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ManhattanMERIDIAN

WHETHER IT’S FOR BUSINESS OR PLEASURE,PIPER’S SINGLE-ENGINE TURBINE IS ANINVESTMENT IN RELIABILITYBy Bi l l Cox l Photography By James Lawrence

ManhattanMERIDIAN

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Designers have dreamed offielding single-engine tur-boprop aircraft for years.On the surface, at the

very least, propjets seem to offer thebest of everything, but at a costlyprice. Teaming the reliability of a jetengine with the thrust of a prop is, inmany respects, an aeronautical engi-neer’s dream. It’s not surprising thatpractically everyone in the industryhas tried the configuration at onetime or another.

Few have succeeded, includingmany of general aviation’s heaviesthitters. Beechcraft at one time had bigdesigns on a turbine-powered, pressur-ized Bonanza called the Lightning, butthe company eventually abandoned

that project after pouring several mil-lion dollars into its development.Cessna, as well, experimented with aPT-6-powered P-Centurion in theearly ’80s but folded it when it shutdown all piston production in 1986.Attorney F. Lee Bailey tried to devel-op a turbine version of the AeroCommander 200 but failed. AndMooney was even flying an Allison-powered 201. Sadly, none of themcame close to being certified.

In fact, the first production, tur-bine, corporate single was to comefrom a surprising corner. (Okay, theCessna Caravan was first, but manydidn’t regard it as a corporate air-plane.) Socata Aircraft of Francebegan marketing the TBM-700 in

1990 at $1.2 million, flying behind a700-hp Pratt & Whitney PT6.

The Socata TBM-700 turbopropoffered copious room for six, strongclimb and cruise speeds near the magic300 knots. The new model sold some94 units in the first three years beforesales trickled down to 15 or less peryear. By the beginning of 2004, how-ever, as the market recovered, Socatahad sold 274 of its TBM-700s. That’swell over a half-billion dollars in sales.

Pilatus joined the fray in 1995 withits King-Kong PC-12. Blessed with amonster 1,200-shp P&W engine outfront and nearly 1,800 pounds of pay-load following behind in the hugecabin, the PC-12 was and remains theundisputed top of the class in weight,

size and price, if not performance. Infreighter configuration, the huge cargodoor opens up the left side of the fuse-lage and even allows loading with afork lift. Alternately, the airplane maybe fitted with up to 11 seats. Despite acurrent entry-level tab of $2.7 million,the Swiss manufacturer has deliverednearly 400 PC-12s, proving, if nothingelse, that a high price may not alwaysbe that much of a disincentive for theright airplane.

The comparative success of theTBM-700 and PC-12 hasn’t goneunnoticed by the aircraft modifiers. Anumber of them recognized that therewas big money in the sale of turbo-prop singles and began investigatingturbine conversions of existing piston

airplanes. Turboprops and jets mustfly high to realize their maximum per-formance potential, so the most logi-cal candidates for conversions werethose models already designed forcomfortable travel in the flight levels.The industry’s two piston-poweredinflatable singles were among the firsttargets of major conversion efforts.

Rocket Engineering, which is a com-pany based out in Spokane, Wash.,struck gold when Warren Wood, alongwith his teammates Jeanie Sadlerand Darwin Conrad, convertedNew Piper Malibus into PT-6s. Recently, they complet-ed their 150th JetpropDLX, nearly 15% of thePA-46 fleet. Myron

Olsen of O&N Aircraft inFactoryville, Pa., has done almost halfthat number of Cessna P-210 SilverEagle conversions, mounting RollsRoyce/Allison 250 engines out front.

Turboprop engines can make sensefor unpressurized models, as well, pro-vided that the pilot and the passen-gers are willing to use oxygen on justabout every flight or to put up withthe high fuel burn and short rangebelow 12,500 feet. Accordingly, thereare lesser numbers of Tradewinds A36

Bonanzas as well as TurbineAir B36TC Bonanzas, Turbine

Maules, Soloy 206s and a vari-ety of other turboprop conver-

sions flying today. Most of theconversions concentrate on replac-

The turbine-powered New Piper Meridian is in its ownelement above the Manhattan skyline. Its 500 shp

P&W turbine engine allows owner Don Catalano toeffortlessly move in and out of the New York airspace

and conduct business across the country.

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ing the piston engine with a turbo-prop, usually with as few other modi-fications to the airframe as possible.

Conversions, however, will neverquite scratch the itch for some avia-tors. Just as there are pilots whowouldn’t consider buying anything buta new airplane, there is another con-tingent that wouldn’t even look at aconversion. Never mind that the engi-

neering may be the same or better. Forsome aircraft buyers, nothing but anew, production airplane will do.

In 2001, New Piper finally intro-duced its new production alternativeto the Jetprop DLX. Like the convert-ed Piper Malibu and Mirage, the PiperMeridian utilizes a P&W turbopropengine, in this case, a PT6A-42Arated for 500 shp, a similar power-

plant to that used on Piper’s earlierCheyenne I twin turboprop. TBO is3,600 hours with a recommended hot-section inspection at half that.

The New Piper Meridian is heavi-ly based on the Piper Mirage airframe,utilizing Jim Griswold’s original wing,the same cabin and fuselage (aft of thefirewall), and the same tail. With theobvious exception of systems changes

and enhancements, as well as instru-ment upgrades to reflect the turbineengine and an even more sophisticatedand talented avionics suite, the NewPiper Meridian is the Mirage from thefirewall aft. Standard fuel has beenupgraded from 120 to 170 gallons bywetting virtually the entire wing, butother than that, the Meridian fuse-lage and wing are practically identicalto the Mirage.

As with any new product or air-plane, the New Piper Meridian hadsome growing pains, but the prognosishas become progressively more posi-tive as the airplane has come of age.Don Catalano, the president ofCorporate Realty Consultants basedin Commack, N.Y., purchased his2002 Meridian two years ago and is astrong cheerleader for the airplane.Catalano’s company is a consultingfirm that specializes in helping com-panies find the best possible locationsfor expansion or relocation.

The real-estate executive pur-chased a Meridian after a careful eval-uation of his company’s mission andalso because he decided that it wasthe best investment among the threeproduction, turboprop singles today.A 1,300-hour pilot, Catalano felt theimprovements in performance withthe other airplanes didn’t justify thehigher prices unless an operator had aspecific need for their talents.

“With 200 extra shp, the TBM-700 climbs better and is 30 knotsfaster, and the Pilatus PC-12’s hugeengine lets it lift up to 10 passengers,”says Catalano. “But the price for thosebenefits is very high. The TBM-700,which comes fully loaded and doesn’thave a run-of-the-mill base model,and the Pilatus PC-12 are $950,000more than the Piper Meridian.”

Like so many other businessmenwith a need for fast, corporate travel,Catalano is watching the light-jetmarket quite carefully to see whichairplanes become real and whichones will fall by the wayside. “It real-ly wouldn’t make much sense tomake a big investment in a turbopropsingle if the new light jets really domake it into production, especially ifthey come even close to their targetprices,” concludes Catalano.

Catalano himself owned a Mooney

Ovation before stepping up to theMeridian. Despite the Mooney’s effi-ciency and obvious talents in the bot-tom three miles of sky, the Meridianwas a huge improvement in corporateutility and a far more effective on-demand business tool. Catalano saidthe Mooney often put him right in themiddle of the weather, thermal turbu-lence in summer and airframe icing inwinter. With his turboprop Meridian,he’s nearly always cruising on top inclear air and sunshine, sometimeswith the benefit of spectacular tail-winds that boost groundspeed wellover 300 knots.

“Much more importantly,” empha-sizes Catalano, “the Meridian was aninvestment in reliability. I never hada minute’s trouble with the Ovation,but reliability with the PT-6 turbo-prop is obviously a whole magnitudebetter than any piston product.”

Turboprop flexibility and perform-ance were other big selling points. “Irecently made a trip to Chicago for aconvention,” says Catalano, “andthere were spring thunderstorms allalong the route, some as high as26,000 feet. In the Mooney, I wouldhave had no chance of climbingabove them, but the Meridian madeall the difference for me. I was able totop everything very easily at FL290.It’s true you can’t always outclimb theweather by flying at 30,000 feet orless, but probably 90% of the time,you’re in the clear.”

Catalano regularly traverses 20Eastern states in his search for theperfect development locations. “In arecent week, the Meridian allowedme and two people from my staff tofully research and visit properties inBaltimore, Hagerstown, Atlanta andJacksonville, all within a few days. Inanother instance, we traveled toseven cities in only five days, cover-ing 3,100 nm in the process. Thesame trip might have been possibleon the airlines, but it would havebeen far more time-consuming, a lotless comfortable and convenient, andnot nearly as efficient on the air-lines,” says the real-estate executive.

Corporate Realty’s New PiperMeridian is a 2002 model, not grant-ed the recent 242-pound improve-ment in useful load (implemented on

Piper has kept virtually the samesignature Mirage fuselage from thefirewall aft when designing theMeridian, and Catalano’s plane isplush with stylish cabin appointments, like all-leather seatsand side panels, wall-to-wall carpeting and overhead lights.

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2003 airplanes). Gross on Catalano’sMeridian is 4,850 pounds, so full-fuelpayload is more on the order of 500pounds compared to the later model’s720 pounds. Flown up high whereturboprops do their best work, how-ever, the Meridian’s fuel burn dropsto almost 30 gph. That means if youleft 50 gallons in the truck and flight-planned for the high 20s, you couldcarry six average-sized folks over 700nm stage lengths with reasonablereserve. Fortunately, Catalano doesn’thave occasion to fill the seats veryoften, so payload isn’t often much ofa concern. With only one or two folksaboard, he can fill the tanks and plan

to linger aloft for an easy four hours athigh altitude, long enough to spannearly 900 nm.

Catalano’s more typical stagelength runs about 600 nm, and heflies the airplane usually four to fivehours a week, although not alwaysstrictly for business. In the spirit ofgiving back, the executive also partic-ipates in charity flights for AngelFlight, ferrying patients and their rel-atives from locations around the EastCoast to hospitals and doctors’ offices.

Like all Meridians, N5361A fea-tures the innovative Meggitt Magicavionics suite, an unusually talentedcombination of radios, instruments

The Meridian comes straightfrom the factory with theMeggitt Electronic MAGICFlight Display System and dualGarmin 530s installed as standard avionics. The systemrivals what you’d find in manyairline cockpits and allowsCatalano to easily navigate thedemanding New York airspace.

and autopilots that allows a pilot toplay airline captain in his own turbineairplane. In fact, the Meridian is actu-ally more talented than some olderairliners. With dual Garmin GNS530s as standard, the Meggitt com-plex offers MFDs and PFDs, makingthe Meridian’s panel look like a seriesof small, flat-screen TVs, nine in all.Inevitably, there remains the usualtrio of analog backups for airspeed,attitude and altitude at top center.

I flew Catalano’s Meridian out ofPhiladelphia a few months ago for theair-to-air photos over Manhattan,N.Y., and the airplane was as easy tohandle as a Mirage, yet offered all theobvious advantages of a turboprop:extra power and performance, superi-or reliability, improved operating sim-plicity and virtually the same han-dling characteristics as its pistoncounterpart in the pattern. In fact,while Piper lists the same takeoff andlanding distances for both the Mirageand Meridian, availability of reversethrust for braking very well may pro-vide the Meridian with an advantagein landing mode.

The Meridian has a few glitches,and New Piper is currently working tocorrect them. Catalano has a few com-plaints—autopilot pitch excursions,lack of a fuel heater (which limits theairplane to operations at minus-35

degrees C or warmer) and low full-fuelpayload (already addressed on currentmodels). Like other successful business-men who need a fast, efficient, corpo-rate transportation, Catalano is eyeinga small jet, but for now, his New PiperMeridian suits his needs perfectly. PJ

S P E C I F I C A T I O N S

Name: 2004 New Piper MeridianPrice: $1,750,000Engine: P&W PT6A-42AEngine Horsepower (shp): 500Max Takeoff Weight (lbs.): 5092Useful Load (lbs.): 1740Fuel Capacity (gals.): 170

PERFORMANCERate Of Climb, SL (fpm): 1556Max Cruise Speed (kts.): 262(Source: Aircraft Bluebook Price Digest,Jane’s All The World’s Aircraft andmanufacturer’s specs)