You
have to give the folks at Piper credit for one thing…they know how
to leverage their position in the marketplace. Their recently
announced Malibu Matrix stands alone among turbocharged, six-place,
retractable gear airplanes. The Matrix cabin dwarfs a Bonanza, it
has far more range than a Columbia 400, it’s faster than a Cirrus,
and has more baggage space than a Cessna 206. And when you put, say,
100 gallons of fuel in any of them only the Matrix can still
carry a whopping 800 pounds of people and baggage. It’s a winner
from any viewpoint – speed, cabin size, range, or payload.
It’s set up to be a really simple transition for pilots as well.
Cirrus and Columbia pilots will easily recognize the Avidyne panel
as standard equipment. Also standard in the Matrix are traffic
avoidance, electronic charts and real-time, uplink weather. An
optional Traffic avoidance system includes an audio callout
(“Traffic, 1 o’clock high”) so that your eyes don’t have to leave
the sky at the most critical time. IFR approaches are easier, too,
because WAAS is standard equipment – and it’s coupled to the
autopilot. A simpler high-performance, six-place retract doesn’t
exist.
Does the weather influence your trip planning? Of course it does. So
the Matrix gives you the option for Flight Into Known Icing
certification as well as new-generation lightning detection and
avoidance. Your trusty Stormscope won’t show you lightning strikes
from 1 to 25 miles – but the available Matrix system will. Your
margin of error when flying around weather just went way up. And
that Florida trip just got a lot more relaxing.
While you are up front your passengers will be pampered by a cabin
that effectively duplicates that of a $2m turboprop, the Malibu
Meridian. Included in the Matrix is Sirius Satellite Radio, complete
with a remote control for the passengers. They get the lap of luxury
at a pedestrian price.
How
many times has your range been limited by how much coffee you
consumed? Not anymore – the standard relief tube provides, well,
relief. Without ever leaving the pilot seat. Need to tell the family
you’ll be 30 minutes early? Just send a text message. It’s standard,
too. And the list goes on.
The
Matrix is the culmination of 22 years of experience with the PA-46
airframe. It is inherently stable – take your hands off the yoke
and see what happens (not much of anything). Deploy full flaps and the
pitch attitude barely changes. Burn off 80 gallons of fuel,
calculate your landing CG and discover…it’s virtually the same as
when you took off!
Simply put, there is no better combination of value and performance
in this end of the market. But you’ll buy it because of the cabin
size. Give us a call and let us show you first-hand.