PlaneSense Takes Keys to First Pilatus PC-24

The arrival last month of the first customer production Pilatus PC-24 light jet to PlaneSense bumped up the fractional provider’s fleet to 41 aircraft and introduced its first offerings for shares in the new jet. In addition to the PC-24, the Portsmouth, New Hampshire company operates 36 Pilatus PC-12 single-turboprops and four Nextant 400XTIs. PlaneSense, which said it already has sold shares in the PC-24, expressed the desire to receive the other five it’s ordered “as quickly as possible.” The company expects to receive at least two more within the next 12 months and two more next year.

“We’ve been eagerly working toward this moment since the conception of this innovative new jet a decade ago,” said Pilatus CEO Markus Bucher at the PlaneSense delivery ceremony “on behalf of the 2,000 Pilatus employees in Switzerland who successfully designed, built, and certified the best business aircraft in our 80-year company history.”

Pilatus initially conceived designing its first business jet in 2007 after asking its PC-12 customers what they would like in a next-generation aircraft. The responses were concise and consistent: they wanted an aircraft that was “roomier, faster, and longer range, with short-field performance.” The Swiss company originally considered a single-engine jet but soon concluded that only a twin could meet those performance goals.

 Performance and Timing: as Promised 

In 2013, Pilatus announced that the PC-24 would be ready in 2017, and in December it received both FAA and EASA certifications. In addition, the company declared that all performance data promised to customers had been achieved or even exceeded. For example, Pilatus said the PC-24 delivers a maximum speed of 440 knots true airspeed compared to the contractually promised 425 knots.

Pilatus asserts the PC-24 is designed to operate from short, paved, and even unpaved surfaces, “giving pilots access to more than 20,000 airports worldwide.” The company supports these claims with the following specifications: An ISA BFL at max weight, sea level and on dry paved runway of 2,810 feet; Landing distance over a 50-foot obstacle, max landing weight, sea level and paved runway of 2,355 feet.; max rate of climb 4,151 fpm; four-passenger range at LRC setting and NBAA IFR reserves of 2,035 nm; and a stall speed at MLW in landing configuration of 81 kias. 

When the order book for the PC-24 was opened in 2013, two years before the first flight, Pilatus said it sold the first 84 units in less than an hour, after which the order book was closed. Because those orders would represent more than two years of production, Pilatus chose to temporarily stop sales because it did not want customers to have to wait more than two years to take possession of their aircraft. As it is, with 23 deliveries to customers around the world planned throughout this year, the order book may need to stay closed a little while longer.       

The twin-jet airplane arrived at the PlaneSense headquarters with its new FAA registration: N124AF, representing the first PC-24 and following the pattern set when the company received its first PC-12 in 1996: N112AF. Today, N112AF is on a 2013 PC-12. As older airplanes are replaced with newer versions PlaneSense N numbers are transferred accordingly. To date, PlaneSense has taken delivery of more than 60 new PC-12s. George Antoniadis, founder, owner and CEO of PlaneSense, declined to reveal exactly how many shareowners the company has, saying instead that “it’s many many hundreds.”

PlaneSense's Tribute to Alpha Flying                             

As new aircraft receive an N number with the AF suffix, aircraft sold are not re-registered to remove the AF, and are also refurbished to replace all other PlaneSense interior and exterior distinctions. In a sentimental gestures, the AF designation on all PlaneSense aircraft is Antoniadis’ tribute to Alpha Flying—the aircraft management company he owned before it morphed into PlaneSense. Antoniadis is clearly proud of his former company and the use of AF on every airplane is a way to ensure its constant link to PlaneSense.       

Each PlaneSense PC-12 logs some 1,000 hours annually, said Anoniadis, which equates to nearly 350,000 hours annually for the fleet as a whole. Antoniadis noted that last year, the fleet flew 9 million miles, used 840 different airports in 47 states; and carried 3,000-plus passengers, as well as a few wolves and turtles on occasion. More than 95 percent of PlaneSense flights are flown under Part 91K with less than 5 percent operated under Part 135 by sister company Cobalt Air.

After completing FAA requirements for the PC-24 to be added to the fractional fleet, PlaneSense will fly the aircraft on a four-week tour of U.S. and international locations to highlight its capabilities for current and potential fractional aircraft share owners. The aircraft will also be on an “operational” exercise during the tour. 

According to Antoniadis, the jet’s takeoff and landing performance permit it to use runways less than 3,000 feet, such as those at Chatham on Massachusetts's Cape Cod and Stowe in Vermont, for example. However, there are many small airports whose runway length and width are adequate, but they might not have the ramp or turnaround space required for a PC-24-size aircraft. Hence, the operational side of the tour will provide PlaneSense pilots with necessary data for future flight planning.    

“The PC-24 will also demonstrate its versatile short field capability at high altitude airports, such as Telluride in Colorado,” Antoniadis said. He maintains “There will be times when the PC-24 is the only jet that can operate out of some runways.”

Meanwhile, the company’s Nextant 400XTI light jets remain primarily core aircraft for supplemental lift, eventually to be replaced as more of the single-turboprops and PC-24s are acquired and join the PlaneSense fleet.