We upgraded our M600 from serial number 30 to 98. I think we put about 650 hours on SN30. Had some early adopter squawks but she never left us AOG in 650 hours over our 1.5 year ownership. She traveled from wintery Alaska and Canada to balmy Southern Mexico and all 4 corners of the US several times. With great support from Piper, we had the opportunity to move up to the new generation M600 with the G3000 Nxi (doesn’t have a special name), but has the speed, high resolution screens, high speed processors and bells and whistles of the new G3000 Nxi. I am actually co-owner of this bird with another pilot with a similar family size and mission. Co-ownership with him has been a pretty good marriage. Certainly, no dust collects on this plane. We put 68 hours on her in a little less than 2 months. We did look at or consider all the usual turbine suspects, in rough order of price Eclipse, Mustang, SF50, TBM, M2, Honda jet, PC12, all great planes. As some combination of acquisition and operating costs, range payload, Hot high and short capability, safety and technology, the M600 is really in a sweet spot. We would have been happy with any of the others, but this one fits us. Some say you should have a plane that serves 80% of your missions, personally, I think I would be very frustrated with a plane that was not adequate for 20% of my missions. I personally almost never fly commercial. This is a 99% mission capable plane for the most weather, high, hot, short runway, mountain, night, short range, long range, variable missions that I have.

For our last M600, we decided to go for the whole new airplane experience. Factory tour and photos and such. For this one, our schedules were tight, so we had it delivered to Utah by Pat Belokas the Western Aviation Piper sales guy. Pretty exciting. He sent texts, including one running max ITT (that is a one and done thing) pushing 282 KTAS. I watched her on Flightaware and parked at the end of the runway so that I could see her land. Then off to the ramp for delivery. I had seen computer mock ups and pictures of the plane, but the paint looked even better in person.





As to the plane, one of the things that stood out to me was the continued improved fit and finish. This aircraft is my ? sixth new PA46. Each iteration I have owned has come with incremental improvements in technology and aesthetics since my first Matrix, one of the first G1000 PA46 pistons in 2010. The M600 is certainly the pinnacle of the Piper line. The interior of the M600 looks more like a luxury SUV than a small aircraft. The seats are the most comfortable yet. On a recent 5.5-hour flight back from San Antonio battling up to 100 knots on the nose, with 1000 nm of icing Airmets below us, making an intermediate stop undesirable, one of my highly flight-experienced sons said that these were the most comfortable seats yet in any plane we have owned.





Where the M600 really shines is performance and efficiency. Just like our last M600, this one beats the book performance handily. 6-8 knots above book, on slightly less than book fuel flow. It is faster, climbs better and goes farther than billed. Not a bad discrepancy to have in the POH. So we get Meridian/M500 or better speeds on just a little more than Meridian fuel flows. From Utah, typically we can hit almost anything in the lower 48 non-stop, with typical winds. I typically do my Florida, GA, and SC trips non-stop, and 1 stop West bound. The increased range makes finding VMC fuel stops with good prices very easy. Due to the ability to tanker fuel, my average fuel price is actually lower than with the Meridian, because I usually only have to take enough fuel to be social, or to waive ramp fees. Otherwise, I can tanker cheap CAA fuel otherwise.



The handling characteristics of the M600 is true to the stick and rudder feel of the PA46 line. Elevator forces are a little light at high speed cruise compared to roll, but in line with competing airframes. The ride is exceptionally solid, when compared to the other M-class aircraft. The PA46 airframe, which is already a tough airframe, was really beefed up to handle the rigor of a 251 KIAS Vmo. There is a lot of metal with special riveting and bolting that went into the M600 in key areas. The plane definitely handles turbulence much better than the M350/M500. The wing loading is only nominally higher than the Meridian so I think the improved ride is related to something else, maybe the stiffness of the airframe or design of the wing.

The high Vmo makes the decent fast and fun. Can just start the descent without touching the power lever. Watching the ASI roll up to Mach 0.55, or 250 KIAS, is a real delight. As you descend you do have to pull the PL back eventually, not due to Vmo, but since it is not FADEC, the torque will climb as air density increases, like any non-FADEC turbine.

The main gear is solid, the brakes heavy duty (although with Beta, rarely use them). The tires are high pressure which gives a very solid ground-handling feel.

New on the new-generation M600 is the G3000 Nxi. The G3000 avionics has 3, 12 inch screens, 2 touch screens, and the Aspen Evolution as a back up. It comes with the new GWX80 radar which unlike a 4-color radar, now has numerous colors, and looks more like Nexrad than 4 color radar. Also paints a better cleaner picture than the 70 which was better than the 68. Garmin keeps innovating. The LRU’s are all upgraded, with a new AP…. Hmmmm. There must be a reason for that, just don’t know what it is yet, but have heard there is something coming

Anyway, ?68 hours or so on the bird. Very impressed so far.

Congratulations! Beautiful plane.

One word for this: “sweet!”

This is an awesome plane. It's great to see that Piper (finally) kicked it up a notch with the M600 after it came out. Just wish I could fit in the front.

Congrats, Chuck

Landing in Thunder Bay Ontario,(CYQT). I parked my Baron beside a M600. Beautiful aircraft. Your newer version is better yet! Would so love to own/fly one.

Just a beautiful mission capable aircraft.

Very very nice !! Thanks for sharing!!

Brenda

Beautiful, congrats!!!

Nice!

You mentioned

Still a -42? What is your max ITT? 800?

We have -42s in the 200 so looking for comparison. Our max is 800 and we typically don't run over 770. Last HSI came back clean...

Nice Chuck, beauty! I agree the old one was getting long in the tooth.

Congratulations on the beautiful plane.
Great write up.
Blue Skies!

What an awesome travelling machine! Love the scheme and interior!

Nice! Beautiful paint and interior.

Yep still the -42. Max ITT is 800 and Max Ng is 101.7% We don't run it anywhere close to there though. There are several sets of power tables, we run the normal cruise power settings, and usually back off that 30-50 ft.lbs which runs ITT's anywhere from 695-730 depending on conditions.

For 99%+ of pilots that aircraft is just a poster on the wall, or an internal thought that, “Someday, I am going to...”

I have probably obtained some level of success, but I still cannot even imagine in my wildest dreams what it would be like to take delivery and fly that airplane. Congratulations and please keep writing. You do a great job and I enjoy your posts.

I'm curious how often you have to be somewhat flexible in when you fly to make this work? In the last year I have had several instances where I had to fly commercial because of weather where either the en route weather or in one case departure conditions precluded flying my plane where a jet could go. Up til now I've had to travel a lot on very inflexible schedules (i.e. have to be somewhere at a certain time with no real ability to go early or come late(r)due to schedule). You're either more flexible than me, more lucky or have a better system. Which is it?

I'm not sure where that rule originated, but if it ever was practical, it's not now. If you're a corporate flight department and run your lear 100 hours per year and charter a gulfstream for 25 ... it might make sense. But for what you would pay to rent a Baron 25 hours per year, you could just own one rather than a Bonanza.

Suspect for most people 90-95% is the right number (ie just one or two trips per year you can't make)