Tantalum
Final Approach
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- Feb 22, 2017
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San_Diego_Pilot
Piper at least has made more efforts to upgrade and refine their planes and designs, I'll give them that. They also, in my opinion, when comparing PA28 to C172 the PA28 just flies a little nicer, even something as minor as rudder trim and connected rudder to nosewheel makes it a more comfortable aircraft
But, looking at the M350 line of aircraft.. it is very comparable to the Cirrus, in many (but not all) ways. Cirrus as well has the ESP envelope protections, and I believe at least the G5 and later versions have protection for an unresponsive pilot as well.. there are other cool bells and whistles that come from the Perspective cockpit.. but again, that may be thanks in large part to Garmin's capabilities that both Piper and Cirrus take advantage of. Strip the Garmin out and you still have one metal airframe vs one composite airframe with a BRS. These are also cross country cruising planes, the side stick yoke in the Cirrus frees up a cockpit space and adds to that roomy feel of the Cirrus
When you look at the whole product together, the market demands speak for themselves. Cirrus sold 355 piston airplanes in 2017, of which 174 were the SR22T. Piper, in comparison, sold 108 piston airplanes, and that includes twins even. If we look just at the M350, which is a very capable competitor to the Cirrus (some would say even better than the SR22T thanks to Pressurization, etc.), Piper sold only 9.. NINE planes. We have to ask ourselves, why did one company sell only 9 planes vs the other 174? Cost could be part of it, but both products are at the upper end of what someone will realistically pay for a piston single, up near or a little above the $1M mark.. in one word, rich people who are not yet ready to step into the turbine world.
I think my point in general holds true that to the typical buyer Piper and Cessna are unfortunately seen as older designs that aren't really bringing anything new to the table. We've had pressurized piston GA planes for eons. A lot of what makes the M350 great can be handed to Garmin's engineers.. and with regards to the gear warning, you can save yourself the hassle of all that in the Cirrus. The pressurization is nice for sure.. but you get a tighter cockpit and more "cramped" feeling cabin with more challenging ingress and egress. Yes, you get a nice little storage compartment in the front, and the airstair give you that "big plane" feel, but your range, KTAS, and most importantly USEFUL load, etc., are going to be very comparable between the two planes. I think the market speaks for itself that most buyers would rather shell out the $900K for the SR22T than the $1.15M for the M350.. it seems that the pressurization is not worth the $200K+ premium to most buyers. Plus, you can get a Cirrus flying comfortable in the 16-18 gph range in the 75% to 85% power neighborhood cooking along at a solid 180 knots true, if you are 25K now you're traveling at least 200 knots true, probably closer to 210. The M350 is going to be burning 2-4 gph more than that and speeds will be similar. Yes, I know it has more hp, but that extra 2-4 gph doesn't really seem to be getting you much faster in cruise, or much better useful loads
I like Pipers, they're a solid plane.. but I don't necessarily think that the M350 refutes my point that the typical GA manufacturer is still churning out what are ultimately 50 year old designs
Source: https://gama.aero/wp-content/uploads/GAMA_2017_AnnualReport_ForWeb.pdf
