Plane & Pilot 2017 Buyer’s Guide: Single-Engine Piston Planes

Newcomers, upgrades, and old favorites: 20 piston singles for 2017.

Plane & Pilot

Tuesday, January 31, 2017 at 08:13 AM ET

Verified

Key Takeaways:

The piston single aircraft market offers a diverse range of options, from utility fixed-gear models to high-performance pressurized or retractable designs.
Leading aircraft, including the market-dominant Cirrus SR22 G6, feature significant updates, such as advanced avionics like Garmin's G1000 NXi or G3000 for enhanced safety and pilot experience.
The market continues to evolve with major updates to existing successful aircraft and the introduction of new, newly Part 23-certificated models like CubCrafters' latest offering.

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Piper Matrix

What do you get when you take a pressurized Mirage piston single, take out the pressurization system and price it hundreds of thousands less than the Mirage? A Matrix. Here’s why. The most popular plane in the world is the Cirrus SR22, right? So with the Matrix you get a huge cabin in comparison with room for six (four in club seating configuration in back), SR22-like 213 knots top speed, the Garmin G1000 panel with all of its safety enhancements and an operating profile like other non-pressurized turbocharged singles, so four-seater pilots feel confident stepping up. It’s brilliant. And the Matrix, with its huge 120-gallon capacity, has a range of better than 1300 nm: by far, the best in class. With the big panel of the PA-46 line, the Matrix also has the room for a giant 15-inch multifunction display in the center, bigger than any display in its class.

Niche: Premium retractable-gear piston

Base Price: $899,000

Competitors: G36 Bonanza, Cirrus SR22, Cessna TTx

Read our Piper Matrix pilot report.

Piper Matrix Specifications

Learn more at Piper Aircraft.