Thinking about renting a Piper Malibu Mirage

JaceTheAce

JaceTheAce

Well-Known Member
My brother and I want to do another wine tasting trip to the beautiful California central coast with some friends in the Spring or Summer of 2010. Two years ago we flew from San Diego, CA to Paso Robles, CA in a Beech Duchess. It was a blast and we all did a fun flight and low aerial tour of Hearst Castle with my Dad.

My flying club has a Piper Mirage for $285/wet. At pro rata share. assuming 6 people go, would be $47.50 per person. The cost of the plane would be about the same as the Duchess (assuming $185/wet Duchess rate divided by 4 people). Total cost of the Malibu rental per person should be about $140-150 round trip. Even though the Malibu cruises at 215 knots, I don't think it'll be that much cheaper overall (per person) than the Duchess, but this way we can take more people.

My question is, how is the Mirage to fly? How does it do with taking 6 passengers and baggage for a week long trip?
 
With 6 souls, I would think you would have just enough fuel for taxi (if you don't do a runup!).
 
...and are they just going to let you take it? You might need to factor in the cost of the checkout... I'm sure their insurance wouldn't just let you fly away in it.
 
If it's the flight club that I found on the internet, you probably would be better off with the 210 that the club also advertises. It'd be much easier to get a 210 checkout than a PA-46 checkout, I'd guess.
 
JaceTheAce said:
My question is, how is the Mirage to fly? How does it do with taking 6 passengers and baggage for a week long trip?
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That is an amazing hourly rate for a Mirage. The airplane is ok. It is very small upfront, and has a very thin wing. At gross weight in the heat you will eat up 3,000 feet before the thought of rotating even crosses your mind. You can then plan on about a 500fpm climb.

You will have anywhere from 1200 to 1400 pounds of useful load with either 120 or 140 gallons of fuel. I cannot remember the zero fuel weight, but you are only taking six people if they are small and UPS their bags...or you fly over weight.

You will burn 35gph in the climb and 20-23gph in cruise. In the mid to low teens you will see 185kts TAS, 195kts in the high teens, and 200kts in the lower 20s. I did see 215kts TAS at FL250 once, but can count the number of times I went above FL200 in it on one hand. I don't think I ever took the plane into the flight levels with passengers because of the poor climb rate.

Alex.
 
I'd be curious to know what time in the plane the insurance wants. I would guess you won't see anything less than at least 10 hours in make and model for the insurance reqs.

Sounds like a ton of fun if you can swing it though. Good luck.
 
Plus One requires Private, 500 Total, 100 Retract, Instrument Current and 10 hours checkout on there old Malibu. It's not a Mirage though that is for sure. It's a -310

The 210 requires Private, 150 total and 25 complex.
 
KSCessnaDriver said:
If it's the flight club that I found on the internet, you probably would be better off with the 210 that the club also advertises. It'd be much easier to get a 210 checkout than a PA-46 checkout, I'd guess.
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probably not, the lowest insurance requirement I have seen for a 210 is 25 hours.
 
JaceTheAce said:
My question is, how is the Mirage to fly? How does it do with taking 6 passengers and baggage for a week long trip?
Click to expand...
I flew one a couple years ago with some family friends. It took a surprisingly strong hand to roll it, but it was solid and fun to fly. Excepting the 207, it's heavier than what I'm used to flying, so that would make sense. The heavy feel of the controls, though, made it easier to fly more precisely. The speed was fun, too.
The plane got out of HEF with three people and full fuel with no problem. The practice approaches into CHO weren't any harder to fly than in the 172, but with the extra speed it's easier to get behind. That all depends on what you're used to, though. I don't even remember what our fuel burn was. I only flew it that one time, unfortunately.
 
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