Piper Mirage

[jar-dk]

Does anyone here have experiece with the Malibu Mirage or the mirage 2004 from piper. The story is that "somebody" is looking into buying one of these used and asked for my advice. I have done some reading around and frequent accidents with overspeed or blowing a turbo occur, evenmore I read something in here where the malibu name popped up under a/c which crash alot. Is this just my eye or can somebody confirm my fear. Looking at it, its a very high powered machine and I guess unexperienced and trigger happy pilots end up killing themselves.
What is interesting with this aeroplane is the pressure cabin and speed/range, so is there some plane I have missed with a better safety record and still those features and still only single engine.
Feedback and idears are certainly apreciated.

[FLEXJET]

A good article I think:
http://www.avweb.com/news/usedacft/182792-1.html

[jar-dk]

Thanks for the reply
I guess the title should have been - "my love affair with the mirage", but still a good article.

[FLEXJET]

I just checked another forum, a US one:

http://forums.flightinfo.com/showthread.php?t=40368&highlight=malibu+mirage

[hotprop]

I'm sure you can find plenty of information on the web regarding The Malibu/Mirage series and some of it will be accident statistics.
Basically the Mirage is a souped up version of the original Malibu.

In the early nineties a number of Malibus broke up in flight after the autopilot pitched the aircraft abruptly nosedown. Apparently there were problems with the Horizontal Gyro and autopilot among other things.

The whole fleet was grounded, or limited to daytime VFR, for a number of months while the problem was investigated. As it turns out the Malibu is about as strong as they can be. However, you need to be on top of the aircraft, it's no regular single engine piper. There were quite a few here in Sweden at the time and I think about 3 or 4 were lost over a year or two in accidents. But, as in most cases, the result from accident investigations is pilot error in combination with autopilot usage.

It's a hot machine, easily does 180kts+ at 10k and above with little effort. If you fly routinely I'm sure it's a great machine. I loved every minute of my short test a couple years ago. Because it has sophisticated equipment on board and pressurization, turbo, de-ice etc. you need to fly it by the book - or so I'm, told.

I have my eye on a company owned Meridian - just need to get a foot in there ...

[FlierDude]

.
I just completed training in the bird for a non-pilot owner. It flies like any pressurized piston twin (400-srs. Cessna). One problem, according to my high-time-in-type instructor, is the narrow gap between the elevator horns and stab. Any ice can easily freeze the two together, and the autopilot will trim against it. Any turbulence or the ice melts, and one can have an abrupt pitch-down. If in the descent in the yellow arc, can be a dangerous situation. I just check it periodically.

Alternate (induction) air is also a must in any visible moisture.

I have a trip in it tomorrow, am looking forward to it.