I agree and you could say that with any turbine. When you buy, you are buying a lot more than just the airplane you are buying into the company and it's operating philosophy; good or bad. Support, training, parts availability, and value retention.

I agree and you could say that with any turbine. When you buy, you are buying a lot more than just the airplane you are buying into the company and it's operating philosophy; good or bad. Support, training, parts availability, and value retention.

Tru dat

Pros
-SUV with wings
-Fairly economical to operate
-Dirt simple to fly
-APEX is robust and very capable. We have build with Synthetic Vision
-Cargo door...very nice for loading/unloading. Just back your vehicle right up to the cargo door
-You don't have to crawl through the aisle like on a KA to get to the cockpit after passengers are already seated.
-Though quite a big slower not many jets can out do its payload/range...and the ones that can are a quite a bit more to buy and operate.
-It truly is a swiss army knife it will do pretty much anything you ask it to...want to fly short and low altitude legs, no problem. Want to fly long and high legs, no problem. Want to fly in and out of short fields, no problem.

Cons:
-Apex can be temperamental at times. You must let it go through booting sequence which can take a couple of minutes. If you forget to boot the the Apex before passengers board its going to be 2 or 3 minutes after shutting the door before you can fire up the engine and get the air conditioning on...your pax will be hot. Work around is a ground power cart but that can be $50+ a pop.
-We've had two APEX database updates hang up on us which required a trip to the avionics shop to reload software. Lucky the FBO where we keep the plane is a Pilatus service center so it hasn't been too inconvenient. There is a new software update for the Apex that recently came out. We are hoping will address these database hang up issues. We are scheduled to update software this week
-Pilot/Co-pilot seats lack in the padding department. I get a serious case of bleecher butt after 3+ hrs flights.

We just landed a few hours ago from family vacation to Antigua. We had 7 adults and 2 kids with luggage for 6 days. We were pretty heavy so we ended up stopping in Aguadilla, PR for some cheap gas on the way there and back. All in all it has been an excellent business tool and family hauler.

You are gonna sell that Tesla and buy SV as soon as you ride with me into TEX.

FF SV is a nice toy.

That's only because our women know how to pack, we can seldom leave with full fuel, we stopped in Little Rock for fuel, and I didn't know we were racing until I heard you on freq somewhere over Mississippi. I do recall landing before you

The weather was sporty that day!

well let's be fair, they were giving you way better altitudes and routing........steering you clear of the weather and me straight into it...............


and no doubt the weather was definitely sporty!!!! all the way from Mississippi.............one of the crummiest days to head to South Florida!!!

Can you guys with PC12's share some real world numbers? would be interesting to see what you plan for trip cost and speeds. Useful load and what you think the plane cost per hour for you. Not capital cost just the per hour operating cost.

Mike

Mike;

Ran a PC12/45 for 4 years - 1500hrs

2 Pro Pilots
Simcom Training x 2
Accommodation for Crew
Maintenance management Co
Insurance
Handling at various FBO’s
Hangar
Fuel
150 Inspections x 2 per year -
Annual
Crew Credit Cards.
Catering
MX Subscriptions
Garmin
Camp services
XM weather
No IHAPP warranty plan -

All came out to $1800 US per hour - he put every bill related to the Aircraft the pot and came up with that number. I do recall 43 percent of our op ex was Handling / Maintenance Mangement Co...Will try find my figures from 2014, with the breakdown.

But the CEO/ CFO was happy with the Figures and stated at every budget meeting he didn’t lose any sleep over the PC12 bills - I left beginning of 2015. Since then they upgraded to 67P / 5 Blade MT prop.

He’s keeping it till his PC24 slot comes available.

Regards
Nigel

I had the same issue, my legs would almost go numb the stock seats are a miserable torture device. Pennman turned me on to this sucker which was in the $250 range but worth every penny and saved the day. https://www.oregonaero.com/accessories/ ... e-cushions

Thanks Adam!

Thanks Adam!

Adam(s)

Did you guys get the 1/2", 1" or 2" cushion also I assume you chose the straps over the non skid?

Pennman - thanks for nothing, I thought we were buds . Now I understand how you can tolerate 6+ hr legs.

The PC12 is a great plane for what it is made for, carry a lot, far to anywhere. But what give the PC12 that utility would be my biggest criticism for the average owner pilot. Most of us owner pilots spend a lot of time flying by ourselves or with a few passengers, on pretty short trips.

It was eye opening for me to graph my flights and come up with my average trip length. I would have guessed between 600-1000 nm. While I remember those 1000, 1500, 2000 nm trips as some of my most challenging and fond, 1/3 of my flights are by myself and most on pretty short flights. So flying such a big and relatively expensive bird to acquire, operate and maintain, on such average short and light trips is just a waste of money, fuel, maintenance costs, as well as ramp and hangar space.

Otherwise it is a great plane. Probably makes little sense in reality for most owner pilots, but we all optimize our own ideals.

I coulda sworn I told you about the 2" seats.......that's what I have 2 inch seats.....they are money.........

we're still best buds.......but I think you owe me

That's almost 3 times my hrly cost...........


Now that number makes more sense. So almost $800 an hour went to a management company????

Me and Silvertongue will do that for $400 an hour!!!