Well of course. I meant good used.
I personally don't really like flying old wreckage which is one reason why I bought a new plane in 2002
Peter, there is no rule that says there has to be any equality between "old plane" and wreckage. A well maintained old airplane can be just as good or better than a newish (lets say less than 10 year old) plane. Also, different brands stand up better to aging than others.
there is no rule that says there has to be any equality between "old plane" and wreckage.
Sure; I didn't mean it that way.
Peter there are good used PA46 turbines for well less than 1mn. Probably the best value in the PA46 fleet right now.
Peter a good used Meridian (or Jetprop - not sure why you only ever mention Jetprops) is well under $1mn now.
The Meridian is over 2t and therefore a very different animal in Eurocontrol land. Having to pay enroute charges does change the equation significantly.
Interesting, hadn't realised there was a difference between the two.
I think Meridian owners would argue the route charges are only a small fraction of the total DOC.
I suspect they come to about 20% of it. Does anybody have typical figures?
The Jetprop costs less to run. From memory, it has a smaller engine which "fits" better for the airframe and the mission, and burns less juice. I am sure the payload of a 1999kg PA46 will be less than the payload of a 2300kg PA46 and the JP is often described as a 2-seater plus luggage, which is actually fine for most owner-pilot usage.
Somebody told me there is a 1999kg STC for the Meridian too, but it isn't accepted by EASA so you have to be N-reg. No idea if this is true. The payload of a "1999kg" Meridian would be quite small though.
In reality the plane is the same (the STC is just a few different pages in the POH, and you send off a 337 to the FAA for filing) and, according to folklore, some 1999kg owners just disregard it, particularly on the "1999kg" STC'd Seneca...
My main concern with the Jetprop is that its MTOW (1999kg version), its COG envelope and its Vne are seldomly adhered to. If the authorities went on a crusade against the Jetprop, it would be kind of worthless in Europe.
its COG envelope and its Vne are seldomly adhered to
I think that if the authorities started enforcing MTOW (a subset of enforcing the COG envelope) they would shut down much of GA, most PPL training flights in C150s and C152s, and probably all of scheduled CAT where the passenger weight is only an estimate (nobody weighs the passengers) and the whole industry relies on the runway being long enough 
The Vne is probably a valid point, and sure enough Piper dealers slag off the Jetprop (as of course they would), claiming that they see "working rivets" on the tails of most of them. But the Vne of a Jetprop is an artificial figure anyway, being set where it is because the STC holder did not do the full set of flight tests so the FAA set Vne at the top of the yellow arc which is a standard procedure for TP conversions. You still get ~260kt TAS without exceeding Vne, which is pretty good.
So for a meridian doing a 450nm trip, what would a route charge be?
