|
All of these planes are really great. What it comes down to is what you want. Starting at the top (size wise) you have the pc12. Huge load capability, respectable speed, lots of room, very capable. In my mind, it's the best value by far.
The TBM is a cool plane too. It is the 300 kt production single. Remember that a Lancair 4 will smoke it anyday of the week when it comes to speed, if you want to include homebuilts. I spoke to some dealers at oshkosh and they said there were some changes in store for the plane to make it more competitive with the Meridian, namely a 35,000ft ceiling. It is fast, it does have excellent avionics (I believe a four tube EFIS is optional, the same system as the pc12), and it has fantastic range.
The meridian seems to be at the bottom of the food chain in this world though, at least to me. It looks like it could be an amazing plane, but for what it has in the cockpit, it lacks in the payload and range as compared to the other 2. The interior is just fine, it's very close to the TBM. It does have a respectable cruise speed, but I just don't think that it can compete. In a way, it's in a world of it's own. It is a perfect "step-up" single engine turbine. Remember that when piper polled it's malibu owners about the possibility of a turbine version of the plane, they found that over 90% of them were traveling by themselves or with one other, which makes the plane fine for that type of mission.
The jetprop is another story. I have heard many complaints about wind noise around the door due to the higher speeds on the "regular" malibu fuselage. Remember that things were "beefed up" on the meridian. The jetprop actually has a lower SHP PT6 than the meridian, but they are able to get more speed out of it because of the inlet design, and some other things I can't recall.
Like I said, it all comes down to what you want. A lot of people still won't even consider touching these because they are single engines, but thats a whole different conversation. Let's just say I wouldn't kick one out of the hanger!
|