Today’s Top Pick is a 2016 Piper PA-46R-350T M350.

For many pilots who are looking to step up from their four-seat piston singles, turboprops are the stuff of dreams. Often, though, a turbocharged piston with a pressurized cabin is closer to reality.

Besides, many of us prefer the familiarity and relative budget friendliness of pistons. We just want to fly a bit higher and faster. Piper’s long-running range of PA-46 models was developed with this market in mind.

One of the best things about the PA-46 might be that it was designed to please passengers as much as pilots. Those of us who like to load up our families for long trips know how important it is to keep everyone comfortable and at ease.

A large, smooth-flying aircraft with a roomy six-seat cabin is a good place to start. Adding pressurization means you can operate at 20,000 feet and above without having to breath supplemental oxygen through cannulas—something few passengers enjoy. Turbocharging helps keep the pace high as altitude tries to sap the engine’s power. A robust climate control system can keep just about everyone comfortable.

Like many aircraft, especially complex models, the PA-46 has benefited from continuous improvement during its 40 years on the market, so later models like this M350 have long had the “bugs” worked out.

This 2016 PA-46 M350 has 735 hours on the airframe, its 350 hp Lycoming TIO-540 engine, and Hartzell propeller. The aircraft has a useful load of 1,170 pounds and carries 120 gallons of fuel.

The panel features a Garmin G1000 avionics suite with an Aspen standby EFD 1000, Garmin GTX33ES transponder, GMA 350C audio panel, GWX weather radar, GFC 700 autopilot, Jeppesen Chartview Flite Charts, Synthetic Vision, TAWS-B terrain warning system, Safe Taxi, dual AHRS computers, XM Satellite Weather, and WX500 Stormscope

The aircraft is FIKI-equipped and comes with an automatic wings-level mode, enhanced stability protection, speedbrakes, integrated digital cabin pressurization, air conditioning, pulse oximeter, executive writing table, 110-volt paper outlets, USB outlets, and relief tube.

Pilots who want to treat family and friends to an airline-style experience in a roomy, pressurized cabin traveling in the flight levels should consider this 2016 Piper M350, which is available for $975,000 on AircraftForSale.

If you’re interested in financing, you can do so with FLYING Finance. Use its airplane loan calculator to calculate your estimated monthly payments. Or, to speak with an aviation finance specialist, visit flyingfinance.com.

• FLYING Magazine: Piper Launches M600 and M350
• FLYING Magazine: Garmin’s G1000 NXi Now Certified on Piper M350 and M500
• FLYING Magazine: We Fly: Piper M600/SLS Halo
• Plane & Pilot: Choosing a Six-Seat Single
• Plane & Pilot: Piper Malibu & Cessna 210N, 1978
• The Aviation Consumer: Used Aircraft Guide: Piper PA-46 Malibu/Mirage/Matrix
• AVweb: Aero: Piper’s M-Class Sales Strong, Factory Bulks Up

The post This 2016 Piper PA-46R-350T Is a Stable, Passenger-Pleasing ‘AircraftForSale’ Top Pick appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

Today’s Top Pick is a 2010 Piper PA-46-350T Matrix.

Piper’s PA-46-350T Matrix traces its lineage to the early 1980s, when the company developed and launched the first PA-46 Malibu. At the time, the new aircraft was a departure for Piper and the GA industry overall. There just were not many big, pressurized piston singles available, so the Piper, which also had big-airplane features, such as an airstair door, stood out on the ramp. It remains an attractive step-up aircraft with an impressive presence today.

The Matrix variant of the PA-46 series is unpressurized, but most, including the aircraft for sale here, have supplemental oxygen systems built in and are constructed to fly high where their turbocharged engines and high aspect ratio wings can make the most of the thin air for generating higher cruising speeds. For years I have looked longingly at the generous cabins of PA-46s, which remind me of a small corporate jet, and thought about how much my family would love traveling in one.

This 2010 Piper Matrix has 1,442 hours on the airframe, engine, and propeller. The panel includes the Garmin G1000 avionics suite with synthetic vision, dual 10-inch PFDs, a 15-inch MFD, GDL69A XM Satellite Radio and Weather, dual GIA63W Nav/Com/ILS/WAAS GPS, dual GRS77 Altitude and Heading Reference System (AHRS), dual GDC74A Digital Air Data Computers with Dual Probe System, GTX345R ADS-B Transponder, GFC700 Digital Autopilot with Yaw Damper, WX500 Stormscope, Honeywell KTA-870 Traffic Advisory System, and Garmin TAWS B Terrain Awareness System.

Pilots who wish to step up from a high-performance, four-place retractable to a larger, higher-performance machine with a cabin that will please their passengers should consider this 2010 Piper PA-46-350T Matrix, which is available for $679,900 on AircraftForSale.

You can arrange financing of the aircraft through FLYING Finance. For more information, email info@flyingfinance.com.

• FLYING Magazine: Piper Matrix Flies with the Big Boys
• FLYING Magazine: Garmin Upgrades G1000 to NXi in Piper Meridian
• FLYING Magazine: Piper Aircraft Reports Growth in Q2 Deliveries, Revenue
• Plane & Pilot: Piper Aircraft Announces New Parts Manufacturing at Oshkosh

The post This 2010 Piper PA-46-350T Matrix Is an ‘AircraftForSale’ Top Pick Tailor-Made for Pilots Who Are Stepping Up appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

Today’s Top Pick is a 2012 Piper PA-46-350P Malibu Mirage.

For many newly certificated private pilots, just being able to fly as pilot in command is enough to keep them satisfied—for a while. Soon it becomes clear that while traveling by air is wonderful, traveling a bit faster would be better. Our en route altitudes creep upward as we try to eke out as many knots as possible from our aircraft. Oxygen systems are handy, but some people are uncomfortable wearing cannulas or a mask in flight. Suddenly our need for speed has grown into a need for pressurization.

The aforementioned process is a natural evolution for aviators, and this Piper could be a key component. Its wide, roomy cabin and plush, leather-trimmed adjustable seats give passengers the pressurized comfort and smooth ride associated with high-altitude airline travel without the dreaded cramped, middle-seat experience.

While many piston pilots will tell you their aircraft cruise close to 200 knots or “flirt” with that magic number, this turbocharged Malibu Mirage will reliably take you well beyond. Unlike many models on the used market, this aircraft was designed from the beginning to fly high and fast.

This Piper PA-46-350P Malibu Mirage has 940 hours on its airframe and engine, which has a 2,000-hour TBO. The panel features a Garmin G1000 avionics suite, including dual GDU 1040 10-inch primary flight displays, a single GDU 1500 15-inch multifunction display, dual GIA 63W nav/com/ILS/WAAS GPS units, dual GRS 77 attitude and heading reference systems, GTX33 transponder, GFC 700 autopilot, synthetic vision, and more.

A 2012 Malibu Mirage like this, with a pressurized, air-conditioned cabin, is appealing for several reasons, including the potential value it represents. For many pilots, this airplane offers advanced performance, equipment, and capability compared with new piston models at similar prices. If flying high and fast in pressurized comfort suits your style of travel, you should consider this Malibu Mirage, which is available for $915,000 on AircraftForSale.

You can arrange financing of the aircraft through FLYING Financial Group. For more information, email info@flyingfinancial.com.

• FLYING Magazine: We Fly: Piper M600/SLS Halo
• FLYING Magazine: Piper Malibu: A New Airplane for a New Day
• Plane & Pilot: Piper 1998 PA-46-350P Malibu Mirage
• Plane & Pilot: Flying High Unpressurized
• The Aviation Consumer: Piper PA-46 Malibu/Mirage/Matrix

The post Today’s Top Aircraft For Sale Pick: 2012 Piper PA-46-350P Malibu Mirage appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

Today’s Top Pick is a 2006 Piper PA-46-500TP Malibu Meridian.

If it seems like pilots are always looking for more speed, that is because it is true much of the time. After training hour after hour at 90 to 100 ktas in a Cessna 172, Piper PA-28, or other trainer, we move as quickly as possible to high-performance airplanes that pick up the pace significantly while also upgrading comfort and equipment. But what comes next?

When your four-seat piston retract starts to feel sluggish—and it will—you might want to consider a turboprop single like this Piper PA-46-500TP Malibu Meridian. Fast, roomy, and pressurized, this six-seater is like an airborne, three-row, luxury SUV that will haul your family and luggage in its beautifully appointed cabin while never subjecting you to highway traffic.

This Meridian is ready to go with a fresh annual in July and 1,751 hours on its Pratt & Whitney PT6A-42A engine and a reversible Hartzell four-blade propeller. Inside is a modern IFR panel with an Avidyne FlightMax Entegra display system with primary flight displays for pilot and copilot and a center-mounted EX-5000 multifunction display.

A long list of additional equipment includes dual Garmin GTN650 GPS/nav/coms, Garmin GMA-340 audio panel, RDR-2000 weather radar, WX-500 Stormscope, XM Weather, BendixKing KMH820 multihazard awareness unit, TCAS active traffic system, and an S-Tec Magic 1500 3-Axis flight control system, including flight director, VOR/LOC/GS coupling, and yaw damper.

If you are ready to start burning jet-A, climbing briskly into the flight levels, and ditching the oxygen cannulas, take a look at this sleek turbine available for $1,280,000 on Aircraft For Sale. You can arrange financing of the airplane through FLYING Financial Group. For more information, email info@flyingfinancial.com. 

• FLYING Magazine: Piper Malibu: A New Airplane for a New Day
• FLYING Magazine: We Fly: Piper M600/SLS Halo
• FLYING Magazine: Piper M Class Is Ready for SAF, Garmin’s PlaneSync
• The Aviation Consumer: Piper Meridian
• Plane & Pilot: Piper Meridian: Everyman’s Turbine

The post Today’s Top AircraftForSale.com Pick: 2006 Piper PA-46-500TP Malibu Meridian appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

The five priorities include:

• assisting aging pilots to gain comprehensive insurance coverage fairly;
• developing digital tools to improve safety and training;
• finding a solution to support aging pilots’ insurance coverage;
• finding a way to improve air traffic control services and addressing training requirements
• streamlining NBAA Business Aviation Convention & Exhibition (NBAA-BACE) and OPAC coalition events to provide owner-pilots the resources they need

NBAA senior vice president of strategy, marketing and innovation, Andrew Broom, said the new focus areas are just the beginning of what the coalition hopes to achieve, adding that there would be more updates at this year’s NBAA-BACE convention in Orlando.

“The flight path developed by NBAA and its coalition of owner-pilot organizations offers just a first glimpse of what can be realized when we mobilize together on key priorities and address challenges collectively,” Broom said in a released statement.

Pilot Groups Voice Support for New Initiatives

Launched in February, NBAA OPAC brings together leaders of business aircraft owner-pilot organizations in a collaborative effort to tackle top concerns for business aviators and explore opportunities to grow the owner-operator community. 

Representatives include Cirrus Vision Pilots and Owners (VPO), Citation Jet Pilots Association (CJP), Embraer Jet Operators Association (EJOA), Malibu M-Class Owners and Pilots Association, Pilatus Owners and Pilots Association (POPA), and TBM Owners and Pilots Association (TBMOPA). Last October, during the Business Aviation Conference and Exhibition, NBAA hosted a series of forums to support these owner-pilot groups, which proved essential in building this new coalition.

The announcement at AirVenture gained support from members who said collaboration and learning across the coalition would benefit pilots in individual groups. Jenna Reid, executive director for the Malibu Owners and Pilots Association, said the NBAA’s move to consolidate leadership across the coalition would vastly expand resources for owner-operators.

Dale Huffstetler, who leads the Cirrus Vision Pilots and Owners group, said, “NBAA’s Owner Pilot Association Coalition has the ability to build one strength upon another. Industry-wide issues often affect pilots of all aircraft types. Learning from each other and tackling those issues together will be a great benefit.” 

NBAA also received FLYING‘s Innovation Award at AirVenture for its efforts to promote sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) and other solutions aimed at reaching net-zero emissions for the industry by 2050.

The 2022 NBAA Business Aviation Convention & Exhibition will be held from October 18-20. It is expected to attract nearly 1,000 companies across the industry as NBAA celebrates its 75th anniversary.

The post NBAA’s Owner-Pilot Coalition Establishes Key Priorities appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

When people are madly in love, they usually want to share their joy and passion. When those people happen to be pilots and their passion is an airplane, they join a type club—in which others share their love for the Bonanza or a Cirrus or a Cessna 120 and also to soak up the latest technical, operational and safety tips. A type club in which pilots seek camaraderie around a series of machines probably sounds a little nuts to nonpilots. The drive to do so is actually pretty simple. Imagine trying to restore a 1967 Jaguar XKE. Who wouldn’t want to connect with other people around the world ready to help you avoid the pitfalls that caught them over the years? Just think airplanes.

In his work “The Efficacy of Aircraft Type Club Safety,” safety expert Jeff Edwards says: “One prominent goal of aircraft type clubs is also reducing aircraft accidents and improving safety within the fleet. Type clubs may also have a training arm that encourages and supports type-specific ground and flight training. These clubs can assist the [National Transportation Safety Board] and the FAA during investigations of aircraft accidents involving its fleet.”

The variety of type clubs is as vast as the GA fleet, old and new—including the American Bonanza Society (with nearly 10,000 members), the Citation Jet Pilots Association (with 1,280 members), the Cirrus Owners and Pilots Association (with 6,300 members), the Pilatus Owners and Pilots Association (representing 240 to 260 aircraft), and the Malibu M-Class Owners and Pilots Association (with 1,300 members) to name a few. Older, less-popular airplanes haven’t been left adrift, though, thanks to the likes of the Bellanca-Champion Club, Cardinal Flyers Online, Ercoupe Owners Club and T-34 Association. The Experimental Aircraft Association’s Type Club Coalition webpage includes a current list of clubs as well as tips on creating a club of your own.

Type clubs also bring people together through a variety of social activities, people who otherwise would have never known each other. Cessna stopped making the Cardinal series more than 40 years ago, so Rogers Faden joined the Cardinal Flyers Online shortly after purchasing his Cardinal RG in 2006 because “it’s a good, knowledgeable group. In addition to technical support for the airplane, they offer quite a few pilot activities. Because all my flying is of a social and personal nature, CFO’s activities really appealed to me.”

Most of the type clubs also find a ready audience at AirVenture each summer—except this year, when the show was canceled because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The vast majority of today’s clubs offer a strong online-forum presence for members to share knowledge around the world. ABS, COPA and others provide regular training opportunities year-round all over the country to improve pilot proficiency. Most of those have migrated online during the COVID-19 chaos.

Check out more: 2020 Flying Buyer’s Guide

Type clubs usually feature an annual get-together, in addition to training forums, but most all in-person events fell by the wayside this year. For CFO members, the traditional meetup begins in Winter Haven, Florida, during the Sun ‘n Fun Aerospace Expo, where more than 100 Cardinals on the ground is not at all unusual. Because COPA is tied to a slightly more expensive airframe, their annual convention, known as Migration, often happens at some luxurious destination. Last year’s event in New Orleans drew more than 175 airplanes and 216 people. The Citation Jet Pilots’ 2019 convention in Colorado Springs entertained 520 people and more than 130 jets.

Type-club executive directors believe many of their members joined to learn more about the idiosyncrasies of their aircraft and become better pilots, leading to the age-old question: Do type clubs make for safer pilots, or are the people who join these clubs predisposed to focus on safety? There’s some—albeit anecdotal—information available that’s useful for drawing insights, because safety improvements don’t always depend upon technical expertise alone.

Not long after Piper introduced the popular 310 h pressurized PA-46 Malibu in 1983, enough owners were convinced of the need for an organization to share knowledge and experience that the Malibu Mirage Owners and Pilots Association was formed, with the name later changing from Mirage to M-Class. A spate of problems with the original Continental engine emerged early on, as well as the first in-flight airframe breakup occurring in May 1989. The next year, five more aircraft were lost in flight. The final straw for the FAA came on March 17, 1991, when a Florida thunderstorm spit out another Malibu in pieces, killing four people. The MMOPA learned that airplane was 200 pounds over gross at takeoff with a center of gravity 2 inches beyond the aft limit.

Believing the problem was the airplane itself, the FAA issued an emergency airworthiness directive that limited the Malibu to VFR flight with the altitude-preselect and vertical-speed modes of the autopilot disabled. The FAA also ordered a special certification review of the airplane just months before Piper filed for bankruptcy in July 1991. MMOPA members discovered some commonalities with the accident pilots, including inexperience with high-altitude flight in high-performance airplanes. The group hoped to prove the problem was not the airplane but way pilots were being trained.

A special arm of the MMOPA, the Malibu Coalition, hired former FAA administrator Langhorne Bond to make their case before the FAA and NTSB. The MMOPA was also instrumental in expanding the Malibu initial training course to five days. The Coalition met with the NTSB to try to restore not only the Malibu’s flight status but also its market reputation with a clean bill of health, by attracting media coverage greater than that of the AD. The FAA released its SCR findings in February 1992 indicating the accident pilots were not properly trained to manage such a high-performance airplane in the flight levels and withdrew the AD against the Malibu. The MMOPA can certainly take credit for saving that airplane from extinction—not to mention the lives—because of the improvement in the training program.

COPA faced a similar scenario related to the airplane’s Cirrus Airframe Parachute System. While some pilots early on knew enough to pull the chute in tough situations, the number of fatal accidents began to climb in 2007 before leveling off briefly in early 2009. Then the numbers spiked again with 11 accidents in 2011 and eight fatal ones in 2012. Rick Beach, COPA’s aviation safety chair, said that at one point, there were “three accidents in a 24-hour period.” Beach said a look at the data COPA gathered seemed to show the accidents were happening mainly to non-COPA member pilots who’d rented a Cirrus at an FBO or flying club. “It became pretty clear that the standard way of checking somebody out was pretty deficient,” Beach said. “We were seeing inexperienced Cirrus instructors giving minimal checkouts of a couple hours, before some pilots created a smoking hole. That’s how expanding the quality of the Cirrus Standardized Instructor Program evolved.” Beach said COPA helped develop CSIP using some top-notch Cirrus instructors who were already teaching in the airplane. Beach is credited with the COPA slogan about CAPS, “Pull early, pull often.” COPA’s training efforts, in part, became focused on convincing pilots of the value of pulling the chute in an emergency rather than riding the aircraft down to the ground.

What COPA learned was that people who are not used to flying the Cirrus simply don’t think of pulling the chute when they get into trouble. The chute handle does, after all, hang from the ceiling above the pilot and out of the normal visual scan. Beach said: “By January 2012, the 26th CAPS pull occurred, which meant there had been 25 CAPS saves in the previous 10 years. By the end of 2014, there had been 50 CAPS events, 25 more in just three years. By the end of 2017, the number was 73 CAPS pulls and nearly 25 more in the last three years. Halfway through 2020, we’ve had another 24 CAPS saves, totaling 97 with 195 survivors.” The numbers speak for themselves.

While no one person or organization can turn a someone into a better pilot if the PIC isn’t motivated, aircraft type clubs and the training opportunities they provide—as well as the

experienced users willing to share their expertise in specific training scenarios—can go a long way toward moving a pilot well beyond the minimum standards asked for in a check ride to a place where they truly become one with the airplane they love.

This story appeared in the November 2020, Buyers Guide issue of Flying Magazine

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