Beautiful airplane David, congrats!

Congratulations on the new airplane, David. Hopefully I'll see you one day at DMW (my airplane is there now for maintenance).
Also, I agree on your comments regarding Skytech. I have worked with them for about 5-6 years now, extremely well run operation that will bend over backwards to take care of the customer.

Thanks, guys... we are very happy with it so far. Reach out if you’re near KDMW and want to say hi.
Dave

Is this a "50 hours since new" inspection, or a periodic 50 hour inspection?

Is this a "50 hours since new" inspection, or a periodic 50 hour inspection?

DMW is a great little airport! I’m over in the t-hangars.

The M350 is a great airplane. One of its advantages not mentioned above is the range ... it can easily do 1000 nm+ nonstop. Much better range than the Meridian/M500 and when you add in the time for a fuel stop, point to point time is about the same. I fly an M600 which has even better range but I was damn near about to pull the trigger on a new M350 when a used M600 partnership became available, because more than half of my missions are 800-1150 nm.

Having said that, the 350 is a superb aircraft. I find the PA46 cockpit very comfortable up front and while it takes a little maneuvering to get into it (I’m 5’8” and wider than I should be), you quickly figure out how to do it comfortably. Once seated, it’s much more comfortable than my Cirrus and I’m happy sitting up there for 5+ hour legs. I flew 2000 nm the other day on an Angel Flight mission and it was a pleasure to be in the plane for all of that time.

There was a run on new M600 trade-ins last summer and fall (due to Piper’s promotion) and the prices for the used birds dropped pretty dramatically to well under $2 mm, and not much above M500 prices, due to a big slug of owners trading up. That seems to have calmed down and prices on Controller have bounced back up as the inventory has come down a bit. I fly a 2016 M600 with now over 900 TTAF and have had very few issues with it. The next annual will likely be our last annual under the warranty (which is hours-limited as well as time-limited). But we have been very happy with the airplane and Piper service.

I know the Skytech people well because I fly into Rock Hill (KUZA) fairly often as my mother lives close by - they have been very helpful on minor items during those trips, both for my Piper and my Cirrus before that, so i also recommend them.

Cheers

I am 6' 2" but used to be 6' 3" before back surgery. The PA46 was a bit tough to maneuver into but it was comfy once seated and adjusted. The Piper rep and I did a dirt dive so there was no flying but the back was definitely a comfortable spot for the Mrs. and the crib minions.

Congratulations on your amazing new plane! Thanks for the write up, really enjoyed reading it.

Love the paint scheme. Having flown all the piston variants, and all the turbine variants, You are right the M350 is one of the quietest propellor driven airplanes I’ve been in. It is quieter than the turbines, possibly due to decreased airflow at the lower speed, but having that extra luggage compartment between the cabin and the engine helps a lot as well. I tell people as long as your passengers don’t know how to read the VSI or the ASI, they can’t tell the difference from being in the back of an M350 versus M500/600 or TBM. Probably is at the apex of the cost/capability curve of currently manufactured aircraft.

With an M350 if you need full fuel and want to carry three people it is easy to be below max GW but how to you deal with narrow forward trending CG envelope?

Had a demonstration flight today in 2020 M350.
Really enjoyed it. Much larger interior than bonanza, really comfortable. Quieter than I expected.
The plane I few in had an upgraded after market air conditioner.
I liked the flight safety systems more than I thought I would.
The M350 is more useable in many ways than M500 which is hard to get my head wrapped around.
CG is forward, I was impressed that we were loading more aft than trying to put weight forward.
More money than I thought it would be too when tricked out the way I would want it.
It’s a nice plane

Use the rear baggage area and not the front. These planes are very easy to load full fuel and people. The front and rear baggage options allow you to balance your load. Easiest plane to load to gross weight I have owned.
Kevin

IDK about the M350 but the Malibu's could be sat on their tail if you loaded heavy pax in the back seat before pilots.

Never heard of people having forward CG issues.

I had a friend once that loaded a V35b and it sat on the tail. I think that's a beechcraft safety feature...