Emir wrote:
Agree and that’s why I wrote “unfortunately” in one of the previous posts.
I agree with you Emir.
I dont know much at all about the STC “market” etc but I am sure some company in the US will want to pick up the STC from Rocket Engineering if they cease activity. The JP is extremely popular there, there are many more conversions which could be done from the old piston pre 2008 Mirage fleet, and I have seen threads on MMOPA bemoaning the fact that willing customers can’t get Vernon to start projects.
Buckerfan wrote:
These are why the Jetprop is the ideal European IFR touring aircraft. Plus the exceptional short field performance (off good grass runway in 350 – 400 m quite possible).And a good used one can be had for the same price as a new Cirrus.
Agree and that’s why I wrote “unfortunately” in one of the previous posts.
Emir wrote:
Especially in US (which is BTW the largest market ) where IFR airway fees don’t exist and you don’t pay excessively more airport fees for being slightly heavier than 2 tons.
These are why the Jetprop is the ideal European IFR touring aircraft. Plus the exceptional short field performance (off good grass runway in 350 – 400 m quite possible).
And a good used one can be had for the same price as a new Cirrus.
THY wrote:
But naturally Pipers Meridian/M500 and M600s has taken a share out of potentials clients looking for a Jetprop upgrade.
Especially in US (which is BTW the largest market 
) where IFR airway fees don’t exist and you don’t pay excessively more airport fees for being slightly heavier than 2 tons.
The 80 year old guy would be a fool to not pass the STC onto somebody. I am sure that will happen.
To clearify myself: current piston PA46 inventory on controller.com I mentioned is excluding M350s (23) and non-pressurized Matrixs (14). Compared to 13 Jetprops for sale at the moment. But then the pool of PA46s pistons is much larger than the fleet of 300 (or so) Jetprops out there. So lots of airframes pre-G1000 still out there that could be Jetprop upgraded. But naturally Pipers Meridian/M500 and M600s has taken a share out of potentials clients looking for a Jetprop upgrade.
Peter wrote:
But why not just buy a ready made Jetprop. Then you don’t need to find a competent shop to build one
Just to be clear Im not currently in the market for one but found the question interesting nonetheless. I still enjoy my TB21 and think we are slowly comming out of an overheated second hand market. Inventory for Piston PA46s fx on controller.com have gone from less than 10 planes few years ago to 47 just now. But otherwise I agree, buying a ready made one would be preferred option for most. Jetprop market (or PA46T really) is allmost non-existing in Europe so the question of possible import from US, SA , Australia ect to EASA reg is relevant for those looking for used ones.
Emir wrote:
Unfortunately it seems that JetProp fleet reached its final number. The number of potentially upgradable airframes is limited to pre-2008 pool and the factory obviously doesn’t do much these days.
The important point is that the existing 300 aircraft fleet can continue to operate. Parts like the front tire are specific to the JetProp and the planes probably need parts like special tubes etc. from time to time.
The JetProp was an amazing product and in some applications like short fields has no direct replacement. But for the mass market Piper keeps updating its products while a newly converted JetProp would still be a 15-20 year old airframe at 1 to 1.5 million dollars total. So I think its life cycle is towards the end. But it deserves credit as one of the most succesfull conversions ever. 300 owners spent maybe 150 million dollars total on this product which is quite a statement.
But why not just buy a ready made Jetprop. Then you don’t need to find a competent shop to build one – always a hard job in Europe. Even getting TKS installed is a huge job, finding a shop which even wants to do it.
Snoopy wrote:
No. However, some validated STCs from decades ago are hidden on paper files in CAA archives… and not easily available to find via the internet.
Ok thanks. That explains it.
