So, how do the costs or running a PA46 (which one?) compare?
On the piston, over 96 hours, I ran at £150/hr for fuel plus I would say £5000/yr for maintenance. A bad year could be 10k I suppose but I only had it for 9 months.
After 25 hours, the Turbine is costing £160/hr (fuel+airways). Maintenance prob same.
PT6 overhaul $ and TBO?
US$150,000 at 3600 but on condition. Most last a lot longer.
I've just phoned up where I am based, where they do PT6s stuff all day long.
The PT6-42A (Meridian), P&W approved overhaul shop, $280k-$320k for the 1st overhaul after new.
Subsequent overhauls cost an extra $80k or so.
No decent shop will do it for $150k, I am told.
There are ways around the 3600hr TBO, with P&W approval, in certain ops, though apparently not available on the Meridian.
So as usual there is more to this than appears at first.
I was quoted $300k for the 3600hr overhaul on the TBM also, by a number of sources.
Whether you want to go past the manufacturer recommended overhaul in the first place, is another matter. Same argument with a piston engine. I wouldn't. Not even on a twin, because most twins only just fly on one engine.
I spent the last few days at a large PA46 turbine shop. They tell me the Meridian is significantly more expensive in maintenance than the JetProp (while being slower, thirstier, heavier as well).
The Meridian also has a whole lot of systems that work better than the Jetprop. Peter, don't believe everything you are told.
Interesting in Europe, there is a real Jetprop crowd including amongst maintenance people. They are good aircraft but funnily the sentiment is the exact opposite of the US where the Meridian is regarded as far superior.
No way I would get a PT6 overhaul done in Europe.
