My friend Arnold called me up today inviting me to fly up to Nashua, New Hampshire (KASH) for lunch in his Piper Meridian. Taking a jet-powered airplane 20 nautical miles for lunch doesn’t sound like the world’s most efficient plan, but Jet-A fuel is so much cheaper at ASH compared to BED that it makes excellent financial sense. The flight was a good chance to compare a modern turboprop to the turbojets that I had been flying.
Starting the PT-6 is easy, but nowhere near as easy as starting the FADEC (computer-controlled) engines in the Cessna Citations. The turboprop has “beta” and “reverse”, which are useful for slowing down on the ground but perhaps no better than the powerful antiskid brakes on the Mustang. The downside of beta and reverse is that, as Arnold pointed out in flight, “If you pull the throttle back into beta, you’ll kill us both”. You have to pull the throttle over a detent to get it into beta, but it is not idiot-proof. Adjusting the power for takeoff requires great care. The throttle is a stiff mechanical linkage to a fuel controller. If you push a little too hard you’ll overtorque the engine by 200 ft-lbs. Otherwise take off was pretty quick, helped by the fact that the wind was blowing 20 gusting 30 knots down the runway.
New England seems to present perennially miserable flying conditions and today was no exception. Even in an aircraft with a gross weight of 4800 lbs., the bumps were significant. The Malibu/Mirage/Meridian cabin is not famous for having extra space. I’m exactly 6′ tall, the seat was all the way down, and my headset was almost brushing the ceiling. Each bump would whack my head against the hard plastic ceiling, painfully dislodging the headset. Interior noise was loud, but bearable with noise-canceling headsets. Another challenge was the fact that the airplane has three airspeed indicators, all indicating different airspeeds. This is a feature of the Meggitt Magic glass panel that I’ve seen before. The airspeed tape in front of me was reading about 10 knots slower than the other two, which was unnerving because I always thought that I was flying too slowly.
The Meridian offers much better short-field utility than the Mustang, but otherwise it is hard not to get spoiled by flying a turbojet. [The Mustang could be operated easily from short fields except that the owner’s manual demands using runways long enough to accelerate to rotation speed, lose one engine, hit the brakes, and stop before the end of the runway. This does give a comfortable safety margin, but if you were satisfied with the safety of taking off from a short runway in a Piper Malibu you’d be a lot safer depending on both engines in the Mustang continuing to run.]
Why is beta going to kill you? A Twin Otter can fly final in full beta as approved short field technique over an obstacle. I saw one do it once in Longmont, CO, and it appeared to be coming straight down like a lawn dart, and then flared for one of the shorted landings I’ve ever seen performed by anything bigger than a 182.
This is an excellent question. I’ve been thinking about it. I guess my airplane nerd friends have come to the conclusion that beta might result in an overspeed, but reverse is what would actually result in loss of control (though I don’t think anyone has a good explanation for how exactly the airplane would behave in reverse at cruise speed).
The Gulfstream II used by NASA for the Space Shuttle Training Aircraft flys with the main gear lowered and the engine thrust reversed at 300 KTS. Got to become a rock somehow.
Phil,
You are always so negative on the Meridian. Your comment “Starting the PT-6 is easy, but nowhere near as easy as starting the FADEC (computer-controlled) engines in the Cessna Citations”. What is so hard about starting the Meridian. You switch (press) the ignition & starter & then press the start key. How much less can u ask for. In fact, with the Meridian, other then gear up & down there is nothing you can miss that matters. When u compare the cost vs capabilities, the Meridian actually comes out way ahead of any other plane. Show me a better alternative that can fl 270 knots with a 535 full fuel payload & go 800 nm at 40 gal an hour for with an all glass cockpit for 1.5 mil (2006 model with 400 hrs)
What year did the useful load go up on the Meridian??
They upped the Meridian useful load 250lb in some (very late) 2002 models (s/n 175 and later).
It should be noted that you have to have a malfunctioning squat switch and pull the power lever up and aft of the detent to get into beta since there’s a solonoid controlled gate which prevents the power lever from being pulled aft of flight idle in flight. That’s what the pre-takeoff check with the reverse lockout switch is checking.
In the above Blog Philg says, “The downside of beta and reverse is that, as Arnold pointed out in flight, “If you pull the throttle back into beta, you’ll kill us both”. You have to pull the throttle over a detent to get it into beta, but it is not idiot-proof. Adjusting the power for takeoff requires great care. The throttle is a stiff mechanical linkage to a fuel controller.”
I have to say Arnold and Philg should clarify that statement because the statement that Beta is not idiot proof on a Meridian is simply not true. On all Meridians, provided they are working properly, once the plane comes off the ground the reverse lockout activates (makes an audible click in the throttle quadrant) and stops the pilot from being able to go to beta while airborne. When landing if the main gear or nose gear squat switch is released by compressing the gear then it you can go to beta again. I have flown many Meridians with more than 1,000 hours in them and for someone to say beta will kill you in flight is simply not generally a true statement.
In single engine aircraft with Big props it gets really squirrely going into beta in level flight because of airflow changes over the elevator and rudder and torque issues. Piper has idiot proofed the Meridian beta/reverse with the reverse lockout.
It’s fun to compare aircraft because we all want bigger, better faster newer, but the bottom line is if your paying the fuel bill these days and your bank statement doesn’t read like phone numbers the Meridian is a refreshing change in cost of operation while still being able to cruise at FL270 and FL280 burning about 260 to 280 lbs of fuel which is roughly 40 GPH. I have flown many pilots in Meridians for the first time and not one has had any negative comments after actually flying the plane. Piper has done an incredible job with refining the plane in the newer vintages but my 2001 is nothing to be ashamed of either!
The reason I don’t fly a Citation CJ or Mustang is mostly because of ownership costs, recurrent training requirements because they burn twice as much fuel (at least) as the Meridian and with full fuel the CJ has a payload within 100 lbs of the Meridian and it weighs almost exactly twice as much.
I am type rated in the CJ and they are incredibly quiet and fun to fly but I have more fun day in day out flying my Meridian and not thinking about how much Jet A I am consuming when on vacation or nonessential trips. In the CJ I would have to get to FL410 before fuel flow would drop to 2.5 times the flow of the Meridian at FL280.
Just wanted to set the record straight on the Beta comment since it is not real. If he were in a turbine bonanza that comment would be true because they don’t have a reverse lockout during flight.
No mention was made regarding what year the meridian they flew was. The throttle is much enhanced on later model Meridians. I demoed a new one last week and it has a much smoother power band, however, after two or three takeoffs in the Meridian you won’t have a problem with any year model. Also just as a note, it doesn’t hurt the Meridian engine WHATSOEVER if you over torque it 200 lbs (which is as much as it will let you) on takeoff or initial climb because you will still be FAR from the temp limits of the engine and the same engine in a King Air makes MUCH more continuous power than the Meridian is capable even when running at the MAX torque limiter.
Hope this blog dispels a lot of the partial truths mention above about the Meridian, I highly recommend one if the size, range and payload fit your mission/budget!
Guys: I think that I was flying a Meridian from the first year or two of production. If the plane had a bit more headroom, I think I could fall in love with the efficiency (though it is still not as good as the original Malibu; my favorite form of transportation would be a Continental-powered Malibu and a letter from God promising that the engine wouldn’t blow up).
Mike,
You seem to be very familiar with the Meridian. I happen to start flying one. It is a great airplane. The one I flew was very touchy on keeping directional control after the nosewheel touches. Is that normal for all Meridians ? As single engine turboprops, I flew the TBM700 and the PC12 ; never had this problem with those aircraft. Do you know about this problem ?
Thanks for your comment.
Michel NOTELAERS
BELGIUM
I enjoyed reading your blog, another factual error regarding the Meridian, the throttle is pneumatic (like most PT6 installations), and the only time it would be manual is when a failure mandated the use of the MOR (manual overide) lever. On full fuel and payload, when you get beyond the small four-place singles, not many planes can do both. The designer is giving the pilot the option depending on his mission. The Pilatus is the exception. I am 6″4″ and have done the front seat conversion, this eliminates any headroom problems.
We are interested in buying a Meridain but have heard they wont carry much weight . Can you get away with being over gross like you can in other planes such as the Turbo Saratoga ? Ive seen full fuel ,six Passengers all the bags you could put in it and it did just fine . Can you do that with the Meridian ? I have heard you can’t with the Mirage its to sluggish on the take off roll and real slow climber.