Two owner-flown single-engine turboprops: the comfortable, automation-rich M600 against the faster, longer-legged TBM 960.
Range is the row that misleads here. The TBM 960 is the longer-legged aeroplane, but not by enough to change which trips are available to you, and the speed advantage is the one that compounds on every sector. Where the two genuinely diverge is load: the M600 carries far more, which is the difference between six seats you can fill and six seats you choose between once the tanks are full. Autoland is the other asymmetry, and for an owner flying single pilot with family aboard it is worth more than the knots. Take the TBM for pace and equipment if you fly light and often. Take the M600 when the aeroplane has to carry what six people bring with them.
The table below uses the same versioned PlaneFit dataset as the Finder. Prices and operating costs are planning estimates, not quotations.
| Decision factor | Piper M600/SLSView aircraft profile | Daher TBM 960View aircraft profile |
|---|---|---|
| Typical market year | 2023 | 2023 |
| Estimated purchase | €3.14m | €4.37m |
| Annual cash cost at 80 h | €175k | €194k |
| Five-year cash outlay | €4.02m | €5.34m |
| Cruise speed | 274 kt | 330 kt |
| Advertised range | 1658 nm | 1730 nm |
| Seats | 6 | 6 |
| Realistic payload | 682 kg | 272 kg |
| Runway need | 803 m | 726 m |
| Landing gear | Retractable tricycle | Retractable tricycle |
| Ratings and endorsements | Type rating, Complex airplane endorsement, High-altitude training | Type rating, Complex airplane endorsement, High-altitude training |
| Data confidence | Normalized for direct comparison | Normalized for direct comparison |
| Main trade-off | Strong range and Autoland safety in an owner-flown package, but it was quickly superseded by the faster M700. | One of the fastest owner-flown turboprops with simple power management, but it is costly and was superseded quickly by the TBM 980. |
A factual first pass. Mission, condition and configuration can outweigh a brochure advantage.
They do not cross. The Piper M600/SLS is the cheaper of the two at every utilisation from zero to 300 hours a year, on purchase and running cost together, so there is no break-even point to find. That is worth knowing plainly: on cost alone this is not a trade-off, and the case for the other aircraft has to be made on mission, cabin, speed or access rather than on eventual savings.
| Five-year cash, including purchase | Piper M600/SLS | Daher TBM 960 | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| 40 h / year | $4.15m (€3.85m) | $5.56m (€5.15m) | $1.41m (€1.31m) to Piper M600/SLS |
| 100 h / year | $4.44m (€4.11m) | $5.86m (€5.43m) | $1.43m (€1.32m) to Piper M600/SLS |
| 200 h / year | $4.91m (€4.55m) | $6.37m (€5.89m) | $1.45m (€1.35m) to Piper M600/SLS |
The gap widens as utilisation rises, which is the part a headline price comparison hides. Every figure uses the same planning model as the rest of the site: indicative market prices, a fixed annual base and a direct hourly cost, before financing, depreciation and tax.
Advertised range is a still-air, best-case number. With 4 people aboard and realistic reserves, plan on about 1,111 nm from the Piper M600/SLS against 1,159 nm from the Daher TBM 960. On a return trip without refuelling, that is the radius that decides which destinations are on the list at all.
Against the 28,815 airports in the PlaneFit database that publish a runway length, the Piper M600/SLS has enough runway at 18,571 of them and the Daher TBM 960 at 21,471, comparing each aircraft’s take-off requirement of 2,635 ft and 2,382 ft against the longest runway on the field.
This is a planning comparison, not a statement that any particular operation is legal or advisable. It ignores surface, slope, elevation, temperature, obstacles and how heavily the aircraft is loaded, all of which extend the requirement. It also compares take-off distance only: landing distance is frequently the binding constraint and PlaneFit does not hold approved landing distances, so a field in these counts is not necessarily a field you can get back out of, or into.
Nothing separates them here. Both require a type rating, a complex airplane endorsement, a high-altitude training, so a pilot qualified for one is qualified for the other.
Six-seat pressurized turboprop with Garmin Autoland. Its central ownership trade-off is: Strong range and Autoland safety in an owner-flown package, but it was quickly superseded by the faster M700.
Planning snapshot: $3.4m (€3.14m) indicative price and $189k (€175k) annual cash cost at 80 hours.
Read the full aircraft profileSix-seat FADEC pressurized high-speed turboprop. Its central ownership trade-off is: One of the fastest owner-flown turboprops with simple power management, but it is costly and was superseded quickly by the TBM 980.
Planning snapshot: $4.71m (€4.37m) indicative price and $210k (€194k) annual cash cost at 80 hours.
Read the full aircraft profile