Plastic Airplanes  by Philip Greenspun, ATP, CFII in November
2007, lightly updated in May 2011  Site Home : Flying : One
Article  For long cross-country trips with a friend and a dog,
one really needs a 4-seat airplane. Buying a plane of any kind
goes against the conventional (male) pilot wisdom of "If it
floats, flies, or fucks... rent it". And in fact nothing could
be easier than renting a 4-seat Cessna 172. However the cost
becomes prohibitive if one wants to hop from city to city and
hang onto the rental airplane, not necessarily using it every
day, for months at a time. For a bit less money and a lot more
hassle, one can have a much more nicely designed airplane, of
which the three best-known examples are the Cirrus SR20/SR22,
Columbia/Cessna 350/400, and Diamond DA40. These airplanes are
fast and clean despite having the fixed landing gear that is
essential for novice pilots. They also happen to be made of a
mixture of carbon fiber reinforced plastic or glass fiber
reinforced plastic. In other words, p