Will Sport Several Different Stripe Schemes Throughout Year

Following years of outdoing themselves refurbishing the likes of a late-1970s Cessna Cardinal and, most recently, a leather-and-glass panel-equipped PA28, the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association is taking something of a breather for its 2009 Sweepstakes aircraft... but that doesn't mean the group's latest giveaway plane isn't one anybody wouldn't want in their hangar.

Next year, AOPA will raffle off a fully-loaded 2005 Cirrus SR22-G2. The "Let's Go Flying" SR22 -- the name ties into the group's latest 'get out the vote' effort to attract new pilots -- was donated to AOPA by Lloyd Huck, a philanthropist and longtime member and AOPA Air Safety Foundation donor who served as an Army Air Corps B-29 bomber pilot during World War II.

AOPA describes the aircraft as "pristine," and needing no refurbishment. In addition to standard features for the year including the Avidyne Entegra avionics suite, leather interior and Cirrus Airframe Parachute System, the "Let's Go Flying" SR22-G2 also includes the optional TKS anti-icing system intended to help pilots safely exit inadvertant encounters with icing conditions.

Over the next year, the pilot advocacy organization will fly the sweepstakes SR22 across North America, "to highlight the tremendous utility of general aviation." And to combat the phenomenon regular air show attendees may describe as 'Cirrus Glazeover' -- there's so many of them, they all start looking kinda alike after a while -- the "Let's Go Flying" SR22 will sport a number of different exterior stripe schemes throughout the year, thanks to the gang at Air Graphics LLC in Madison, WI.

AOPA will provide more details, including official rules, after the first of the year. The group plans to raffle off the current 2008 "Get Your Glass" Piper Archer II early in 2009.

FMI: www.aopa.org/sweeps