Impressive, and what a beautiful setting.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZP-9mWqFh3c

Wow. That little airport looks like a paradise. Nice flying too.

Here's another one. Not a PC12 but same airfield. Cool little airplane!

I'm putting this strip on my bucket list.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c4J-GsGCjHY

I lived on a 2800ft airstrip for a few years. A PC-12 came in about once a month and it was always impressive to watch him take off and land...made it look effortless even though the Pilatus made the runway look tiny.

And that would be why the PC-12 has always had a spot near the top of my ever-changing dream airplane list.

Oh !(#**$*@ hell yes.... where's that little store with the lottery tickets...

The taxiway impresses me a whole lot more than the flying.

I will say it, the PC-12 is a bad plane. I had the luck to fly one for a while.
1) I have never had a PT-6 so at risk of freezing fuel. Remember the -12 that crashed in the Western U.S.
how do you test your fuel for additive? Hope the line guy puts it in the fuel or the injector pump is working? complete bull shit. I have flown King Airs and Cessnas and never worried (too much) about fuel temp. Pilatus scared shitless the fuel was correct.

2) Really a stick shaker and pusher? What the hell on a low speed plane. How screwed up are the aerodynamics for the need for that? A Beechcraft B200 has the nicest stall of most aircraft. It has comparable performance.

3) Pro, the plane is an accountants dream. 1300 nm on 250 gallons 1200 lbs in the cabin and land with 2 hours of gas in the tanks. Pretty impressive.

4) Back to reality. The thing hates to be cold. Leave it out in the cold and it WILL NOT START. I know -40 is cold to start but the thing should start, but the computers get cold and stop that. Now imagine you are flying and the plane's heat goes bum (shut-up I know it is Bleed heat) now the plane cold soaks and computers start doing what failing? Give me a break, A bleed air heat/ enviormental failure should not be an emergency.

Sorry not impressed with that plane as a pilot, if I was a accountant it is a winner, but I was just a pilot.

edit,

Oh and then the pilot seat was horrible torture device for anything more than a hour.

Oh and no prop control. Really how hard is it to run a prop lever correctly? If I want to feather the prop, I have to shut off my engine and generator and altenator, now I just have a battery to run all the computers. Screw that maybe I need to get the prop off-line, it is a Pratt jeez let me have the option for goodness sake. If you can not be trusted to operate a propellor maybe you should be in the back of the plane not up front.

Pointless

Fuel imbalance why? I have had it happen to me.

How do you know you have Prist?

You really suggest hold the interrupt?

Outside in ANC is different then outside on the slope overnight.

Can not agree with you,sorry.

Haha!! Just about choked on my lollipop when I read those comments

Pilatus recently delivered their 1,400th PC-12.. Almost 100 delivered in the last 12 months.. Can't be too bad a plane

I must say the PC-12 is an absolutely brilliant aircraft and like you say, an accountants dream. Impressive how Pilatus designed something that is so good but so easy and cost effective to maintain. Maybe I'm biased.. Here's my hangar on any given day..

Not to take sides on any argument about the airplane, but as an observer only, it's pretty impressive. For a couple months, one was regularly shooting approaches and doing other pattern work at my home-drome, and I enjoyed watching it. I would guess that the pilot was getting a thorough check-out, as things seem to improve over time. And of course, if some benefactor wanted to give me one and pay for its maintenance and operating costs, I really don't think I'd turn it down.

Cary

If you're talking trash about the PC-12 you have obviously never flown (or at least don't have any significant experience in one) one.

I have just shy of 3000hrs in them. I have flown them into 1700 foot strips, over water (admittedly not my favorite airplane for this), and across the US -- nonstop.

The accident referenced above was a tragedy and completely preventable. The airplane was yelling at the pilot for about an hour to land--the guy ignored all the signs. If he would have ponied up the additional 5-10 cents a gallon for the additive (yes, he felt it was an unnecessary expense even though the airplane requires it for flights in sub zero C temps) he, and the rest of the overloaded airplane would have almost undoubtedly survived.




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Well hell...now I don't know if I should buy one or not.

Hammer wrote:Well hell...now I don't know if I should buy one or not.

You could use all the profits from the tie-downs, couldn't you?

Cary

Cary wrote:

Hammer wrote:Well hell...now I don't know if I should buy one or not.

You could use all the profits from the tie-downs, couldn't you?

Cary

If you put it that way maybe I should get two...

I was leaning towards paragliding for my next thing to keep me out of trouble, but i think i need to reconsider and look at one of these pc-12's...

also...i don't think i could even keep a 152 on that taxiway.

As another data point.... there's a program out there using PC-12's converted that have been flying all over the world 24/7/365 which have the best MX record the Air Force has ever seen and has flown more hours operationally than any other aircraft in the arsenal. I believe the small fleet just passed 400,000 hours in April. They are a very impressive aircraft indeed and operate in conditions that many of the others in the same "class" just can't match.

And my data point...of all the things I have heard about PC-12s, this thread is the first place I have ever heard anything bad about them...including from the operators I have ridden with. So...I still want one. But only if somebody else will buy it and pay for the operating expenses...just a bit out of my league...


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