A First Look At Piper's Triple-Entegra Turbine Transport

By ANN Editor-In-Chief Jim Campbell

No matter what the forecasters may say, there is a very healthy market right now for well-designed, single-pilot-flown light turboprop singles... and one of the most popular (for the moment), comes from New Piper Aircraft.

The 2005 Piper Meridian, with over 200 iterations now flying, has recently been re-introduced with an aggressively updated panel, featuring THREE Avidyne electronic displays, to produce a thoroughly comprehensive cockpit that dazzles the eye and soothes the brain of a traveling flyer. Unlike anything we've seen from Piper before, this is NOT your Father's Meridian.

ANN got a first look at this new Meridian at the 2005 Oshkosh EAA Fly-In (with a more extensive flight promised shortly), right after the end of a busy airshow day and while the skies started to fill to the bursting point with all manner of sport and general aviation aircraft. The 1000 HP P&W PT-6A-42A (derated to 500 HP) got us off Wittman Field's 18R with easy grace, out of the way of the majority of our fellow flyers, and on to 14,500' in very little time. Initial takeoff acceleration is impressive, and despite having to keep to the right side of the runway in order to accommodate closely staged departures, the Meridian boasts excellent low-speed directional control early enough to keep those 500 ponies pointed EXACTLY where you need to go and away from Smedley's (comparatively) slow-moving Vari-Eze on the left.

Our flight turned out to be a truly arduous but impressive look at the abilities of this aircraft. The Meridian has been aggressively updated over the years but none-the-less harmonized well enough to produce a truly enjoyable flying machine. Climb rates up to and through 14,500 averaged 1500-2000 fpm, though we allowed for a slightly more speedy cruise-climb over much of the effort, in order to keep an eye on traffic throughout the busy area.

A quick jaunt to 12,500' and then to 14,500' proved that even in such inefficient realms, the Meridian can still deliver as much as 210-220 kts, true, with little more than 1000 ft-lbs of torque. Up in the mid-twenties, Meridian owners routinely brag about 250-260 knot cruise speeds. But, as the big draw for this flight was to get a gander at Avidyne's triply impressive integrated flight deck, our flight was centered around the electronic rather than the aerodynamic -- at least for the first portion of the jaunt.

The Avidyne PFDs are, as we've seen before, bright and easily interpreted via a series of cleverly designed protocols that produce a logical progression of information and the means by which to manage it. No kidding... sit in front of this assembly for a while, watch it work and it starts making sense almost as fast as it can be taught. That is what comes from partnering up with a company that is (currently) the senior producer of IFD systems in the GA world... with more systems (and more important, "Time-In-Grade") than any other flight deck manufacturer.

There are two PFDs and a center MFD that proved to be readable in that normally troublesome, very-late-day bright sunlit condition that often washes out the best of the current crop of flat panels. While the Piper Meridian does boast a dual ADAHRS electronic backbone, the system also packs a series of backup analog gauges along the far left side of the cockpit, with the redundant AI properly placed tall in the stack to minimize the strain of an IFR/VFR transition if one needs to get primitive.

The FlightMax Entegra system for the Meridian consists of three 10.4-inch diagonal, high-resolution, sunlight-readable displays, including dual redundant EXP5000 primary flight displays (PFDs) with dual integrated solid-state ADAHRS, primary engine instruments and flight director. The EX5000 PFD presents standard flight instrumentation, including an electronic attitude direction indicator (EADI), altitude, airspeed, vertical speed, coupled with an electronic horizontal situation indicator (EHSI).

Entegra's EXP5000s also display primary engine instruments and integrated flight director command bars (an implementation that is one of the best we've seen in an electronic display). Entegra assures the integrity of one's systems with a Cross-Compare System (CCS) that monitors both ADAHRS and provides visual alerts whenever the systems don't see eye to eye. Since a certain fly-writer had inadvertetnly left alternate air ON, we were greeted with this admonition early in the flight until this pseudo-brain-surgeon (who only masquerades as an aviation journalist...) in the left seat decided to get one's air-data house in order. Thankfully, I was flying with one of Piper's top demo guys, Stan Riker, who set me on the proper path in no time flat and didn't snicker -- even once.

The CCS also monitors the aircraft navigation systems and provides alerts in the event of any disagreements. Since each EXP5000 is integrated with its own independent ADAHRS, either ADAHRS may be selected for display in reversionary mode, with the simple flick of a panel mounted switch. The EXP5000s also present standard flight instrumentation and pilot-selectable moving-map flight plan data and horizontal situation indicator (EHSI), as well as an RMI pointer and digital RMI readouts in the primary field of view.

The radar-capable EX5000 MFD installed in the center of the Meridian's panel provides a full-featured moving map showing GPS flight plan, topographic terrain, obstacles, major roads and rivers, and special use airspace, as well as lightning, traffic and Terrain Awareness and Warning System (TAWS). The MFD also comes standard with the first implementation of the EMax Engine Instrumentation system for a turbine engine -- and the display is highly readable and easy to discern in terms of fine detail. Options include Avidyne’s exclusive MultiLink datalink XM WX graphical weather and FlightCenter services providing flight tracking and two-way air-to-ground text messaging, and CMax Jeppesen JeppView electronic chart display. The EX5000 is the first large-format MFD for general aviation that can display datalink graphical weather and airborne weather radar, both of which can be overlaid on the moving map.

While each of these implementations has been demoed by ANN in the past, we did note the accuracy of the CMax chart display as we taxied out for departure, while playing dodge 'em with a Tri-Pacer and a few piston Cessnas who looked over and plainly displayed a case of turbine-envy. But... the real winner of the day was watching the MFD track the "swarm," the inexorable ebb and flow of traffic into, and out of, the annual Oshkosh clambake. With bogies in all quadrants, and traffic of all kinds and at all altitudes, the additional assurance and reports we received from the traffic system (which provides very clearly defined readouts of the location and relative altitude of transponder equipped traffic) were invaluable as we worked our way through the maze leading to and from Wittman Field. In less than an hour, we were about to give the traffic system, and the Meridian's low-speed envelope, a thoroughly abusive and (thankfully) impressive workout by braving the HEAVY evening stream of arrivals back into Wittman Field.

To Be Continued

FMI: www.newpiper.com