That’s a good point! How do you get around the “Why should we buy a M600 if something better is in the works and is only xx AMU$ more ?”

Push to start, plane does everything else seems like a possibility. If they could couple with remote radio oversight, that'd be a real game changer.

Well, the M600 SLS with some software tweaks, really does have the technology in place to take off, cruise and land without human input. Certifying that would seem to be a nightmare though. I am a little curious as well. We have 464 hours on our 2019 M600. We have to sell it soon, if we don't want to be in that high hour category for used aircraft. Although, I would make the case that a plane that flies all the time and is well maintained has some advantages over dusty hangar queens.

I still think a 4 seat version of the M500 would sell.

That implies non-pilots, so it must be a self-flying UAV, that costs the price of a Hyundai and runs on 87 Octane mogas.

You mean non-pilots with 4 mil to spend and additional 100K per year to run it. Maybe they are trying to revise the FAAs idea of small singles for short hop airline service. Still isn't going to change a thing for us peasants.

No, I saw it. Didn't intend to be an a-hole, I was just overcome with my usual cynicism about these things.

Well I sure hope it isn’t Mogas. That stuff is way more expensive than the price of jet A these days.

Just to complete this thread. Piper announced that they are the first to get autoland certified. Too bad you have to buy a new plane to get it. Is a nice feature for an incapacited or confused pilot, or even for an emergency when running low on fuel surrounded by worse than forecast LIFR. I like the way they have the blue level button on the pilot’s side and the red autoland button on the copilots side.

[Link] https://www.piper.com/press-releases/pi ... -m600-sls/[/Link]

So this is just a certification of the emergency only system garmin announced months ago?

Piper may have beaten Cirrus to the finish line...
The vision jet is about to get certified as well... Someone with more pulls got there first I guess.

Yup. Big ol' yawn. Probably pretty important to Piper, but in a few months nobody else will care who got it certified first.

To the contrary... Sales people love those facts.... It will be in Giant letters: First plane to be certified.
You are either the first or you are not... It is a big deal for them.

Does it matter? not really, but perception is everything when it comes to sales. A good sales team can make or break the bank.

That's my point. Sales people will care. Piper employees have a feel-good feather in their cap. But I have a hard time believing that people buying new planes at that price point aren't smart enough to see that it's Garmin's system, that it's largely the same in each plane that has it, and that the systems are all coming out about the same time as each other. In 6 months or so, Piper's system won't be any more mature than Cirrus's or TBM's.

Frankly, if a sales person told me that fact more than once, it would turn me off.