If you’re tired of slogging around behind that old, 310 hp Continental, take heart. Several tantalizing engine options are available that will give your Malibu the performance boost you’ve been dreaming about.

When Piper first introduced the Malibu, it thought it had a real winner on its hands. And it was right. With its aerodynamic styling, sailplane-like wing and a pressurized cabin, the Malibu was truly a breath of fresh air.

But airplane owners are a funny breed of people; they always want more — more power, speed, range, performance, load, or whatever. The only thing owners never want more of is cost.

Owners and operators of the original Malibu were always a little dissatisfied with the original 310 hp Continental engine. Sure it gave the Malibu its impressive performance envelope. But to do so meant the engine had to be run hard; and under some hot and high situations, the airplane doesn’t exactly leap off the ground.

New Piper provided a bit of relief when it introduced the 350 hp, Lycoming-powered Malibu Mirage. While it doesn’t thrust you back in your seat, the Mirage’s additional 40 horsepower does take a bit of the worry out of hot-day operations. It’s a very effective fix if you happen to have the wherewithal to shell out nearly a million dollars on a new Mirage.

Yet what about all those early Malibus that still have plenty of good flying left in them? Are their owners destined to remain 310 hp weaklings? No way. Depending on your personal requirements and your bankroll, you can select from a few engine upgrade options that can make your Malibu all the airplane you want it to be.

Continental shift

If there’s any environment that can really stretch the standard 310 hp Continental, it’s the heat and humidity of the southern United States in the summer. That’s just the problem that faced Malibu owner Hal Lynch as he made his monthly trips to his car dealerships located throughout the Southeast.

“While the original engine had been reliable, the aircraft was somewhat underpowered for its mission,” explained Randall Haney, chief pilot for Lynch Management. “At least one field we operate out of is short, narrow, uphill and has tall trees on one end — and it’s one way in and one way out.”

“Conventional wisdom held that the bigger engine might give a wider safety margin,” he added. So to help give their Malibu a bit of a pad to its performance envelope, the company decided to upgrade to the 350 hp Continental TSIO-550-C1B and a new Hartzell propeller. “With this STC we often takeoff at max weight with the air conditioner working and I still get a respectable climb of 900 fpm,” Haney continued. “At about 1,000 feet AGL, we pull back the power to 30 inches to keep from dogging the engine out and still get a consistent 800 feet per minute through eight thousand.”

The Continental 550 STC is owned by 2day’s Wings in St. Petersburg, Fla., and company owner Doug Day says that the engine switch is still very popular. “We’ve sold over 135 of the conversions to date,” Day said. “Currently it’s popular with people who have reached TBO and need an overhaul. The extra money that it costs to upgrade to the 550 is immediately reflected in a higher value for the airplane.”

“In fact,” he added, “it’s probably the only kind of upgrade that you can do to a Malibu that will get you a full payback when you sell.” Day said that he also gets a lot of calls from people who are looking to buy an early Malibu but want the increase in performance and value.

Day said that the engine conversion doesn’t require any alterations to the airplane at all. Each bolt and connection matches the original 520s exactly. “As long as the airplane is in for an overhaul anyway, it’s as simple as putting a new engine in,” he said.

Along with the 550 engine STC, Day’s company also has an STC for an extended fuel cap modification on the Malibu and Meridian. “By locating an extra filler cap further up the wing, operators get an extra 20 gallons of usable fuel in their airplane,” he said. “It’s real popular with owners and we even sell it to Rocket Engineering to use on their JetPROP conversions.”

Haney says that the conversion to the bigger engine didn’t affect the weight and balance at all. In fact, the only operational change that he’s experienced is to monitor the engine oil level a bit closer. “The engine originally came with a 12-quart oil pan and it had to be modified because of the nose wheel,” he explained. “It now has an eight-quart pan but we haven’t had any problems with temperature or usage.”

ABCs of Malibu STCs

The engine isn’t the only part of Lynch Management’s Malibu that has been augmented. Haney proudly points to a long list of improvements that it has made over the years. “One of the biggest changes has been to add STC’d spoilers,” he said. “The Malibu is a clean ship and it’s hard to slow down or come down. The spoilers allow you to drop altitude fast without supercooling the engine, or they can help you slow down when needed.”

For example, Haney said you can pop the spoilers out, drop the gear and 10-degrees of flaps, and roll it into a 45-degree bank and get about 10,000 fpm decent rate while keeping the airspeed well in the green. “If I’m at 20,000 and lose pressurization, I can be down in breathable air in less than a minute, completely within the operational envelope of the airplane,” he said.

Along with the spoilers, Haney has also installed a full-sized secondary vacuum pump instead of a regular back up pump. He said that the smaller back up vacuum pumps are prone to failure — they had already had to replace nine of the back ups over the years — so he found an STC for a second pump that is just another primary pump that runs all the time.

After researching vacuum pumps, Haney found that for less than the price of a smaller, failure-prone back up pump, he could have a second, full-sized pump installed. “After the last failure, we determined that there was only one more pump in the supply system and the supplier wanted $5,500 for it,” Haney said. “I found that I could get an STC from Wilkinson Aircraft Services for $4,300 that was essentially a second primary pump.”

Haney said the Wilkinson STC solved many of the problems he has experienced with the normal standby pumps. “Instead of an electrical switch, you have a mechanical check valve separating the two pumps,” he explained. “If one fails the other is already running and easily takes the load.”

After over 5,500 total time, Haney reports that Lynch’s Malibu is today a safer, more capable airplane than ever. “Other than the costs, I don’t see any drawbacks to getting the engine conversion or any of the STCs we have,” he said. “The benefits are improved performance, safety reliability and a ship that fulfills its mission completely at roughly the same variable operating costs as a stock model.”

Quenching That Kerosene Thirst

When father and son, Herb and Karl Kahlert decided to have their stock Malibu Mirage converted to the JetPROP DLX, they did so as much out of necessity as they did to fulfill their desire to fly the consummate speed and performance machine.

Herb said, “We had flown a Cessna 210 for about 10 years when we had a crankshaft recall. So we decided that was reason enough to make our move up to the Mirage. We had wanted air conditioning and an avionics upgrade anyway and it seemed the ideal time.”

In the end, they bought their Mirage and it delivered as promised, until the infamous Lycoming Service Bulletins 552 and 553 hit. “We had bulletin 552 done and had put less than 30 hours on the airplane when we got the word on 553,” he added. “It was 552 only worse. The problem was we had no idea how long it would take to get this one done. So we parked the airplane in the hangar and started exploring our options.”

Karl explained, “We had heard a little about turbines but weren’t sure if that was for us. We didn’t want to rush into any decision and get stuck. We didn’t want a twin. Most of our trips are around Florida and out to the Bahamas. So range wasn’t as important as being able to safely operate out of rather-short, island runways on very hot days.”

So the Kahlerts looked at the TBM 700, Piper’s own Meridian and the JetPROP conversion. “The (TBM) 700 was really nice, but it’s a million dollars more than the Meridian,” he added. “The Meridian was really nice too, but Piper wasn’t in a deal-making mood. I guess they had their fill of used Mirages right then, so we went out and flew the JetPROP. We were very, very impressed.”

“The JetPROP would give us exceptional takeoff and climb performance,” Karl continued. “Since we go into a lot of short island runways on hot days, that swung the balance in their favor.”

Herb added, “We wanted performance, safety and reliability. After going through three engine recalls in a very short time, we wanted to eliminate crankshaft problems forever.” So the Kahlerts made the decision to invest in transforming their meek Mirage into a fire-breathing JetPROP.

“We figured by investing another $550,000 in our airplane, while we would have well over a million invested in it, we would end up with an airplane that we could fly for as long as we wanted,” he said.

Putting the Jet in JetPROP

When you distill it, the heart and soul of the JetPROP DLX conversion is a Pratt & Whitney PT6A-35 coupled to a custom-created, Hartzell, four-blade, reversible propeller. The combination not only gives the JetPROP a distinctive look, but it also gives it the startling near-jet performance that has made it a big hit with the Malibu crowd. Darwin Conrad, president and founder of JetPROP LLC said, “We went to the (Malibu) owners and found out what they wanted and we built the conversion to their needs. We took the Malibu/Mirage and made it better rather than trying to reinvent the wheel.”

Conrad explained that it took him and his team of engineers about three and a half years to do everything needed to obtain the STC for the conversion. “It was more than putting another engine on the airplane,” he said. “We had an airframe that we subjected to all the stress tests for over two years. We worked closely with the FAA to make sure the airframe would stand up to the added stresses. I can tell you that if you fly it by the numbers this airplane is just as strong as anything the factory can produce.”

Obviously, the market shares Conrad’s confidence in the JetPROP. To date, 130 Malibu/Mirage owners have opted for the conversion, which is more than just the engine/propeller change. Along with a laundry list of improvements including a dual battery system, rack and structural support beneath the forward cabin seats, and a new header tank in the forward baggage area, the “standard” JetPROP package also includes a set of high-tech analog/digital engine instruments that Conrad had created just for the JetPROP.

Herb said, “The instruments look like they came from the factory. In fact, the entire airplane can stand nose-to-nose with the Meridian and equal or beat it in just about every area.”

Conrad also explained that while the airplane is in the Rocket Engineering shop — JetPROP contracts Rocket to do the conversion — undergoing it’s 12-week rebirth, the team inspects every bit of the airframe and gives the owners the opportunity to have any discrepancies fixed while the airplane is disassembled. “When we get done [the owners] know they have a very solid airplane,” he said.

Turbine Power — You Gotta Love It

Speed, near bulletproof reliability and standout good looks — what’s not to love about the JetPROP conversion? Almost nothing, according to the Kahlerts. They did fess up that there are times when the ability to carry more weight would come in handy. They’d like Conrad and his team to come up with a fix similar to what New Piper offers on the 2003 Meridians. Piper has done some aerodynamic magic and structural changes to give operators another 242 pounds of useful load. Conrad said Piper is working on it.

Other than that, the only beef the Kahlerts have with the to JetPROP conversion doesn’t have anything to do with the airplane — it’s with the insurance companies. Herb said, “Our only trouble was getting insurance when we transitioned from the piston to the turbine. The JetPROP is an easier, better and safer plane to fly than its piston cousin; yet the insurance companies don’t understand that. They end up making it so hard on everyone.”

Karl added, “We already knew how to fly the Mirage, the difference was simply learning to fly behind the turbine. We went through the mandatory 10-hours of training at the JetPROP factory and another five-day training program with FlightSafety in Lakeland to satisfy the insurance company.”

In the end, the Kahlerts are very happy they made the switch. “Sure it was a lot of money; but the first time we took off, it really felt like we got more than our money’s worth,” Karl said. “Now even on the hottest day in south Florida we can take off and quickly climb up to 15- or 16- thousand feet on our way to the islands and never be outside of gliding distance to land. It’s a great feeling.”

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