Ian,
I am simply making the point that you, being friends with TBM and it's affiliates, in addition to having flown the airframe in question for TBM, can and will be construed as being biased towards the manufacturer. With that in mind, it would certainly be appropriate on your behalf to request another mod regulate the thread. Again, no insulations made by me here, just impartial opinion...
FWIW...
Todd