Best Piston Aircraft - For some busy people, traveling for both business and leisure is a very costly burden. If you're an "on-the-go" pilot, Piper Aircraft's M350 single-engine piston-powered airplane may be a solution.
Unlimited Aviation, Piper's Canadian distributor, brought a new demonstration aircraft, registration C-GBTB, to Ottawa on a sunny autumn day. Isaac Capua and Conrad Hatcher take off from the Aviation Unlimited station at Oshawa Airport. As it turned out, his search for our flight proved to be a good test flight, as the Ottawa airport was under short cover. It was truly inspiring to see, or rather hear, the plane complete the hard instrument approach and taxi out of the fog to our meeting.
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The M350 is the latest evolution of the earlier Piper popular PA-46 Malibu; A design created in 1983 that ushered in the age of the one bedroom apartment. The original Continental engine-powered, 310 horsepower (hp) Malibu suffered several high-profile engine failures, so Piper revamped the design in 1989 with the 350 hp Lycoming-powered Mirage. The concept of the turboprop-powered Meridian was created in 1989. In 1997, with a 500 hp Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6A-42A turboprop engine.
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In recent years, Piper has invested heavily in its M-Class models, which include the Meridian-developed M500 and M600 turboprops and the Mirage's M350 piston derivative. The M350 was built in 2015, certified as the PA-46-350P, and powered by a twin-turbocharged, fuel-injected 350 HP Lycoming TIO-540-AE2A engine, powered by a three-blade Hartzell was driving a constant speed propeller. The Matrix is an unpressurized version of the M350.
I was pleasantly surprised by the ease and finish of the flight, perhaps biased by many of the older Piper instructors I've seen standing behind flight teams. Not so with the M350, which is solid and sturdy. In my eyes, it is swoon-worthy and attractive on the ramp; The owner is almost not a minor impact to the design.
Pre-flight inspection revealed an aircraft that was modern and well thought out. The exterior lights are all light-emitting diodes (LED) for extended service life. A small storage compartment in the under-wing radome and another in the tail provide convenient external storage for crackers. Capua cites the merits of the optional M350 pneumatic dicing system over competing spring systems.
Cabin access is very respectable for a light aircraft, with access via two-part clamshell doors and stairs. I sat on the left seat. Hatcher took care of my senior in the right seat. The cockpit seats were nicely adjustable, and after some fiddling I found them quite comfortable. The headphone chamber is downright disappointing – even for my average 5'9″ frame, my headphones touch the ceiling of the cabin. Hatcher mentions that there's a seat conversion kit to allow for up to three more inches of headroom if one wants it. I will.
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The base empty weight of our demonstrator aircraft is 3,150 pounds, which is 100 pounds more than the published standard supply weight, thanks to the generous optional equipment. Adding two drivers, a person, and some gear brings the zero fuel load to 3,730 pounds. Fuel gauges indicate 76 gallons, or about two-thirds, bringing the total curb weight to 4,186 pounds. That leaves us 154 pounds below the maximum curb weight of 4,340 pounds.
Obviously you can't fold down the seats and fill up the tanks, but with a published maximum range of 1,343 nautical miles (plus reserves), a 720-ounce (120 US gal) maximum fuel load is what you pay for. Provides a lot of flexibility.
We're licensed for round-robin flights to Kingston, Ontario. The starting procedure for fuel injected engines is straightforward. The nose steering wheel is a bit stiff with light mid-forces, but I quickly made friends with it.
The earlier fog had cleared, and we left Ottawa's Highway 07 under clear blue skies with light winds. Normal takeoffs are made with 10° of flaps, using a rotation speed of 85 knots reference airspeed (KIAS). Integrating the Go-Around Couple feature on the ground presets the flight controller for a wing-level, seven-degree pitch attitude. Assuming the handle's maximum weight, the published throw distance at a 50-foot hurdle is approximately 2,090 feet.
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Hatcher recommends a cruise airspeed of 120 KIAS, which results in more than 1,000 feet of altitude per minute. Thanks to the turbocharger, the M350 can be expected to maintain its long-haul performance at close to cruise mileage.
We level off at 14,000 feet under ISA + 12°C conditions and set high speed cruise power: 32.0 inches manifold pressure; 2,470 rpm; With the mixture hooked up to 1,560F turbine inlet temperature. The result is 190 knots true airspeed (KTAS) that siphons a fuel flow of 24.1 gallons per hour.
Piper claims a maximum cruise speed of 213 kts, but this would be at the aircraft's 25,000 ft certified ceiling. Hatcher describes the "mid-teens" as a good ride height for the M350.
I doubt that going very high in a single piston airplane with a cabin altitude of only 1,620 feet is an attractive novelty due to the 5.5 pounds per square inch maximum cabin pressure difference. If that is desired, limit your aircraft search to the M350, as it is the only piston-engined aircraft currently in production.
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Hatcher agrees, noting that buyers are often attracted to the Press for the comfort of their passengers, as it offers a high, flexible cruise altitude without the need for an oxygen mask. "It killed the parachute," Capua said, referring to the ballistic recovery chute in the Cirrus competition. The M350 can sustain sea level pressure up to 12,000 feet.
The cockpit environment in the boat leaves a little to be desired. Air is a standard substance due to pressure. The heating and ventilation seemed quite adequate. Under my noise-canceling headset, the big Lycoming rumbles with satisfaction. With Garmin's GFC 700 autopilot operating smoothly, I casually put my finger to the pulse oximeter on the instrument panel, and was rewarded with the knowledge that I had a 98 for blood oxygen level. Oh, I apparently still have a pulse of 69 beats per minute. Pucca.
In the event that I am not fully pressurized with oxygen, a hypoxia detection system will detect the absence of pilot interaction with the avionics and initiate an automatic descent to a safe altitude.
The now ubiquitous Garmin G1000 avionics suite includes two 10.4-inch primary flight displays and a 12.1-inch multifunction display -- and a lot of power. Standard equipment on the M350 includes synthetic vision and yaw damping. I found the knife in the RNAV RWY 19 instrument cluster at Kingston, a bit of a stumbling block due to my ignorance. Hatcher, who came to my defense, noted that computer-savvy drivers expect to understand the G1000 complex right away, thinking, "If you remember the fixed ADF card approach, I wonder if the driver can master the G1000 in an hour." hope to control. true enough.
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From there, avionics guided us through the process and sent us on a missed approach. I monitor our progress via a synthetic vision system, and you're left to manage the schedule and energy.
Starting a missed lane is often a high-task moment that requires disengagement of Autopilot, but the M350's Integrated Go-Around Mode makes it easy. In sync with the Underspeed Protection System, Autopilot engages and protects at extremely low speeds while the driver is harnessing power and cleans up vibration and understeer.
Returning to Ottawa, I took the opportunity to describe the M350's handling capabilities. Autopilot disengagement is smooth, usually leaving the aircraft in trim. The controls are pleasant, responsive, and tight, and won't present undue challenges to a less experienced pilot. I found the configuration change here only required minor trim adjustments. After expanding to background and full vibes, I checked out stores that weren't quite as cool. At our operating weight, the low audio warning activated at 63 KIAS, with the left wing low and easily adjusted at 59 KIAS.
The electronic stability protection system provides additional flight envelope protection from rollover disturbances when flying manually by automatically activating the servos to input corrective forces if the pilot exceeds safe limits.
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Another neat Garmin innovation is the big, blue "LVL" (level) button on the instrument panel, which is a sort of panic button to quickly return the aircraft to wing-level behavior with zero vertical speed.
Pilots rarely fly as well as they'd like, and maintaining perfection is often a challenge. The comprehensive safety features in the M350 go a long way to make the aircraft fit its intended purpose. In case my opinion on these safety features isn't clear: "Yes, Piper!"
Back in Ottawa it is a quick time for generation, which is usually a limitation of turbocharged aircraft, as the power cut needs to be very gradual to avoid shock cooling of the expensive parts. I'm pleased to see that the M350 can get over 2,000 feet-per-second of torque without sacrificing power, thanks to a combination of winged speed brakes and high airspeed (Vne)
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