What are the payloads of the two, with full fuel?
With full fuel a Meridian has about 510lb for passengers and baggage. And on range you are right. They don't have the range of a piston PA-46. But few people would do your 7 hour trip from Pula even if they could. The Meridian has a no wind max practical range of about 900nm. Lean of peak in the Mirage I could almost double that. But my backside has a far shorter range.
Interestingly, I notice that Jetprop's comparison page still lists the Meridian without the 2003 gross weight increase that added 300lb...
My Jetprop has a useful load of 350lbs (160Kg) full fuel, so hardly a single person aircraft, even after Christmas lunch. :-)
The -35 engine is one of the most fuel efficient PT6A variants, originally taken from the -135 King Air, but married to a different gearbox. At 30 Gal/Hr for TAS 260, at FL270, in terms of performance, for the right mission fit, it is the best value for money turbine package out there, with a zero wind range of 1,300 Nm.
When I ferried it from Vero Beach to Bangkok during 2008, we were on a ferry permit at 500lbs over gross. This was a four person flight with a load of spares, tools, clothes, raft, immersion suits and 2kg of Florida oranges my instructor wanted to give his elderly mother during our stop in Sardinia. With the standard range there was no need for ferry tanks though.
My instructor John Mariani is one of the original Piper Malibu design engineers, and PA46 test pilot to boot, with well over 12,000 hrs in the PA46, who impressed upon me that given the excess power of the Jetprop, the main precautions at that weight were CG loading, and VA adherence in turbulence.
Considering he was in the right seat all the way to Thailand, he put his money where his mouth was.
I have to say that apart from a slightly sluggish climb rate (1,800 FPM instead of well over 2,500 FPM at MTOW) I never noticed the extra weight for the entire trip.
During the trip, we had a serious incident over El Alamein, caused by frozen controls in the tail after an unsupervised wash of the aircraft, and a hurried preflight inspection afterwards (short version), resulting in us pulling +6.0G and -3.0G over a 3 second fugoid at FL250.
John performed a structural survey after we landed at Luxor, declaring the airframe unscathed, which was more than could be said for his wife and my partner travelling in the back. :-(
I am living testimony to the strength of the PA46 airframe after that little excursion.
Ever since then, I do not worry about the payload, (and never let anyone wash it but me) but in fairness, I am usually travelling on my own or with my partner most trips, well within the permitted MTOW.
I did extensive research before I chose the Jetprop, and for my typical mission profile, there is nothing to touch it in that price range, both in terms of initial capital and ongoing running costs.
Cheers - E
In the Cirrus I can fly from Rotterdam straight in 3-4 hours to Hungary and still have 2 hours in reserve. That is what is missing with the Jetprops. I am currently doing the Jetprop (DLX) conversion for my typerating, but am not sure I am going to switch over. Now I can fly straight to Spain or Italy, then I would have to make a stop.
EAL's post suggests a 1300nm zero-wind range (presumably that is to zero fuel).
That is very close to the TB20, which can do Shoreham to Granada (Spain), Shoreham to Caglieri (Sardinia), etc, with ~20USG left in the tanks which is 2 hrs' flying time. I have about 1300nm zero-fuel range from the top of a climb to FL100.
Is the SR22 that much better? When I looked at the SR22, it had about 10% less range.
The other thing is that the Jetprop goes about 1.5 to 2x faster, and is far better for any sort of convective wx (FL260, deice, etc).
Aeroplus, I can fly straight to Spain or Italy. You need to recalibrate your reserves a little with these aircraft. They are very fast, you don't need 2 hours reserve. You only have about 4 hours flight time.
And eal, John is great, my instructor works with him - and does his annual recurrency checks.
Jason: so Oxford - Bucharest can be done in the PA46 Meridian/JetProp?
I just takes in Hungary to this business owner who lives in the UK and has an office in Bucharest. The reason he is flying the Cirrus and not a PA46 is that according to him, the PA46 won't make it to Bucharest in 1 flight.
I am burning 14.1 USG/hr. in the cruise with 92 gallons on board. OK. I will neet about 10 US gallon in the climb to e.g. FL180.
Then in Grenchen, Switzerland I had to get some extra oxygen and ended up at a maintenance shop where they had a new Piper Malibu sitting there to be delivered. They had opted for the Piston variant and not the Meridian as it did not make sense.
Now, I am also a member of the MMOPA forum and thus very much interested in the Jetprop, but still somewhat confused. With the new Cirrus SR22 generation 5 aircrafts just released this year, the payload went up dramatically. I can fuel up full and still take 4 persons on board and still be within the limits.
I just did a route and that looks like nearly 1400nm so no. You would have to stop. The pain could do it. LOP 16gph with 148gals
You would still however likely get there faster in spite of the stop.
Jason: Yes, John is an excellent resource, the PA community is lucky to have him. There are some excellent instructors and mentors including Travis who make the whole ownership experience less lonely!
Aeroplus: I would normally plan on four hours flying with the standard full fuel on board, which is an honest zero wind 1,000Nm range and over one hour reserve at TAS 250-260. By pulling the power back to around 600 Lbs TQ, you can get the consumption down to 22GPH, but so does the speed to around TAS 215. FL270. Now you at 6 hrs endurance with still one hour reserve, but in my experience, I would rather have the stop and so do my passengers unless we are on a mission to get somewhere really quickly.
So depending on routing and winds, Rotterdam to Hungary would be doable non stop, but not from Oxford. When I brought the Jetprop back to the UK a couple of years ago, I did Bournemouth -> Jerez easily.
After owning the aircraft a few years in Thailand, I decided to fit an FAA approved ferry tank connector inside the cabin (designed by John M) to which I can connect either an 18 gallon, or 66 gallon collapsible bladder ferry tank to if I really need to push the range. Airports are few and far between in that part of the world, and anywhere you want to go outside of Thailand generally involves water.
Impressively both tanks flat pack and fit in the nose baggage compartment when not in use, and I carry the 18 gallon bladder with me all the time, just in case I ever want it at short notice . The smaller one takes up the room of a small rolled up sleeping bag. That one gives me just under 45 mins extra, whereas the other one can give anywhere from 2-4 hrs extra with a ferry permit.
I rarely use either ferry tank unless there is an extended water crossing, or unfriendly country underneath.
If I was based in Europe, I cannot really see the need for it, with all the refueling options around, and even bringing the aircraft back to the UK from Thailand, the longest single leg is 980Nm, so very doable without the ferry tank.
The one time I flew for 7 hours, I discovered that my personal endurance is around 5.5 hrs, by then I have had enough, and my performance starts to fade. I would not want, or ever intended, to use the ferry tank regularly, but it is a great option to have, extends the envelope of the aircraft, and I have done some amazing trips using them to the Philippines and Micronesia from Thailand.
E
