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