Piper PA-46-310P Malibu

The Piper PA-46-310P Malibu is the airplane that started the pressurized piston-single category as most pilots understand it today. Approved on FAA Type Certificate A25SO on September 27, 1983 and delivered from 1984, it was only the third pressurized single-engine piston airplane ever certificated, following the short-lived Mooney M22 (1965-1970) and roughly contemporary with the Cessna P210 Pressurized Centurion. Roughly 400 were built before Piper discontinued the model in 1988.

This page describes the ORIGINAL, Continental-powered Malibu — the 310P — on its own. It is one of three pages sourced from the same certificate: this one, the PA-46-350P Malibu Mirage / M350 (the Lycoming-powered, higher-production successor that kept the "Malibu" page address because it is by far the higher-volume airplane), and the PA-46R-350T Matrix (the unpressurized derivative of the 350P). All three share FAA TCDS A25SO with the turboprop Meridian/M500/M600, which are covered separately on piper-m-class — a different engine class entirely, already correctly split off before this session.

The reason the 310P gets its own page rather than sharing one with the 350P Mirage, despite both being pressurized six-seat retractable singles on the same certificate within 6% of each other's gross weight and cruise speed (neither Step 1 nor Step 2 of the splitting rule fires cleanly on the numbers alone): the two airplanes have different engine manufacturers entirely — Continental TSIO-520-BE against Lycoming TIO-540-AE2A — and that difference is not cosmetic. The Continental-powered Malibu was discontinued after a cylinder-head defect caused fatal accidents, documented below with a citation to the actual litigation rather than to an unsourced summary. A buyer choosing between an early Continental Malibu and a later Lycoming Mirage needs genuinely different pre-buy advice — a borescope-first inspection culture around this specific engine, sourced from a shop that knows its history, versus a more conventional Lycoming pre-buy — which is the splitting rule's Step 3 buyer test, and it is why this page exists on its own.

On the JetPROP conversion: Rocket Engineering's turboprop conversion was originally developed for the 310P airframe specifically, giving Continental- powered Malibus that would otherwise carry the engine's stigma at a discount a genuine second life. A converted airframe is, for buying purposes, a different airplane (different engine class, different TBO, different insurance) and is not scored on this page.

Piper's own numbers for the 310P are thin compared with the later Mirage: the type predates Piper's web presence entirely (its manufacturer specification sheet, if one still exists on paper, was not reachable this session — see "What could not be found" below), and no POH copy was obtained. What IS solidly sourced is the certificate and a same-year AOPA fact sheet.

At gross weight, AOPA's own 1986-model figures give a best-rate climb of 1,170 fpm and a stall speed of 69 KIAS clean / 58 KIAS in landing configuration — both figures independently checked and NOT identical to the Mirage's 1,275 fpm / 69 / 58 (the stall speeds happen to match; the climb rate does not, consistent with 40 fewer horsepower at essentially the same weight). No cruise speed, fuel burn or range figure could be sourced this session that pairs a speed with a burn or a range at one stated setting — AOPA's sheet gives only a bare "16 gallons per hour at 75% power" with nothing to pair it to, and runbook rule 3 forbids storing half of a triple as though it were the whole thing. A buyer wanting real cruise-planning numbers for a specific 310P should get its logbook-referenced POH (Piper Report VB-1200 or VB-1300, depending on serial number) rather than rely on period marketing claims.

The pressurization system is the same 5.5 psid differential as the later Mirage, giving a sea-level cabin to roughly 13,000 ft and an 8,000-ft cabin at the airplane's 25,000-ft certificated ceiling — this is the airplane's whole reason for existing, and it did not change across the PA-46 piston line.

With a 4,100 lb gross weight, 2,645 lb typical empty weight and the same 120 usable gallons as every other PA-46 piston, the arithmetic is similar in shape to the Mirage's but starts from a smaller useful-load base:

Full fuel (120 gal / 720 lb):

• Useful load: 1,455 lb
• Remaining for people and baggage with full fuel: 735 lb — roughly three adults with baggage, or two adults and generous baggage.
• Filling all six seats requires meaningfully reduced fuel, the same fundamental tradeoff that defines the whole PA-46 piston line.

No POH-sourced range figure exists for this page (see Performance Notes), so this section cannot state a specific nautical-mile number the way the Mirage page can — a real limitation of this page's sourcing, disclosed rather than papered over with an unsourced figure.

Original 310Ps left the factory with a King Silver Crown stack (KFC 150 autopilot, KNS 80 RNAV) typical of early-1980s Piper singles. Many have since been upgraded with Garmin GNS 430W/530W navigators, and ADS-B compliance is now effectively mandatory for any airplane still flying IFR. Because the 310P's hull values sit well below the later Mirage's, avionics spend on a 310P needs to be weighed against the airframe's ceiling value more carefully than on a newer, pricier Mirage — a full glass retrofit can easily exceed a third of the airplane's total value.

JetPROP DLX / DL Turboprop Conversion

Rocket Engineering's PT6A-34/35 (DLX) or PT6A-21 (DL, from 2003) conversion was developed for this airframe first, and remains the highest-value modification available to a 310P owner: it removes the Continental engine and its history entirely, at a conversion cost of roughly $400,000 plus the donor airframe. See piper-pa46-malibu for the conversion's performance figures (not independently re-verified on this page).

Avionics and Speed Modifications

The same Malibu Aerospace speed-fairing and gap-seal modifications available to the Mirage apply to the 310P airframe as well, since the wing and gear are shared between the two models' earliest examples. Not independently re-verified this session; see piper-pa46-malibu for detail.

Parts Availability: Fair

Continental parts support for the TSIO-520-BE continues but with longer lead times than the Lycoming engine that replaced it in 1988 — a much larger fraction of the PA-46 fleet (every 350P, Matrix, and the M-Class turboprops' airframe-shared parts) runs on the newer engine and airframe generation. Piper factory airframe parts support remains active for the whole PA-46 line regardless of engine.

Mechanic Familiarity: Specialized

As with every PA-46, this is not a general-practice A&P's airplane. PMOPA (the Piper M-Class Owners & Pilots Association, formerly MMOPA — founded 1988, per its own site) maintains type-specific training and safety resources and is the community's central technical resource; see raw/press/pmopa-org-identity-2026-09-08.md.

The Continental engine's history depresses 310P values relative to the Mirage that replaced it, and always has — this was already noted (uncited) on the page this one was split from, and the reasoning above is now sourced. Project/high-time-engine airplanes trade around $150,000; well-equipped, low-time, modern-avionics examples reach toward $380,000. Airplanes destined for a JetPROP conversion are frequently bought specifically BECAUSE they are inexpensive 310P airframes — the engine's history is irrelevant to a buyer who plans to remove it entirely.

No Vref/Aircraft Bluebook access was available this session (see raw/market/market-piper-pa46-piston-pricing-2026-09-08.md); the price band above is a dated, single-sourced fallback estimate, not a guide-derived figure, and should be treated as the weakest-sourced numbers on this page.

The Continental Engine and Its Discontinuation

This is the defining maintenance and safety story of this specific airplane, and it is now sourced to the actual litigation rather than to an unsourced summary. Dennis Paboojian, an experienced airline-industry executive receiving instrument instruction in a 310P Malibu, survived a June 1986 in-flight engine fire after the number-three cylinder head separated from the TSIO-520-BE; his flight instructor did not survive the resulting crash. Discovery in the subsequent lawsuit found that the engine's cylinders had originally been designed for smaller Continental engines and were progressively installed on larger ones — including the TSIO-520-BE, the largest engine to use them — without additional stress engineering. An internal Continental safety-factor calculation, later found to have been miscalculated, put the true safety factor below 1.0 against a normal design standard of 1.50; Continental was aware of more than 150 similar cylinder- cracking incidents by the time of this accident. The case settled for $31,150,000 after four days of trial — at the time, the largest aviation settlement ever awarded to a single plaintiff — and Piper grounded the entire Malibu fleet and discontinued installation of the TSIO-520-BE afterward. See raw/press/oreilly-paboojian-tcm-settlement-2026-09-08.md for the full account.

This is a specific, well-documented cylinder defect with a specific mechanism — it is not a vague "engine reliability" reputation, and it is not evidence against a specific well-maintained airframe with a clean logbook and current compliance on every applicable service bulletin and AD. A pre-buy on any 310P should specifically confirm cylinder compliance history and full borescope results, not merely a current annual.

What this page does NOT claim, and the previous version of this catalogue page did: a specific FAA emergency Airworthiness Directive grounding all Malibu/Mirage IFR flight in 1991 was NOT independently verified this session (no working general web search, and the FAA DRS client used for the type certificate does not reach the AD database). It may well be real — it is widely repeated in enthusiast literature — but this page does not restate it as fact without a primary citation. Buyers and researchers wanting the current AD status of a specific airframe should consult the FAA's ADIRS system directly.

Common Maintenance Issues

• Cylinder and turbocharger history: given the above, cylinder compliance and turbocharger management history matter more on this specific engine than on almost any other in the catalogue. Budget for a full borescope inspection at every opportunity.
• Pressurization system: door seals, outflow valve and controller maintenance, same as every pressurized PA-46 piston.
• Landing gear: retractable gear system requires regular inspection and lubrication, same as later models.
• Parts availability for the Continental engine is noted as "fair" rather than "good" on this page (against the Mirage's "good") because the TSIO-520-BE has been out of production far longer and in a much smaller fleet than the Lycoming TIO-540-AE2A that replaced it.

Expect meaningfully higher premiums and more underwriting scrutiny than a Lycoming-powered Mirage of similar hull value, specifically because of the Continental engine's documented accident history — several underwriters are known in the type community to price this distinction explicitly. Qualified, experienced pilots with type-specific recurrent training (through PMOPA, formerly MMOPA — see below) should expect premiums broadly similar to the Mirage's; low-time or transitioning pilots should expect a meaningfully harder underwriting conversation on this specific airplane than on a Mirage. See GA Insurance Underwriting for general factors.