But I handled the radios, manipulated the autopilot, learned about the aircraft's systems and deviated around some storms, all while enjoying the view of the Smokies from 25,000 feet during our 45-minute flight. I very much felt like the pilot flying, even though Travis was our skillful pilot-in-command. I was in awe of the Vision Jet and how much automation is integral to it.

For our approach, we left the autopilot on until Travis took over at 500 feet.

In other words, I was pumped. Who else gets their first flying experience in a jet? The whole adventure wound me up for the rest of the day; I was on cloud nine. While I had been looking around at flight schools to begin training for my private pilot license, my day with Cirrus definitely has motivated me to make that happen sooner rather than later, encouraging me to start building hours.

It's a core strategy that Cirrus employs. By exposing non-pilots (who can afford to purchase or finance a plane, many of which sell for over $1 million) to their product line, the company hopes to not only inspire them to make a purchase but also to learn how to fly. The hope is that pilots will be licensed by the time their planes roll off the Duluth assembly line and arrive in Knoxville for the handover ceremony.

While I don't have any Cirrus purchases in mind for the near future, I can say definitively that the strategy works. I'm hooked.