The most common questions I am asked by pilot friends is which airplane I plan to buy next, and which airplane do I think they should buy next. Clearly it is a topic every pilot thinks about a lot, and it remains a hot topic because there isn't any clear-cut answer.
For many years the discussion following the question revolved around a step-up airplane. But lately, as we all get older, fuel prices skyrocket and we contemplate the diminished income of retirement, an airplane that is a step or two down in cost and complexity is discussed almost as frequently as the faster, longer range and bigger model.
Life wasn't always this complicated for pilots. For decades the move to the next category of airplane was clear. You started in a fixed-gear single, moved to a retractable single, and as the budget allowed, into a piston twin, pressurized twin and then on to a twin turboprop and maybe, for a few, to a jet. Sure, there were choices to be made, such as to move into a Bonanza or Cessna 210, but the steps from one category to another were obvious. And for those of you who study the AIM far too much, by using the word category I don't imply the FAA definition which is far too broad to be useful.
This predictable path to the highest rung of the aviation ladder that your finances could sustain was abolished several years ago by several factors, including new airplane designs and insurance companies' pilot experience demands.
For example, nobody in the 1960s -- a period to which many airplanes still trace their design roots-- would have considered installing the most powerful available piston engine on a fixed-gear four-seat single. The philosophy was to first retract the wheels for extra cruise speed, and then go up in power. Mooneys, Comanches, Arrows and others had folding wheels with only 180 hp engines. But then Cirrus and Columbia came along and bolted 310 hp engines to fixed-gear four seaters and wiped out one whole rung on the performance ladder. These airplanes are already as fast, or faster, than the retractables, giving new pilots quicker gratification but one less opportunity to move up. Insurance companies applauded this move and punished pilots without retractable gear experience, making a change to a retractable even more complicated and expensive.
Insurance companies, and high maintenance and fuel costs, ganged up on the piston twin too, making it less available as a move-up airplane. The high-powered singles closed in on the cruise speed of the twins for just about half the operating cost. Ice protection and real time weather radar, plus redundant electrical power sources, long exclusive twin advantages, also became available on singles. And many pilots became convinced you need to be superman to fly a twin, so desire for an extra powerplant was actually replaced by fear for many who would have been candidates for that category in the past.
So when my friends in the high-performance fixed-gear piston singles ask me what I recommend they buy next, the list is a short one. They want more speed, of course, but many are also looking for more cabin room and payload. An A36 Bonanza has more cabin space than the four-seaters, but not necessarily more payload nor speed. The Piper Meridian is faster at its pressurized cruise altitudes, has more cabin room, but not more full-fuel payload. The new unpressurized Matrix is both fast and has good payload and cabin space, and will be looked upon more kindly by insurance underwriters because they charge more for pressurized pistons and typically impose higher requirements for pilot experience and training. Piper has orders for all 100 Matrix airplanes it can build this year, so its value as a step-up for many pilots has been recognized.
If the budget doesn't allow moving up to a brand-new airplane such as a Matrix or Meridian, older Malibus converted to the Continental TSIO-550 engine are a good value. The 550 has performed much better than the original 520 installed in the Malibus but preserves the long range and good payload of those earlier models.
Of course, there are those who can afford to move faster and the turboprop singles provide a clear path to more performance. The Piper Meridian is a very popular airplane even though most owners wish for more range and payload. It won't go a lot further than the high-performance piston singles, but it turns in 250 knots true airspeed at high-speed cruise and has a comfortable pressurized cabin. And it is the least expensive of the pressurized turboprop singles.
Probably the best value for the move up is a used TBM 700. The airplane is fast with 280 knot cruise and has long range. Earlier models are restricted in full-fuel payload, but everybody will want to make more frequent stops if you fill the seats in any case. The bad news for a pilot buying a used TBM is that prices start at nearly $1.5 million for the oldest models, but that excellent value retention turns into an asset when you want to sell. No airplane is an investment, but over the past several years the TBM series has been returning most of what a pilot paid for it.
The big PC-12 is also an exceptional move-up airplane for the single-engine pilot with the resources and travel requirement. It's not as fast as the TBM, but the Pilatus has incredible range and a cabin the size of a large twin turboprop. The PC-12 is an airplane for serious travel, and its enormous capability is reflected in the price of nearly $4 million for a new one and used prices that stay well above $2 million for the oldest models built in 1995. PC-12s that are a few years old are trading for more than their new price because the waiting list for new airplanes is long. Clearly the PC-12 has hit the sweet spot.
An airplane that may not be an obvious candidate for a move up is the King Air 90. It's a twin, it's pressurized and it's a turbine, all issues with the insurance companies. But the King Air has a decades-long record as an owner-flown airplane, and the record is good. A pilot moving from a high-performance single to a King Air will get more scrutiny, require more training and checking, and will initially pay a higher premium than for a turbine single, but the move is possible and practical.
