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Since its introduction more than 30 years ago, Piper’s PA-46 Malibu has undergone a series of significant performance enhancements, while its cabin, often less noticed, has seen corresponding makeovers of its own. As we lounged in the back of N350CS, a new M350 on the ramp at Columbia Air Service in Groton, Conn. (GON), Gordon Ramsay, Piper program manager at Columbia Air Service, commenting on vintage Malibus, said, “At the time, they seemed very comfortable; now we realize they were fairly Spartan…this is refined.”
Indeed, in this update of the Malibu Mirage introduced this spring, with its interior by Boston’s trend-setting Blokx Design, passengers in the all-leather seats can listen to Internet radio, recharge their personal devices at USB ports or make phone calls through the optional Iridium Satellite Transceiver. But it’s the signature addition of electronic stability protection (ESP) to the flight deck of the M350 that has brought the PA-46’s evolution full circle, definitively addressing questions about the nexus of aircraft performance and pilot capability that the sleek, pressurized, cabin-class piston single raised soon after its debut.
