$4.1 Million?
And it only has one engine?
For that much money you can get a nearly new King Air 250
AeroPlus wrote:
However, at Courchevel about all the mountain instructors say that the PC12 is so much easier to fly than the TBM
I love that. Courchevel’s probably the only airport in Europe where the instructors have a view on this; everywhere else it C172 vs PA28 
BUT it’s not surprising. The PC12’s a LandRover; the TBM is a Porsche (with apologies to German readers for implying that the French can build anything approaching Teutonic quality).
That then might be the better option, but … I don’t like the avionics in the PC12. However, at Courchevel about all the mountain instructors say that the PC12 is so much easier to fly than the TBM aircraft… and that passengers have more space to move around.
Sure but you can buy a nearly new PC12 for that much money.
Apart from the price tag, it seems to me like the perfect aircraft except for one thing: it doesn’t land well on grass airstrips while the PC12 does a good job in that.
JasonC wrote:
Actually I am very surprised that the TBM900 has stuck with G1000. I thought they would have moved to the G3000 by now.
Well there you go. The TBM930 now has G3000. But at $4.1mn….Now almost more than an M2…..
So basically for 300k more you get the same plane, but G3000 avionics instead of G1000.
Article on the TBM930 http://www.aerobuzz.fr/aviation-generale/article/avec-le-nouveau-tbm930-daher-lance
JasonC wrote:
However a stretched version will need new type certificate.
Mike C.
RobertL18C wrote:
Put another way the Garrett must be doing something interesting in the thermodynamics department to have a superior SFC on two engines to the PT6 single?
The cost to operate one PT6 large block (like TBM, PC12) is about the same to operate two TPE331 small block (-1 to -12). This is due to much better SFC for the TPE331 (typically 20% better than PT6), and due to the vastly lower HSI/OH life cycle costs. Generally, you can overhaul two TPE331 for the price of one large block PT6, and the TPE331 overhaul interval is 5000+ hours, the PT6 is 3500 hours.
The TPE331 twin flies as cheaply as the large block PT6 single.
At FL280, my airplane, MU2 M model with -10, does 290 KTAS at 65 GPH total (measured), TBM850 does 308 KTAS at 60 GPH (per POH). So there is a slight edge in fuel mileage for the TBM850 but not nearly as much as you would imagine for the much heavier and larger airplane the MU2 is.
Mike C.
