If you navigate directly to the Cirrus Website, you'll be shown a short video about the newest version of the SR-22, the Perspective. With the same engine and airframe as before, it's the Garmin avionics that make this version special.

Yes, you read it correctly. Garmin avionics in a Cirrus aircraft.

At first glance, they look like an oversized G-1000, common in many other GA aircraft. However, the Perspective's version adds synthetic vision (displays terrain features, runways, obstacles and more on the PFD), highway-in-the-sky navigation, and more features that we've been expecting from an avionics system for years. (They even realized that the Columbia, now Cessna, 400 got the G-1000 controls right an put an alphanumeric keypad on the center console.)

As impressive as these new features are, a few things about the Perspective are very controversial. First, Cirrus aircraft have always been equipped with Avidyne avionics. Avidyne isn't nearly as popular as Garmin and definitely benefited from the business Cirrus brought them. Will Cirrus abandon Avidyne now?

Second, the system costs an extra $48K and weighs over 40 pounds. Although that's only about 10% of the price of a Cirrus, it's still a lot of money! Some (most?) of us are looking for a plane that costs less than this upgrade. Cirrus does an outstanding job of using engineering to the benefit of aviation. How is that engineering being used to create a basic aircraft that the average pilot can afford to purchase and then fly? (Although I'm a fan of the Cirrus SRS, I don't think it meets these criteria.)

Finally, the Perspective comes equipped with a little blue button labeled "LVL." It's a panic button...if a pilot becomes disoriented, he or she can press this button and the aircraft will return itself to level flight. Is this impressive? You bet! Will it increase safety? Probably. The question that concerns some is: are we in danger of adopting a culture of bad aeronautical decision making due to reliance on things like LVL buttons and whole-aircraft parachutes? Those features won't save you in a thunderstorm or scud-running in the Rockies...

What do you think? Are these features good? If so, how can we keep ourselves from getting lazy and stupid while using them?