BeechTalk - BT

Username Protected · **Posted:** 30 Jul 2020, 14:44

I think serious training is a must coming from a transport category aircraft. Don’t get me wrong, the PA46 is a great airplane...the smallest airplane I’ve gotten my wife into without protest, so currently defining my budget for my next airplane. It’ll be a while. That said, here’s my $0.02:

Engines: Hard to break a modern turbine engine. Relatively easy to break a twin turbocharged engine with 1950s technology. Not a big deal with training.

Performance: The PA46 has just enough to get in trouble. It’s happiest at the altitudes with the greatest weather challenges. Not enough of a climb rate or speed to escape an icing encounter like a jet. Towards the top of the heap for a single engine piston, but still a different beast than a jet.

Systems: It has a lot of them. And again, they’re just enough to get in trouble. Pressurization off of a single piston engine’s turbochargers is a lot less powerful than a jet with ample bleed air. Same with vacuum driven deice boots. And the radar’s in a completely different league from a jet with a big dish. Imagine going from looking through a picture window to staring through a small porthole. Again, they all get the job done but they’re not at all the same as a jet and require a LOT of training to manage properly.

Again, none of this to bash the airplane. It just isn’t a jet and has a completely different set of challenges to operate safely. I’d guess 15-20 hours of dual and a good bit of self-study or ground training would be appropriate based off of my days as a factory instructor doing pretty much exactly this sort of thing.

Username Protected · **Posted:** 30 Jul 2020, 15:03

Username Protected wrote:

My two cents.

The PA46 is 10 pounds of stuff in a 5 pound sack.

The airframe has some surprises that need to be learned. All knowable but not intuitive.

P

All very true. It’s also about flying that airplane in the flight levels and knowing systems. Flight experience at flight levels in a jet does little to prepare for the FL’s the Malibu will fly in.
Kevin

Username Protected · **Posted:** 30 Jul 2020, 17:47

The OP is coming from an airline guys this is a piece of cake with some systems training and in airplane time. Tom D has a TBM and FL's, speeds, weights, systems/complexities are all within easy to deal with parameters based on what he has been flying too. I too would love to hear the FF, speeds etc for the Mirage and Malibu's at 15 and 17. Help?

Username Protected · **Posted:** 30 Jul 2020, 22:59

Username Protected wrote:

The OP is coming from an airline guys this is a piece of cake with some systems training and in airplane time. Tom D has a TBM and FL's, speeds, weights, systems/complexities are all within easy to deal with parameters based on what he has been flying too. I too would love to hear the FF, speeds etc for the Mirage and Malibu's at 15 and 17. Help?

Malibu is 12/14/16gph for 55/65/75% of 310.

As I recall that’s roughly 175/185/195 at 17,000

Piper Malibu checkout