With its 43-foot wingspan and club-style cabin, the PA-46 has big airplane performance and comfort.

If any airplane suits the old adage about much being lost betwixt lip and cup, it must certainly be Piper’s ill-starred Malibu and Mirage series. When it first appeared in the mid-1980s, the Malibu rocked the GA world. Here was a pressurized, high-flying luxury ride capable of 200-knots and with impressive range to boot.

There was nothing quite like it and Piper soon found a loyal market for its new flagship product, mostly among well-to-do owners who could afford to sink a half-million bucks into a new airplane and who flew the kind of trips the Malibu was capable of. …