I posted this on MMOPA this morning, but thought it was kind of a fun light topic with all the gray in the world right now. Might as well copy and paste on my few favorite forums. Well, slow morning at the hospital, but not sure if Piper is really working on that... I may have something close. The performance of the M600 is similar to the Meridian, at least when at max GW. The M600 powerplant delivers about 660 ESHP (which factors in thrust from the stacks) and the plane has a ramp weight of 6050 lbs. The Meridian develops about 550 ESHP and has a ramp weight of 5134 lbs so similar power to weight ratios.

The thing about the M600 with a 2400 lb useful load is that you rarely fly it at GW. So the day in day out real world performance tends to be a good bit better than book. Was just programming my FMS the other day, and had a short flight, so not much fuel onboard. Noticed that the aircraft weight turned out to be similar to a fully loaded Mirage. Taking off out of Ogden with a 6000 ft. Density altitude I rotated at the 1000 ft.mark at 85 indicated, which was a sporty acceleration. Here is the climb performance at 140 knots indicated. Climbed at over 2000 fpm all the way to the flight levels.

To put it in perspective, the power to weight ratio of an aerobatic extra 300 is 6.98 lbs/HP. The M600 at Mirage weights is even better at 6.59 lbs/HP. Anyway sporty little bird when it is light. Maybe Piper will certify that V12 for the Mirage, would be a fun bird.... if not a little nose heavy

Someday......maybe.....

Wow

To get the Baron to those kind of power loadings I'd have to fly it by myself in my skivvies with just enough gas to get around the pattern.

Thanks. Most nights I think about airplanes instead of counting sheep waiting to fall asleep, and I keep coming back to the M600 being the ultimate airplane for my needs. Anything that it can't do, I'd probably rather be in an airliner anyway.

As an aside, I can't really figure out why anyone in the market for a new turbine PA46 would opt for an M500, other than the initial capital outlay. This is why I keep thinking that Piper could redo the interior and put in two really lux seats in the back and make it the M504. They'd have to engineer a way to move the one out of the way for loading and unloading, but otherwise, it'd be a sweet 4 place with loads of legroom and baggage space in back.

That is an interesting idea. Maybe like the TBM does with flexible loading of cargo and seats. Some sort of seat track. The M600 is almost as efficient as the M500, and factor in the overall increased speed, probably is small rounding error. Maintenance seems to be equivalent. I guess it is the Capex that is the difference. If you want the cheapest to acquire and cheapest to operate modern turbine with all the technology bells and whistles it is the M500. I guess a million is not something to sneeze at, as the delta between the M500 and M600. Nor is the 1 mil delta between the M600 and TBM 940, and the 1 mil delta between the TBM 940 and PC12. The SF50 with current real optioned pricing just under 3 mil fits in the there somewhere, but does not have all the capability of the M600. I think it kind of fits in between the M500 and M600 somewhere, but really is a class of its own.

Can't imagine that leading to a ramp check

Can't imagine that leading to a ramp check