For brothers and business partners Brad and Bob Slominski, CIRRUS ACCESS is making it possible for them to fit flying lessons into their busy schedules. “In its first four months, the program is working out extremely well,” said Bob. “I can’t think of any way we could have learned to fly without it.”

He added that he especially likes the program because there’s no pressure to learn on anyone else’s timetable. “If I fall behind my brother on landings, for instance, I can get the personal training I need without slowing him down.”

For Bob, it’s also a matter of safety. “I think CIRRUS ACCESS will make me a safer pilot, because our pilot gives me the chance to review everything I’m learning.”

Brad Slominski agrees with his brother that the program is perfect for businesspeople who don’t have a lot of free time to devote to flying lessons. “The program lets me turn almost every business trip into a training opportunity,” he said.

“And for ground school,” he added, “our CIRRUS ACCESS pilot comes out to the house on weekends, so I can spend more time with my family. In fact, our pilot has almost become part of our family. Best of all, he’s ready to fly whenever I want to, so it fits into my schedule.”

While flying had never been on Randy Darcy’s radar, his wife had always dreamed of flying. Cathy had earned her pilot’s license, but she let it lapse when she found she didn’t have the time to maintain proficiency.

When the couple took a trip to Duluth, they visited Cirrus headquarters and enjoyed a demo flight. “I was really impressed with the plane,” Randy recalled, “but I had always said I’d never own an airplane. The truth is, I didn’t think that private airplanes were safe.”

But as he thought about the Cirrus parachute and all the other safety features on Cirrus airplanes, his feelings began to change. When he asked several corporate pilots what they thought of Cirrus, their enthusiastic approval made his opinion take a one-eighty.

However, it was the CIRRUS ACCESS program that completely won him over. “The thought of having a pilot for a whole year was what made me decide to buy the plane. The program will enable Cathy and me to receive training together and start having fun with the plane the day we take delivery.”

On January 8, 2007, Randy and Cathy Darcy came to Duluth to pick up their airplane … and received their first lesson as they were flown home by their CIRRUS ACCESS pilot, John Sjoblom.

The first person to order an airplane with a CIRRUS ACCESS pilot is Steve Knier. His airplane – an SR22-GTS Gold Edition – was delivered in mid-June 2006 by his CIRRUS ACCESS pilot, Matt Walsh.

According to Steve, “I chose CIRRUS ACCESS because I wanted to have an airplane and a qualified pilot at the same time. It’s a tremendous productivity tool. I can go where I need to go, accomplish my business, and learn to fly at the same time. We’ve flown nearly 300 hours, and I’m not wasting my time flying in patterns or in and out of the same airport.”

He added, “A great feature of the program is that if I’ve had a long day, with a lot of meetings, I always have the option to have Matt fly. We even do our classroom work in the cockpit on cross country trips.”

“There was never any question that I needed a plane,” said new Cirrus owner Al Alba. “I own a real estate franchise with offices all over Colorado, and I knew that flying to those offices would be much more convenient than driving or flying commercial airlines. Besides, with homes in Denver, Phoenix and Baja, I knew that a plane definitely made sense for me.”

He planned to buy an airplane after he had a license, so he started taking training through a local flight school. He quickly learned, however, that the training wasn’t working out well with his schedule. Though it looked as if the airplane of his dreams would have to be put off for an indefinite period, everything changed when his Cirrus salesperson told him about CIRRUS ACCESS.

“When I heard about the program,” he said, “the idea of having an instructor available to me 24/7 for 12 months was very appealing to me. The program made it possible for me to buy my plane sooner than I expected.”

Both Al and Diana Alba are now learning to fly their SR22-GTS on their own schedule with expert training from their CIRRUS ACCESS flight instructor, David Filyes.

Though Jim Martell had never flown an airplane before buying his SR22-GTS in June of 2006, by the end of the year he had logged more than 400 hours of flying time and was well on his way to earning a pilot’s license. By the time he finishes the CIRRUS ACCESS program, he will have received both his Private Pilot and Instrument ratings. While it’s quite possible to get a pilot’s license with as few as 40 hours of flying time, the program enabled him to experience the ultimate level of real-world flight training that will make him a safer and more proficient pilot.

“I wouldn’t have been able to learn how to fly without a program like CIRRUS ACCESS,” he said. “I’m on the board of directors of 10 companies. I knew I wouldn’t have the time to devote to a traditional training program – not on my schedule.”

That schedule has him in the air an average of 80-90 hours per month, traveling to meetings throughout the country and to his homes in Florida, New Mexico, and Quebec. His Cirrus gets him to meetings faster and lets him land in smaller airports not serviced by commercial airlines. Not surprisingly, he uses many of those in-flight hours as training opportunities with his CIRRUS ACCESS pilot, Adam Hahn.