This Merlin 300 (a IIIC with winglets) has been for sale for a few months and looks pretty sweet - I'm not sure what the winglets do to performance, but it looks hot.

http://www.controller.com/listings/airc ... merlin-300
https://youtu.be/EiHyGPPszjw

I had a similar mission and am going with a solitaire. It will do 1300nm (no wind) and carry 900lbs with full fuel. I rarely haul more than 4 folks around so it worked for my missions. I also thought it was very fun to fly.

The math seemed to indicate it will be cheaper to run than a Merlin, though not By a huge amount of fuel stays cheap. Both require ample training, which seems prudent and I would have wanted to do in any high performance plane.

Dan,


Who told you the above?

This is the first I have heard about a "high" accident rate and a mandate for sim training.

I do think sim training is valuable and have done that side by side with in aircraft from the beginning.

My own review of the NTSB reports did not raise any red flags other than runway excursions (topic for another thread).

It is a chore to work the NTSB reports and also to seperate the Merlin accidents from the Metro accidents, due to the nearly identical model designations.

Congrats on the TR.

Read this:

https://www.faa.gov/aircraft/air_cert/d ... errata.pdf

Specifically chart on bottom of page 11.

So why should the MU2 get an SFAR when other airplanes (Merlins among them) are worse per this chart?

Then read this:

https://www.faa.gov/aircraft/air_cert/d ... 0Final.pdf

The result was this face saving report. It was all a bunch of hogwash anyway. The FAA has never held to the scientific method for anything, preferring to "know" the answer before studying so they only need to gather confirming data. If you go back to that chart on page 11 of the first report, it doesn't take long to realize those numbers can't possibly be right. The Embraer 110 has 37 times the accident rate of a King Air? Fails sanity check big time.

Note that they only considered 121 and 135 ops in this report, yet the MU2 SFAR applied to part 91 as well, so a bit of apples to oranges going on there.

All of this made for good fodder for political conspiracy theories about the whole SFAR thing for the MU2.

The irony is that, regardless of the justification for the SFAR, the impact was so significant that now it gets harder and harder to say other turboprops wouldn't benefit from the same thing.

Mike C.

Mike, I think you are correct in that those reports are questionable. I would say if indeed they were fact based that they should have a list of each accident for each type that was used to make up thier report and at the least put it in an index or easily findable footnote somewhere.

Had there been a simaler SFAR training requirement for the Merlin it would not have deterred me at all but would have made my transition much easier. I believe the MU2 community has reaped great benifits from the requirement through raising awareness and much interest in the type.

Erwin,

The Breiling accident statistics show a dramatic improvement in Merlin accident rates in recent years.

I didn't mean to single out the Merlin as having insurance-mandated sim training, that is pretty much the norm for all turboprops in the U.S.

Best,

Dan

Dan, where do you find those stats?

My google search turns up empty, yielding only NTSB and TSB reports which I have already gone through.

Good luck in your search for a Merlin.

Had I not found such a nice MU-2, I would have been seriously looking at the Merlins. They are great airplanes! Fast, big cabin, long range...

Accident statistics among this group of airplanes have improved due to a few things IMO. I believe the overall safety culture has improved with operators over the last 20 years. Insurance companies have realized the safety benefits of yearly training and many mandate it. The shoestring freight haulers have all but disappeared.

When I learned about the re-certifications of the MU-2 and watched the icing video, it left me with a huge question mark. Why did this airframe have to go through the extensive processes and no other airframe was scrutinized, despite accident statistics? What that crew had to do in the icing video is nothing short of amazing! Full stalls with SLD ice all over the airplane, courtesy of a tanker blowing water like old faithful! The MU-2 demonstrated excellent control-ability throughout the stall series loaded with ice. I get a chuckle when I hear somebody say that the MU2 is dangerous in icing conditions. (disclaimer) Always avoid and get out of it in any airplane.

A mandated SFAR would increase safety across the board for all turbo-props. There is no argument about that.