turbine

The Silver Eagle P210 uses the Allison Model 250 turboprop the Jetprop uses the PT6. While both engines are flat rated to similar power (about 500 hp) the PT6 is a much larger engine in terms of thermodynamic horsepower. What that means is that the Allison doesn't have much power margin and at altitude you won't make nearly the same power as the Pratt.

Bottom line is that the Jetprop will cruise at high altitude a good bit faster than the Eagle. Since both of these airplanes are pressurized you want to be able to cruise fast at higher altitude and the Allison won't do that very well. You will notice that they show the best cruise speed for the Eagle as 210 kts at only 16,000 ft. There's a reason for that, above that you start to lose power and speed. Even the smallest engine Jetprop will do 220 kts at 25,000 ft, and the bigger engine versions will do more than 250kts. Higher altitude equals better fuel economy so you want to cruise as high as you can. If you cruise higher in the Eagle you will save money but you are going to be going a lot slower.

While the Jetprop claims to be as good a Meridian for a lot less money, there were a lot of changes that Piper did to make the Meridian from the Malibu, and these aren't on the Jetprop. The Meridian has a wider chord at the wing root, and larger tail surfaces, as well as increased fuel capacity. That's not to say it is a bad airplane, I have looked over the installation carefully and it is well done, but it isn't a factory airplane.

Between the two however the Jetprop is the better long distance, high altitude airplane. If you are looking at not flying higher than 16k ft, there is less of a difference and the Eagle could make sense. There are recommended cruise power levels for the Model 250 and if you cruise at power levels higher than that the engine won't last that long.

We have talked here on the forum about the lack of power at altitude in the small RR turboprops. This is a pretty classic problem. My spies tell me that the RR500 turboprop program was recently cancelled. They were never able to sell the engine because it ran out of power at a lower altitude than the Model 250 turboprop, which already stank. Bad decision to start that program in the first place, it wasn't ever going to sell.

 

I haven't flown the turboprop conversions, but many, many years ago I did some flying in both a P210 and a Malibu. In my opinion, there was no comparison between the two-- I'd take the Malibu any day over the P210.

The Malibu had a nicer cabin, performed much better, and just generally was a more impressive airplane-- to the point that they almost weren't in the same league.

Personally, I'd spend the small amount extra and get a real Meridian.