Charles, I was wondering where you went. You have been sorely missed on some other aviation websites. With over 6000 posts, I see where you spend your time now.

Eh Greg, im open minded.
Its Piper that said they need to make some modifications to the internal wing structure.
If they dont want us to guess maybe they should tell the reason or not say anything.

Usually when you modify internally its to beef it up.

At least when Daher/ Socata comes out with a new model its available now, not 2 years later. What a joke.

I personally think we will see a new TBM with G3000 before the M600 is out.





It doesn't surprise me the way you read it that the wing is falling apart. Of course it hasn't. For $1M+ more the TBM better be bigger and stronger. Try to be open-minded at least. Many planes have missed their initial release date and trust me, the TBM has not been perfect. What's that about complete landing gear actuator overhauls? Shall I read that as the gear is coming apart?

Well Marc, you sure seem to bash the Meridian every chance you get, right or wrong, as if it should do everything a TBM does but still costs substantially less. And, if you were truly open minded, you would have noted that they did state, in your very own post, the reason for the wing changes. There is no need for you to guess. Also, the M600 was announced last April, not two years ago.

Greg,
Im not bashing the Meridian, im just saying what it is.
Piper never said what happen to the wing at 250 kt vmo so that they had to internally modify it.
The M600 might have been announced last april but now Piper is saying Q3 for delivery, that will be closed to 2 years if they do deliver in 2016.

Piper just announced a price drop on the M500 by about $250K to create more "space" between the M500 and M600. They were just granted type inspection authorization on the M600. Yikes. I'd hate to be somebody who recently purchased an M500 at full retail. Maybe they were discounted already so it didn't matter. Who knows.

http://www.aopa.org/News-and-Video/All- ... ass-prices

As soon as the M600 hit the press, the just sold M500 values dropped.

All Piper did was to make that official in the list price or they would not sell any more. As it is, they probably won't sell very many at all even at the lower price, so I expect it to vanish from the product line at some point.

This is the nature of product evolution.

Mike C.

I'm not sure about that. What they have right now is the perfect Good, Better, Best product selection. $1,000,000 - $2,000,000 - $3,000,000. They just got there in the unfortunate way of a public price reduction. But it doesn't just screw us current Meridian owners, it also will affect all other SETP as it pushes pricing down across the board on used inventory. It also shrinks the gap between the G5 Cirrus and a Matrix and pretty much caps Cirrus' ability with their current price run up on new AC.

It will take a little while for it to all shake out, but by year end I suspect we'll feel most of that $260,000 price reduction on used inventory and evals.

Chip-

Well, I couldn't resist. With the price drops and Piper wanting to sell down the used inventory, I had to pick up a new 2015 M500. Some of the new things are going to be a nice addition, like the full envelope protection, straight and level button, and automatic AP engagement for an out of control situation. The new USB ports throughout the cabin in addition to the standard 110V outlets, will be welcome for the kids. They used to fight over the 110V outlets, so now everybody has a charging USB port. The automatic integrated pressurization, as well as all CAS and gear warning now being integrated with Aural and visual warnings. "Underspeed", "gear not down", "cabin pressure" etc... I'll miss my old Meridian, but she will be a true catch for someone lucky enough to get her. She was flawless with no cancellations for weather or maintenance in 130,000 nm over the almost 2 years that I owned her. Here she is next to my trade in. I looked again at the Eclipse, Mustang, TBM and M2. The Meridian still offers the best combination of efficiency and utility, but the 3 boys are growing, so at some point, I will start having to leave fuel behind with everyone on board. We can still get the 5 of us and light luggage in with full fuel.

What is the precise definition of "out of control" as far as the autopilot is concerned?

What happens if the pilot and autopilot disagree on the recovery procedure and fight each other?

What happens if the autopilot decides you are out of control and you aren't? For example, an attitude source failure occurs. Is there an override?

Not sure I like the idea George can autonomously engage. The safety equation for this feature is not all positive, there are downsides.

Mike C.

Well, I couldn't resist. With the price drops and Piper wanting to sell down the used inventory, I had to pick up a new 2015 M500. Some of the new things are going to be a nice addition, like the full envelope protection, straight and level button, and automatic AP engagement for an out of control situation. The new USB ports throughout the cabin in addition to the standard 110V outlets, will be welcome for the kids. They used to fight over the 110V outlets, so now everybody has a charging USB port. The automatic integrated pressurization, as well as all CAS and gear warning now being integrated with Aural and visual warnings. "Underspeed", "gear not down", "cabin pressure" etc... I'll miss my old Meridian, but she will be a true catch for someone lucky enough to get her. She was flawless with no cancellations for weather or maintenance in 130,000 nm over the almost 2 years that I owned her. Here she is next to my trade in. I looked again at the Eclipse, Mustang, TBM and M2. The Meridian still offers the best combination of efficiency and utility, but the 3 boys are growing, so at some point, I will start having to leave fuel behind with everyone on board. We can still get the 5 of us and light luggage in with full fuel.

What is the precise definition of "out of control" as far as the autopilot is concerned?

What happens if the pilot and autopilot disagree on the recovery procedure and fight each other?

What happens if the autopilot decides you are out of control and you aren't? For example, an attitude source failure occurs. Is there an override?

Not sure I like the idea George can autonomously engage. The safety equation for this feature is not all positive, there are downsides.

Mike C.

Congrats Chuck! Beautiful aircraft.

Got it.

It sounds like it doesn't really "engage" when you reach 30 degree bank, it just adds some resistance that goes away once you lessen the bank, right? So there is no "mode" change, just the AP influencing the controls when you've exceeded certain parameters.


Okay, so all the usual AP disconnect methods still work. Some are momentary (like yoke button), some are not (like pull breaker).

If you attitude source starts providing wrong data to the autopilot, do the emergency procedures say to pull the AP breaker to stop it from providing erroneous "help" while you are flying partial panel? It could be interesting few second while you figure out you've had an instrument failure.


Over powering servos is a very bad idea. Could lead to wound up trim in the airplane to where neither the pilot or the AP can fly it.

Mike C.

That is one of the things that is critical in autopilot certification - being able to override the servos. Not saying you ever want to do it, but it has to be demonstrated multiple times in bad conditions - like a runaway trim servo that goes on for a few seconds at full speed.

-jason