Aircraft model
PIPER PA46-500TP
Everything here is true of every aircraft of the type, not of any one aircraft.
The Meridian is the Malibu airframe with a PT6A turboprop in place of the piston engine: a pressurised six-seat single that cruises at 260 knots at 30,000 feet. It was aimed squarely at the owner-pilot who wanted turbine reliability and simplicity without the cost of a TBM or a PC-12, and it does deliver the single most valuable thing a turbine offers, which is an engine that starts and runs without drama. Deliveries began in late 2000 and the engine and airframe stayed the same throughout; the panel did not. Early aircraft have an electronic panel of the first generation. The Avidyne Entegra suite came in for 2005, and from 2009 Piper offered a three-screen Garmin G1000 with the GFC 700 autopilot in its place, which is the panel on every late Meridian. In 2015 the aeroplane was renamed the M500 and continued in production under this same designation, gaining the G1000 NXi in 2018 — so a 2003 Meridian, a 2007 Meridian and a 2019 M500 are three different cockpits on one airframe.
The compromise is payload, and it is severe. With full fuel the cabin load is around 550 lb — the pilot and two passengers with light bags — so the six seats and the 1,000-mile range cannot be used at the same time. Owners plan trips around that constraint and it is the first thing anyone who has flown one will mention. Operating costs are turbine costs: hot section inspections, an eventual overhaul in the six figures, and 35 to 40 gallons an hour of Jet-A. A high-altitude endorsement is required and every insurer demands formal initial and annual recurrent simulator training.
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- PIPER PA46-500TP
What it is
| Seats | 6 |
|---|---|
| Landing gear | tricycle |
| Engines | 1 |
| Engine | Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6A-42A |
| Horsepower | 500 hp |
| Fuel | JetA |
| Certification basis | FAR23 |
| Production start | 2000 |
| Production end | 2015 |
| Endorsements required | complex;high-performance;pressurized/high-altitude |
Performance
| Cruise speed | 260 KTAS |
|---|---|
| Range | 1,000 nm |
| Service ceiling | 30,000 ft |
| Climb rate | 1,750 ft/min |
| Stall speed (Vso) | 59 KCAS |
| Takeoff over 50 ft | 2,200 ft |
| Landing over 50 ft | 2,000 ft |
Load and fuel
| Seats | 6 |
|---|---|
| Useful load | 1,692 lb |
| Full-fuel payload | 553 lb |
| Max takeoff weight | 5,092 lb |
| Empty weight | 3,400 lb |
| Usable fuel | 170 gal |
| Fuel burn at cruise | 37 gal/h |
Cost of ownership
| Price, low | $789,000 |
|---|---|
| Price, high | $2,900,000 |
| Prices as of | 2026 |
| Engine TBO | 3,600 h |
| Overhaul cost, low | $480,000 |
| Overhaul cost, high | $700,000 |
The fleet and its record
| Registered, all time | 351 |
|---|---|
| Active fleet | 245 |
| Median year built | 2004.0 |
| NTSB events, last 10 years | 12 |
| Fatal events, last 10 years | 5 |
| Events per 1,000 active, last 10 years | 48.981 |
| Personal-flying events per 1,000 active | 36.732 |
| Ownership transfers, last 24 months | 80 |
| Transfers per 100 active | 32.653 |
| Airworthiness directives | 9 |
| Directives, last 5 years | 1 |
| Rate confidence | ok |
- Events per 1,000 active, last 10 years: per 1,000 active aircraft · base 245 active.
- Personal-flying events per 1,000 active: per 1,000 active aircraft · base 245 active.
- Transfers per 100 active: per 100 active aircraft · base 245 active.
Peer scores6
| Peer class | Fixed wing single-engine, turbo-prop, 1 engine, 5-6 seats |
|---|---|
| Accident record | —1 |
| Severity | —2 |
| Access | —3 |
| Support | —4 |
| Liquidity | —5 |
These record scores treat PIPER PA46-500TP as one design with the same aircraft registered under other names: it includes 130 aircraft registered under PIPER AIRCRAFT INC. Prices are not combined.
- Accident record: class median 11.15 · 4 models in class.
- Severity: class median 23.08.
- Access: class median 3,135.2.
- Support: class median 109.
- Liquidity: class median 61.61.
- Each of the five categories places the model within its peer class, from 0 (the worst of the class) to 10 (the best): a position among comparable models, not a grade. The overall score is the sum of the categories shown that are scored, out of 10 for each (50 when all five are); it is given only when at least 4 of the five are scored, and it can be set against another model's only when both are in the same peer class and scored on the same categories.