The first remote pilot certificates were issued by the FAA nearly two years ago. Like a flight instructor certificate, those certificates are now coming due for some training in order to keep them current and allow pilots to continue exercising the privileges of Part 107.

The FAA says if drone and a manned aircraft pilot qualified under Part 61 with a current flight review, the certificate holder can take the recurrent Part 107 knowledge test at a knowledge test center or take the Part 107 Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems recurrent course online.

Certificate holders who do not also possess a Part 61 manned pilot certificate must take the initial or recurrent Part 107 knowledge test at a knowledge test center facility and show their old certificate as well as a government-issued photo ID.

Applicants are urged to review study materials such as the ACS for Unmanned Aircraft Systems, the Knowledge Test Study Guide as well as recently updated Part 107 sample questions.

The post Part 107 Pilots Require Recurrent Training appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

There comes a time in most pilots’ lives when they’re faced with a tough decision: continue renting an airplane from a local flight school or club, or buy one of their own. Maybe there’s a sweet little bird you’ve had your eye on already. You’ve chatted with the insurance agent, you’ve looked into hangar or tie-down costs and you’ve even convinced your spouse that your need for an airplane is as crucial to your survival as the air you breathe.

OK, maybe I exaggerated a bit on that last part, but I remember well when my first airplane called to me at Chicago’s Sky Harbor Airport. It was a 1967 7ECA Citabria — that’s “airbatic” spelled backward — that I stumbled upon sitting all alone in the grass one day. It was love at first sight, despite a few warts here and there, such as a sloppy re-paint job and a couple of worn tires. Now, decades later, I don’t even remember the asking price. What I do recall was the owner asking if I’d be paying cash or financing. That’s when I realized I’d given the money part about as much thought as I might have about paying for a fancy dinner on the first date with the lady of my dreams … almost none at all.

Jumping ahead a few decades, the good news about buying an airplane is that with an abundance of relatively low-interest loan rates and the near-instantaneous communication made possible by the internet, financing an airplane today is a little more complicated than buying a car — but not much.

Buyers can always pay cash, of course. Dave Coleman sells airplanes for Duncan Aviation and offered a peek behind the curtains of the decision process. “Financing can be a bit counterintuitive. As finance rates go up, more people seem to finance. As rates drop, people pay cash, because people with plenty of money don’t need financing. They only finance as part of an overall wealth-management strategy. When rates are low there are fewer places to invest, so people pay cash for their airplane. When rates are high, there are more investment opportunities, so they invest their money and finance their aircraft.”

For many pilots, financing makes the most sense. Funds availability made the decision for Max Spivak to finance his two aircraft. “I looked around online and came to Air Fleet Capital. Their rate was in the low 5 percent range. He remembers searching online for other financing and was offered money, but at “two to three points higher.” Sal Marinello said “the financing stage of his aircraft was not that big a deal and required just three phone calls,” once a friend connected him with a broker he liked.

The key to a successful aircraft loan is making certain you have your ducks in a row before you make the first call to arrange financing. Most brokers Flying spoke with suggested getting preapproved for the loan, an effort that demands a serious look at your personal finances, as well as those of your company if the airplane won’t be personally owned. Arthur Gunn is a CPA in the Chicagoland area and suggests making sure you also have “electronic copies of your last three months’ worth of bank statements, all pages, your W2s and two years of back tax returns.” He said the upfront work made purchasing his 2006 Cirrus SR22 with Dorr Aviation Credit Corporation move smoothly.

Consider the amount of debt you’re already carrying. Wally Zook owns Zook Air, an aircraft finance brokerage company. He said, “Once your personal debt-to-income ratio reaches 32 percent, many banks may simply refuse the loan.” He added that loans of less than $50,000 on an old airplane might receive a thumbs down despite the buyer’s financial picture. “That makes it really difficult for older and experimental aircraft.”

At Air Fleet Capital, President Steve Smestad said, “Generally, the [aircraft] age isn’t an issue, but rather the dollar amount of the loan. We loan as little as $56,000 and work with a bank that will do loans down to $25,000. There are always exceptions.”

Another must have for any lending institution is a prebuy inspection from a reputable shop. Here, reputable means not using the same shop as the seller to prevent any potential bias that could oversee problems that a new owner might want to know about, issues the current owner might have learned to live with, such as a minor oil leak or an engine that’s near TBO, but not yet over the line.

Important, too, is understanding where your credit score fits in the financing decision. Services such as FreeCreditReport.com allow you to view your score, but won’t count the look-see against you. Checking your credit in other ways can actually drag down your score.

Smestad said when financing an airplane, “It’s not like a car loan that’s based only on your credit score.” He said the magic credit score these days “is about 740-760.” But he said his company will look closer at a buyer with a rating in the 600s before saying no to possibly uncover extenuating circumstances that when explained will again make the buyer a good candidate. Smestad said not all lenders will dig deeply into the numbers.

Zook said he’d have trouble finding a bank to finance a purchase if the buyer’s credit score was less than 700. “I know there are banks that will finance deals like this,” he said, “but their fees and rates will be higher.”

Bank or Broker?

A buyer could simply reach out to a local bank and maybe get lucky, but success will probably come quicker through a broker who works with a number of banks. Brokers will normally take the time and offer advice on how to structure a buyer’s paperwork for an approval. Banks often just offer a yes or no decision.

Kaleb Timberlake, a non-pilot for the moment, went with a local bank when he decided to buy an airplane to learn to fly. He says he was surprised by “the affordability of owning an airplane for me to learn in. Until recently, I always thought buying my own airplane was just crazy money and that I could never afford it.”

Timberlake took advantage of personal flying resources: an aunt who happens to be a CFI and many of her contacts in the 99’s when he wanted to buy an airplane to learn in at his local airport, Eagle County Regional (KEGE) in Colorado. He settled on a 200 hp Beechcraft Super Musketeer.

“Now I just needed to pay for it,” he said. “I did look at brokers online who gave me a few preliminaries and their numbers were high.”

On a whim, he walked into his local bank in Eagle and talked to one of the vice presidents. His bank had little experience with airplane loans, but “the vp offered me a 6.9 percent interest rate for seven years with 10 percent down,” he said. Timberlake readily admitted, “I’m aware of how much I don’t know,” so he again reached out to his network and received a positive nod. Up next is the prebuy inspection on the Musketeer.

Banks collect a fee to begin processing a loan, while a broker is paid by the lender itself, a strategy that alters how the lending institution interacts with the buyer. In the case of Air Fleet Capital, Smestad said, “We place most of the business but are always involved for the life of the loan. We underwrite the process ourselves. We’re trying to understand the buyer’s business and how they intend to use the airplane. We want long-term relationships.”

Essentially then, brokers feel free to tell buyers when they believe they’re looking at the wrong airplanes, such as when a current high-performance single-engine owner decides to buy a jet. Most brokers handle the complete underwriting process including running a credit check or reviewing the tax returns. Smestad said the average buyer that comes to Air Fleet Capital already has very good credit, because they’re often entrepreneurs who have earned their credit ratings.

Brokers also run their own history checks on aircraft, searching for potential damage that might kill deals when presented to banks. Smestad recalled a deal when his company knew more about the damage history of an airplane than the buyer. The seller had told the buyer the airplane had a little hangar rash, which turned out to be evidence of a gear-up landing in Air Fleet’s search.

Zook remembered when a title search turned up a lien that, although paid off, had never been released by the lending institution. In another case, he found logbooks that somehow missed a prop strike that should have resulted in an engine tear down that was never performed. His client decided against the aircraft.

When an aircraft has been damaged, a broker wants “to know who repaired the aircraft,” Zook said. “Was it a reputable firm or Joe Baga Donuts working under a shady tree?” Brokers also work on your behalf to fix problems such as missing logbooks that can reduce the aircraft’s market value, sometimes considerably.

What’s the Interest Rate?

In March 2019, rates were running from the high 4 percent range to the low 6 percents. Rates can vary by aircraft type, age, how it will be used and the amount of the down payment. Most aircraft loans are amortized for 20 years, except in some heavy-use scenarios. A single-engine airplane purchased to lease back to a flight school that might clock 100 hours a month can only be had for a larger down payment and often a shorter amortization schedule.

Zook and Smestad agreed that being preapproved before beginning the search for an airplane produces the best results. “This makes it easier for a buyer to shop with confidence,” Smestad said, since that approval is good for up to 90 days. When the buyer locates the right aircraft, all that’s needed are photos of the airplane and copies of the logbooks. Zook said with this information in hand, he can often get a final approval within 48 hours.

Liquidity is important to closing any deal because financing is a bit like going to a baseball game. The ticket, or the down payment in this case, just gets you started. You still have to buy the hot dogs and popcorn and a beverage. If you have only enough money to meet the down payment but nothing to fall back on, that can be a problem down the road. It costs money to operate an airplane and some brokers want to see a year’s worth of expenses in the bank before they’ll say yes.

Closing is the time when the money is transferred to the seller and the FAA documents are signed. This can happen in as little as a week or take as long as 45 days. The closing is often handled through an escrow agent based in Oklahoma City because the FAA’s Public Document room is based there.

Escrow agents are the final link in the chain because they can walk to the other side of the PD room and file the necessary bills of sale and registration applications, not just to allow the buyers to prove they own the aircraft, but also to record banks’ security interest in them. The buyer and the seller usually split the cost of the escrow agent, a fee normally based on the amount of the money being transferred.

Worth noting from Dave Coleman, “I have had deals delayed for as much as a week or so due to the buyer not having worked out the details with the bank in advance. Even when it is all planned, I have had a banker go on vacation without giving authorization to send money to escrow.”

Where closings once meant stacks of paper moving around the country in FedEx envelopes, Smestad said most documentation is handled electronically with tools such as Doc-U-Sign. To make a financing deal work, he suggests working with brokers who really know what they’re doing, the experts in the industry. “If you call a broker and you have poor credit, but the broker says, ‘We can do it but we need a thousand bucks up front,’ don’t do it. A reputable broker doesn’t ask for upfront money,” Zook said.

Buyers should demand a firm commitment letter from a lending institution before giving them any money. “We’ve had customers work with local banks that turned out not to know what they were doing, a process that really frustrates the buyer,” Smestad said. “Dealing with true aircraft finance professionals can save customers a lot of money and time.”

The post How to Pay for an Airplane appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

When I began learning to fly a few decades ago, I really thought takeoffs were one of the easiest parts of the training. First, I’d line up the old orange Champ on the Runway 22 centerline at Willard Airport (KCMI) in Champaign County, Illinois, and run the throttle all the way up and release those pesky heel brakes. All that remained was to keep the 90 mighty horses under the cowling headed straight down the runway for 20 seconds or so until, whoosh, I was airborne. Emergencies and loss of control during takeoff—never heard of them. I must have met the standard at the time because my instructor OK’d my performance.

New-pilot education has improved significantly, following big pushes from the FAA and instructor organizations such as the Society of Aviation and Flight Educators and the National Association of Flight Instructors—as well as private companies creating content that asks and answers the tough questions that begin with “What if…?” Today, the airman certification standards say a new pilot’s takeoff planning should focus on “satisfactory knowledge, risk management and skills associated with a normal takeoff, climb operations and rejected-takeoff procedures,” as well as how they vary with changes to the environment. Effective training includes telling pilots the truth about the potential dangers waiting for the unprepared on takeoff, such as what to do if the engine quits when you’re 500 feet in the air. Do you land straight ahead, turn back to the airport, or plant it on that side street just off the end of the runway? Any successful return demands maintaining control of the airplane all the way back to the ground.

The National Transportation Safety Board reported that approximately 26 percent of fatalities in 2018 occurred during takeoff, enough to warrant serious attention, according to the 30th Nall Report from the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association’s Air Safety Institute—which also showed a negligible change in total takeoff accidents to 111 from the 113 noted in the 2017 report, along with a slight uptick in fatalities from 21 to 23. The report tied four of those fatal accidents to loss of control, 14 to stalls and three to configuration issues, such as having the flaps set improperly.

For too many years, instructors spoke of engine failure as the powerplant sputtering out completely, but it turns out that’s not the major concern. The Australian Transport Safety Bureau says in its article “Avoidable Accidents No. 3,” “During and after takeoff, a partial power loss is three times more likely in today’s light single-engine aircraft than a complete engine failure.” Mike Busch, founder and CEO of Savvy Aviation, a maintenance company for owner-flown aircraft says: “It’s a lot more common to lose power in one cylinder than to lose all engine power. When you lose power in one cylinder—either because a head separates or a fuel injector clogs up—the engine continues to run and produce power. But it runs very rough, and it’s very scary.”

The FAA says approximately 90 percent of all NTSB reportable engine failures are actually the result of fuel exhaustion or starvation. If pilots manage and monitor their fuel flow, the chances of an engine failure are extraordinarily low. The monitoring begins before takeoff with a thorough review of the before-takeoff checklist. The reality is, if engine manifold pressure dropped 4 inches just a few seconds after takeoff power was set in a Bonanza, most pilots wouldn’t have realized anything had even occurred. What else are they missing?

Intellectually curious pilots have probably noticed how few airline or bizjet crews become accident statistics during takeoff. One reason is that they’re better trained, often in full-motion simulators capable of re-creating life-threatening scenarios for practice. The pilots are also usually more experienced. The aircraft they normally operate are mostly powered by more-reliable turbine engines. An important note when we look at how the pros train is to take a commonsense look at takeoff briefings that cover some of those “what ifs,” to which many GA pilots give little thought.

The PIC of a transport-category jet often begins the takeoff brief while the aircraft is still sitting at the gate, to be sure the other pilot understands the next move from a “here’s what I’m planning to do if…” perspective. Saying it all aloud confirms a few of the potential moves ahead and simplifies what the nonflying pilot can expect during takeoff should a problem pop up. The pros understand that trying to think clearly when an emergency strikes at 300 feet agl is always tough, but again, that’s why they train constantly. In a GA airplane, an engine issue at that altitude probably gives the pilot at most 30 seconds until impact—and far less if they’re completely startled by the situation.

Here’s one example: The pilot of the Beech Sierra recalled that the airplane began to sink shortly after takeoff. He retracted the flaps at 200 feet and began a turn back toward the runway as the aircraft began to vibrate and lose power. The pilot leveled the wings just before the aircraft first struck the roof of a nearby factory building, then fell to the ground, hitting five parked cars. The post-accident fire consumed most of the aircraft. The pilot was seriously injured, and the one passenger on board died. The NTSB determined that a mechanical issue caused the power failure but focused on the pilot’s decision to turn around at an altitude insufficient to complete the turn, as well as his failure to maintain control of the aircraft.

Training, Training and More Training

While the ACS outlines the areas of pilot responsibility during takeoff, the devil really lies in the details of the training the pilot receives. An instructor can only teach topics they themselves understand. A new CFI probably knows little about how a professional crew plans their takeoffs, so the instructor might not give the topic much thought beyond how they were trained.

A step in the right educational direction for everyone occurred in 2018, when the FAA updated Advisory Circular 61-83J, “Nationally Scheduled, FAA-Approved, Industry-Conducted Flight-Instructor Refresher Course,” to reflect the topics that should be covered about loss of power at takeoff during a CFI’s recurrent training course. Instructors are now required to spend time discussing pilot decision-making following a loss of power. Should the pilot land on the remaining runway, if there is any, or simply accept that the airplane’s going down straight ahead?

The new AC adds a new topic to the mix: Can (and should) the pilot safely conduct a 180-degree turn and try to put the airplane back down on the runway safely? Under certain conditions, the pilot and airplane might make it back without harm, but flight-instructor refresher clinics still reinforce the notion that, most of the time, the best move following a loss of power during takeoff is to land straight ahead. The reason is simple: Too many pilots lose control of the airplane trying to execute a steep turn after takeoff, especially if they’ve never tried it before the engine coughs.

Thinking about how or where to put down an airplane following a loss of power does not come naturally. Thomas Turner, executive director of the American Bonanza Society’s Air Safety Foundation, explains why. “The checklists in the pilot’s operating handbook essentially address the airplane’s hardware,” he says. For example: Do the mags check OK? Does fuel flow seem normal? “What we’re trying to do is look at the software [human] side of flying, especially for pilots who are technically current.”

Turner has been teaching a new thought-jogging acronym, “TENE,” to call attention to the facts beyond the printed checklist that pilots should check before takeoff. “The T represents ‘threats,’” Turner says. “Perhaps the pilot is facing a slushy runway today—or very gusty winds or perhaps a low IFR ceiling.” It’s about how to prepare for events that will affect the takeoff. “The first E is for ‘expectations.’ How many actual feet of runway will I use for takeoff under the current conditions? If I advance the throttle, how many inches of manifold pressure, or what rpm and fuel flow, should I expect?”

Turner says he’s frequently surprised by how little some pilots know of the engine parameters or runway distances to expect on takeoff. Turner reminds pilots of the basic takeoff rule of thumb before they begin their roll: “The airplane should achieve 70 percent of its liftoff speed by 50 percent of the ground-roll distance.”

Next up, “the N is for ‘normal’ and covers the standard topics for departures—which way to turn if it’s a VFR pattern or a SID that mentions climbing to 500 feet before making any turns or proceeding straight out. If the climb’s at VX, what is that speed in knots?” Finally, there’s the second E for “emergencies.” Turner impresses upon the pilots he trains the importance of knowing just how quickly the airspeed will drop after a power loss if the pilot doesn’t immediately pitch down the nose to maintain flying speed. This kind of failure often ends in a loss of control.

All of these reminders are one more reason that pilots should demand challenging instructors during any refresher training—especially because a standard check ride demands performance to only a set of minimum standards. So, what are any pilot’s chances of success if a takeoff emergency someday demands more than minimal skills? The best instructors safely deliver content and practice on multiple options during takeoff.

If the 180-degree turn has never before crossed your mind, realize that success is just as much about skill as it is about knowledge of how the manufacturer claims the aircraft should perform. The best way to understand an airplane’s capabilities is to conduct some airplane-specific research at a safe altitude and track the data. Better to learn what your airplane is capable of ahead of time than to wait until the engine quits. Overall, the good safety news is that thousands of pilots have begun questioning their training providers because they’ve become hungry for better answers to the tough questions. That’s why training programs offered by experienced in-type instructors at the American Bonanza Society, the Cirrus Owners and Pilots Association, and other type-specific groups have found such wide acceptance.

During a September 2020 EAA webinar, “So You Think You Can Make a 180 Back on Takeoff?,” a panel of experts dug deeply into the thinking behind what it might take to successfully complete a turn back after a loss of power, even though the maneuver is not used all that often. The group emphasized the FAA’s perspective that landing straight ahead is usually best, but still, the panel spoke frankly about the idea of another option. A pair of the panel’s participants, software developer and pilot Rick Marshall and former astronaut Charlie Precourt—now a member of the EAA’s board of directors—highlighted a potential app for pre-takeoff advisory that Marshall began working on last year aimed at answering the big question: “Is my aircraft capable of making a 180 back after a power failure today, and if so, how would I successfully perform the maneuver?”

Marshall’s efforts first emerged from simple curiosity. He thought, “Would there be value to a magic preflight planning tool that could tell a pilot if, under the current weather and runway conditions, their airplane could make it back to the runway.” He calls his not-ready-for-prime-time app Takeoff Advisor. Another benefit to knowing how well a particular airplane performed on a turn back is that pilots could know which ones did not do so well, reinforcing the idea to never even attempt such a risky maneuver.

Marshall and Precourt explained the only way to know for certain how an airplane might perform is to gather actual data—again, at a safe altitude. Marshall began recording his Cherokee’s climb performance under a variety of density altitudes and weights using ForeFlight connected to a Stratus ADS-B receiver. He later downloaded the data and superimposed it on maps from Google Earth. He confirmed that headwinds alter the results quite a bit, because as the aircraft turns downwind, groundspeed increases significantly. The data also prepares the pilot for another option—landing straight ahead—because that same headwind would translate into a much slower groundspeed and hopefully milder injuries to everyone aboard.

Marshall’s research included questions such as, “Will I lose more altitude in a 45-degree bank than a 30-degree bank?” The answer is yes. But Marshall also learned that, in his PA-28, the aircraft is actually turning for a shorter period of time than with a 30-degree bank, so the overall results were about the same. The 30-degree bank lowers the overall risk of the maneuver because of the increase to the stall speed during the turn at the higher angle of bank. Marshall is still hard at work on Takeoff Advisor and added, “Every CFI I’ve ever [shown] my idea to asks me if I’ve ever practiced dead-stick landings,” meaning it’s one thing to know mathematically this process will work, but it’s still important to have a Plan B at takeoff. Precourt said, “The only way to deal with the potential for panic [during a takeoff emergency] is to train, train, train.”

A variety of issues can clog a pilot’s brain when an engine loses power during takeoff. Some pilots become paralyzed when they realize they have just seconds to solve the problem. The FAA’s Airplane Flying Handbook says that while “fear during a takeoff emergency is understandable, uncontrolled fear can lead to a disaster. The success of an emergency landing is as much a matter of the mind as of skills. Survival records favor pilots who maintain their composure and know how to apply the general concepts and procedures they’ve learned through the years. An unconscious desire to delay the dreaded moment may lead to a failure to lower the nose to maintain flying speed, delay in the selection of the most suitable landing area within reach, or indecision in general. Desperate attempts to correct whatever went wrong at the expense of airplane control fall into the same category.”

Some topics are easier to consider before takeoff, such as the dreaded fear of wrecking the airplane following a bad decision. The Pilot’s Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge says, “The desire to save the airplane, regardless of the risks involved, may be influenced by two other factors: the pilot’s financial stake in the airplane and the certainty that an undamaged airplane implies no bodily harm.” The pilot’s only job after a loss of power is to put the aircraft down on the ground safely enough so that everyone on board can walk away. Airplanes are insured for a reason. Broken airplanes can usually be repaired. People aren’t so easily fixed.

One important caveat to takeoff-emergency decisions—growing larger every year—is, what about aircraft equipped with ballistic parachutes such as the Cirrus or Texas Aircraft Colt? Both aircraft offer additional options the PIC should be thinking about long before they push in the throttle. Like most other instructors, Cirrus Standardized Instructor Pilots teach pilots to land straight ahead if a loss of power occurs at less than 600 feet agl. Above that altitude, in general, CSIPs train pilots to pull the chute and not attempt a 180-degree turn back to the runway, unless a lot of altitude exists. The Texas Colt instructors tell their pilots the parachute option really isn’t viable below 1,000 feet agl.

Cyrus Javadi, Cirrus pilot and COPA member from Oregon, says: “If you pull the chute [in a Cirrus], you probably live. The insurance company gets a broken plane. You eventually get a new ride. I can see why someone might hesitate if they didn’t have a chute and they knew they couldn’t land straight ahead, but I can’t understand why someone would risk their life to save a plastic traveling machine that is insured. Just pull the chute.”

In a 1994 training session at the US Naval Academy, David F. Rogers, who earned a Ph.D. in aeronautical and astronautical engineering, offered pilots hope—but it might have sounded like a challenge to some. “Although the turn-back maneuver is a high-performance edge of the envelope maneuver, there is good evidence that a well-trained pilot is capable of successfully performing it.” However, “a pilot should not attempt to turn back to the airfield unless the procedure has been practiced at a safe altitude and the minimum turn-back altitude for the combination of their ability and skill is known.” In other words, if you’ve never practiced, don’t even consider a 180-degree turn back to the runway in your takeoff plan. Land straight ahead, and you’re much more likely to walk away from the wreck with just a few cuts and bruises. The key is to know about your options before takeoff.

Avoiding Takeoff Emergencies

As that famous Swiss-cheese model reminds us, it’s often a host of small issues that go unnoticed that lead to a full-blown crisis in the cockpit. Before you push in that throttle, here are a few tips to ensure that your takeoffs lead to smooth flights.

• Don’t simply read the before-takeoff checklist; make sure you’ve accomplished the required tasks.

• Recheck that the tank chosen for takeoff contains sufficient fuel.

• Check that the backup fuel pump is on if the aircraft requires it for takeoff.

• Recheck that takeoff flaps are properly set.

• How many inches of manifold pressure and/or what rpm should the engine deliver during the takeoff roll?

• Don’t accept an intersection departure that leaves valuable runway behind you.

• Note the distance (in feet) of your upcoming ground roll.

• Highlight the intersection where the aircraft should break ground.

• If you’re not airborne by the highlighted spot, do you have enough remaining runway to stop?

• Have you surveyed the area off the departure end of the runway for potential landing spots?

• If you’ve never practiced making a 180-degree turn back after a loss of power, don’t make today the day to try one.

• If you’re forced into an off-airport landing, your job is to protect the people on board—the airplane’s insured.

This story appeared in the April/May 2021 issue of Flying Magazine

The post How to Minimize Risk During Takeoff appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

I think I called it an airborne Chevy Suburban. Pilatus chief pilot Jed Johnson offered a more descriptive tag line when I was in Broomfield, Colorado, for a December 2019 visit to Pilatus Business Aircraft, calling it a “turbine Suburban.”

Pilatus PC-12 NGX at a Glance

No matter what nickname you give it, the PC-12 is famous for being able to haul a couple of Harleys and a few passengers out to a dirt strip and back. In fact, Pilatus specifically designed the PC-12 with a T-tail to make using a forklift possible while loading cargo through that big aft door. Johnson said, originally, Pilatus just saw the airplane as a robust utility, cargo and military airplane that was only later transformed into a luxury vehicle. Pilatus vice president of marketing Tom Aniello said it was actually the dealers who saw the potential for the PC-12 once the interior was spiffed up.

With 1,750 PC-12s built to date, new NGX owners—about 10 percent of whom will operate it single pilot—can carry a 2,000-pound load on a 3½-hour IFR flight with reserves and feel as though they were operating a light jet, except for the NGX’s 290-knot top speed. Adding to the airplane’s own capabilities is the venerable Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6 powerplant, which already has about 8 million flight hours under its belt, and Honeywell’s proven Epic avionics system.

Today, single-engine turboprops are almost commonplace with Daher’s TBM series, Piper’s M350, M500 and M600, and Cessna’s Caravan in addition to the PC-12. None can carry the load of the PC-12 except the Caravan, which is 100 knots slower. Only the Cessna Denali still in development might give the PC-12 a run for its money. Aniello mentioned that possibility but quickly added that the fact alone that Textron is building a PC-12 clone adds credibility to the role played by Pilatus’ airplane that’s been flying for a couple of decades.

What Happens in Vegas Is No Secret

Pilatus kept development of the new NGX under wraps until the official unveiling at the National Business Aviation Association’s Business Aviation Convention & Exhibition in Las Vegas in October 2019, with EASA and FAA certification already in hand. “The NGX includes the biggest package of updates at a serial number that we’ve ever seen,” Aniello said. The NGX comes standard with a Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6E-67XP with full authority digital engine control—a first for a single-engine turboprop—that includes an autothrottle and 10 percent more usable horsepower.

In the cockpit, pilots will find updated Honeywell Epic avionics that include four 10.4-inch high-resolution screens and greater processing power. Pilatus brands their cockpit as the Advanced Cockpit Environment. The cabin windows—10 percent larger than previous models—significantly increase the amount of ambient light flooding the cabin. The cabin also includes a new air-distribution system, better lighting, heating and cooling, and significantly increased maintenance intervals to reduce operating costs. BMW Designworks created more-comfortable seating reminiscent of that automaker’s ground-based products.

Johnson told me: “Putting a fadec on the PT6 is much more complicated than on a jet because of the need to control the prop. But you also need the avionics to take advantage of the autothrottle. With [the fadec], we can now operate the engine closer to its margins for better performance.” For those who worry about the effects of electrical failures, Johnson said, “If every single electrical bus on the airplane died, you’d still have backup instruments and engine control thanks to a backup permanent- magnet alternator available just to run the fadec.”

Sitting next to the PC-24 at the Pilatus booth, the shell of the PC-12 NGX physically looked like the Model 10 I’d flown more than a decade earlier. But the outside surface of the NGX seemed to glisten. I couldn’t explain why I felt I was looking at something special with the NGX, at least not at first. Eventually, I realized it was a bit of a déjà vu moment taking me back to my high school years when the coolest muscle cars on the planet not only were capable of burning rubber at the change of a traffic light but also sported paint jobs that made them stand out from 50 feet away. We called those specialty paints “candy apple,” a mix of rich, bold colors that seemed to include a pinch of glitter.

I asked Aniello what Pilatus had done with serial number 2001, the first NGX, to create an iridescent blue scheme with a variety of brilliant accent colors. He matter-of-factly mentioned that the company was using an entirely new color palette with eye-catching Alumigrip paints that made the airplane sparkle, with names such as Titanium Silver, Silver Lake Bentley (a lighter blue), Blue Met and Snow White.

The airplane was so packed with potential buyers in Las Vegas, my first opportunity to climb aboard came during my visit to the US Completions Facility in Broomfield, Colorado (KBJC), a few months after the show, when Aniello and Johnson brought me up to speed on what was really hiding beneath the NGX’s cool paint scheme. All aircraft bound for North or South America—about 60 to 70 percent of Pilatus production—pass through Broomfield. Aniello added that all the 2020 NGX airplanes are sold. Reflecting the solid pricing stability of the PC-12 over the years, Aniello said: “The biggest impediment to selling a new PC-12…is a used PC-12. But that’s what drives us to continually improve and innovate.” Pilatus is currently building about 80 to 85 NGXs each year with a new one selling for $5.39 million, about $300,000 more than the NG.

Aniello said new NGX customers come from the ranks of Bonanza and Cirrus owners, PC-12 operators ready to upgrade to the new aircraft, and government and fleet operators. Speaking to the new features, Aniello said the quick-release, fully reclining seats are somewhat narrower but certainly taller than the originals, and they have been redesigned to make it easy to switch them out when the demand for cargo space outweighs the need to carry passengers. Each of the old seats was held in place by four bolts and required a mechanic to change out. No longer. The natural European leather covering is highlighted by pragmatic features such as new optional footrests. There’s a ground-serviceable toilet near the cockpit.

The NGX cockpit comes with a profile button like the seats in many new cars, so each pilot can customize and return the cockpit displays to just the way they like them. The NGX comes with a massive envelope, capable of carrying 400 pounds of cargo plus a 1,000-pound pallet with one pilot aboard and still remaining safely within in the limits of the CG.

NGX pilots will like the single-lever power control that eliminates the need for fussing again with the propeller, while the fadec completely automates an engine start. The new engine monitors at least 100 channels of data that help eliminate the wild-guess operating margins of the past. High-time operators will love that the all-new engine monitoring helps Pratt & Whitney increase the engine’s overhaul time from 3,500 to 5,000 hours, with a 600-hour interval between maintenance inspections. Because the NGX’s fuel passes through an oil-to-fuel heat exchanger, there’s no longer a need to add Prist to the mix on the new aircraft. Unbutton the cowling, and operators will find that most mechanical linkages to the PT6 have been eliminated, which also means adios to many possible failure points. All owners are now enrolled in the Pratt & Whitney ESP Platinum service program for the new E-series engines that covers just about any possible problem. That enrollment should also prove its value with an accurate history of the airplane when used NGXs go on the market one day.

Additional NGX items include TCAS II with resolution advisories, data link and an emergency-descent mode. The emergency-descent mode requires the autopilot to be on and helps protect not only against rapid decompression—that seldom occurs—but also the slow onset of pressure problems that are more of a concern. When the aircraft is above 20,000 feet and the cabin reaches its limit of 10,500 feet, the EDM restricts the throttle, turns the airplane 90 degrees, and accelerates to VMO until reaching a breathable 15,000 feet. Because the airplane knows where it is at all times, it won’t simply dump the airplane into any nearby peaks.

The TCAS identifies nearby aircraft and color-codes them green, brown or red, highlighting the potential threat level. The NGX also uses a stick shaker-pusher combination to provide flight-envelope protection. The airplane’s flight-guidance panel is now the same as that on the PC-24 jet.

Flying the NGX

Jed Johnson, Tom Aniello and I headed out to fly serial number 2001 the afternoon I arrived in Broomfield because the weather forecasts looked ugly for the following morning, which turned out to be accurate. Our weather for the flight at KBJC turned out to be severe VFR with light winds.

After a walk around, I hopped into the left seat as Jed introduced me to the cockpit and coached me through a start. I found the cockpit light-jet comfortable without being cramped. Cockpit visibility is excellent. Should the NGX’s windshield heat fail, a triangle-shaped, direct-vision window on the left side offers the pilot enough of a view ahead to land. I tried to imagine I was flying the airplane single-pilot as I reached for necessary switches and buttons. The only item not within easy reach was the cockpit voice recorder and the flight-data recorder which are only checked before the first flight of the day.

Pilots of older PC-12s will be in awe at the automated start sequence. Turn on batteries one and two with all buses on, as well as the generators, avionics master and bleed air. Check for 24 volts and turn the engine switch to run. Briefly touch the start button, and once Ng (gas generator rotation speed)climbs above 13 percent, the fadec adds fuel. At 50 percent, the starter kicks out. That’s all there is to it.

Jed added a flight plan to the Epic system to take us to Garden City, Kansas, and ATC cleared us via the Plains One departure to Flight Level 270. The NGX is certified to FL 300. Before I taxied to the 7,000-foot-long Runway 30L at KBJC, the ATIS warned of potential slick spots along the way. There’s an interconnect between the rudder and the ailerons on the NGX, and because the nosewheel is so far in front of the mains, ground steering can take a little time to get used in order to keep the nose gear on the centerline—at least, it took me a few zigzags along the way. The beauty of Epic during taxi is its SmartRunway’s feature, which not only pinpoints the taxiways and runways but also shows ADS-B traffic. Brown targets are on the ground and blue ones are airborne. Most important are the red targets; pilots need to worry about those right now.

With an empty weight of 6,636 pounds, three people and a couple of hours of fuel, N47GX—as the airplane would soon be known after losing its Swiss registration number—weighed about 9,496 pounds. Maximum gross takeoff weight is 10,450 pounds. Jed calculated rotation speed at 78 knots. At the runway lineup, two chimes reminded us the outside air temperature was low enough to demand the probe heat on takeoff. Next came windshield heat and the inertial separator. As I brought the throttle up about halfway, the technology took over throttle movement and stopped once it reached the optimal takeoff power. As light as we were, the airplane demanded less than 2,000 feet of ground run before we were climbing away from the Rocky Mountains. Once the gear was in transit, the airplane climbed quickly through 400 feet agl, and Jed retracted the flaps. I engaged FMS speed, and the Epic selected a speed of 130 knots as I followed the flight director. Once the yaw damper came on, the NGX autotrims the rudder which makes the airplane handle like a jet—something I confirmed because I was hand-flying the aircraft.

Almost immediately, Denver Departure cleared us to 12,000 feet and turned us south toward DIA. A climb to FL 230 quickly followed as the FMS speed called for 140 knots to deliver a climb rate of about 1,600 fpm while burning 518 pounds of fuel per hour. We could have increased the climb rate, but that would have given us a steeper deck angle. For a cruise climb, 140 seemed to work fine.

Passing through FL 180, I engaged the autopilot. Johnson said the NGX uses the same autopilot guts and features as the Embraer 175. Climbing through FL 200, the NGX indicated 126 knots, with a rate of 1,400 fpm on 456 pph. Leaving FL 240, I saw 1,400 fpm on 400 pph. The book said we should be burning 404 pph. That gave us three more flying hours with a reserve. Johnson said a 500-pound reserve is normal, and the minimum he’d feel comfortable landing with in the NGX was 350 pounds, or about 60 gallons. At FL 270, the cabin settled on 7,600 feet.

Along the way to Garden City, Johnson spoke about another Honeywell Epic capability. He said if he lost the engine, but feathered the propeller, he would feel perfectly confident setting up a visual approach with an 8-degree glideslope to a mountain airport at night and letting the autopilot fly the entire procedure down to the ground. That would sure beat the guessing and wandering around the sky most pilots would face after such a failure.

We canceled IFR to maneuver a bit west of KGCK. I flipped off the autopilot but left on the autothrottle. Johnson said within 20 miles of the destination airport and below 5,500 feet the AT will automatically slow the airplane to 150 knots—just right for gear and flaps—within 20 miles of the destination airport and below 5,500 feet. We tried a number of steep turns along the way with banks of 60 degrees in both directions. The NGX’s envelope protection quickly rolled the airplane back to no more than a 30-degree bank every time. The NGX seemed like a graceful airplane without a mean bone in its body.

Johnson suggested we try a visual approach to Garden City and watch the autopilot fly a precise traffic pattern as the VNAV brought us down a 3-degree slope to 500 feet, where I’d punch off the autopilot. Abeam Runway 35 but still away from the airport, I lowered the gear because we were still 4,000 feet agl. Our weight was relatively light, so Johnson suggested flaps at 30 degrees.

The NGX turned itself smartly onto the downwind and the base as it slowed to 110 knots. I confirmed the gear was down and selected flaps 30. The airplane slowed to 100 knots and eventually settled on ref plus 5, or about 85 knots. At 500 agl, I switched off the autopilot. As the radar altimeter counted down from 40, 30, 20, I eased the throttle back and pitched the nose up ever so slightly. The touchdown was nice and smooth. I tried to go easy on the brakes, and despite a little more zigzagging, we cleared the active and taxied into Saker Aviation Services, another PC-12 mission accomplished.

A Little PC-12 History

When Pilatus—then maker of the famous Turbo Porter single-engine STOL aircraft—announced the PC-12 in 1989, it saw the design as a highly efficient workhorse perfect for the utility, cargo and commuter airline, as well as air-ambulance segments. The first PC-12 prototype flew on May 31, 1991, with certification by the Swiss Federal Office of Civil Aviation on March 30, 1994. The FAA’s nod followed on July 15, 1994. Three decades later, it would be tough to look at the more than 1,750 PC-12s produced as anything other than a dream come true.

The PC-12 was certified to Part 23 standards to ensure the aircraft would be marketable in the US. That regulation demands a stall speed no greater than 61 knots: a problem easily solved with the PC-12’s big 70-percent-wingspan Fowler flaps. The PC-12’s wing was machined specifically with the thick pneumatic deicing boots in mind, so they fit flush to the airfoil for minimal drag. The aircraft was the first single-engine turboprop to offer a huge rear cargo door to more easily allow the cabin to swallow thousands of pounds of cargo in a single gulp. Even with six seats in the rear of the original airplane, the cabin offered an aisle wide enough for half a dozen people to move around without climbing over each other. Some critics saw the PC-12’s lack of a stand-up cabin as a drawback, but sales numbers seemed to indicate almost no one cared.

PC-12 updates have included engine and avionics changes to the original PC-12/41 airframe, as well as the Model 12/45 and the 12/47—which, for some unknown reason, became known as the Model 10. Others include the PC-12 Spectre for paramilitary and government operations and the US Air Force version known as the U-28A Draco. Pilatus began offering the model 47E in 2008, which was marketed as the PC-12 NG, the predecessor to the NGX.

This story appeared in the April 2020 issue of Flying Magazine

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What aviation aficionado hasn’t watched the iconic 1986 hit movie Top Gun, the story of Maverick, a US Navy F-14 pilot portrayed by actor Tom Cruise? In an early scene with co-star Anthony Edwards, the pair is walking among a bevy of parked F-14s when Maverick’s overcome with the need to yell, “I feel the need—the need for speed,” in a high-fiving moment of excitement.

Sounds like most pilots, not to mention the people riding along with them. Flying brings great joy to all of us, but it’s also about traveling from one place to another—fast. Business aviation, in fact, is built around the need to turn useless hours on the airlines into productive time spent aboard a GA machine. That’s why pilots upgrade from a Piper Archer to a Beech Bonanza, then to a Baron or single-engine turboprop. Everyone wants to arrive just a little sooner while carrying more people and stuff.

Over the past 40 or 50 years, an entire industry of aftermarket modifications has emerged to squeeze every ounce of performance from airplanes of all sorts, especially for people who still love the airplane they already own or don’t want to spend the cash on a new one. There are often added bonuses to upgrading some airplanes: the increase in overall aircraft value and bringing it closer to the holy grail of modifications—making the airplane perform better than an original OEM machine at a far lower cost. By far, one of the most popular upgrades is switching powerplants.

Blackhawk Aerospace has created its own market for engine upgrades over the past 21 years through a knack for knowing which aircraft are worth the effort. The company has upgraded the engines on Cessna Caravans, the Cessna Conquest II and practically every King Air model Beechcraft ever produced, all using some version of Pratt & Whitney Canada’s venerable PT6 engine. Blackhawk also brokers turboprops of all kinds and offers in-house composite design, prototyping, building and certification services.

The real value behind a Blackhawk product only emerges once a potential customer understands a bit of the company’s origins. The Waco, Texas-based performance-improvement company opened its doors in 1999, not long after founder Jim Allmon left his job with RAM Aircraft. He remembers talking to RAM Aircraft president Jack Riley. “I told him he had an amazing product, but that he should think about taking the company to the next level by doing upgrades to turboprops.” Allmon says Riley didn’t share his enthusiasm. “I decided it was time to go back out on my own, since I’d done it before.” So Allmon started buying and selling aircraft. He eventually ended up owning a local Waco FBO, a maintenance shop and a flight school with his two partners, Matt Shieman and Dale Griffin.

Allmon says the engine modification side of the business really began to take shape almost coincidentally when a friend approached him, suggesting he take an engine upgrade STC on a Cessna Conquest I that was in on trade for another airplane. Four or five months later, Allmon bought the STC. But he had to explain the market for engine upgrades he envisioned to his partners—which Allmon saw as a really big opportunity. “I told them I imagined a contract with Pratt & Whitney to buy new engines to manage this STC. I saw the PT6 as pretty much the plug-and-play engine.”

Both of his partners were CPAs and pretty financially conservative, Allmon says. “Both of them said they weren’t interested. ‘Show us a company out there doing this kind of thing.’” There wasn’t any company like Allmon was suggesting. Because he’s not the kind of guy to take no for an answer, Allmon said to them, “I believe in this idea and vision so much that I’ll sell you my stock in this company we have together and go out and do this on my own.” A move like that would have left his partners in charge of the FBO, shop and flight school—a proposition they weren’t all that thrilled about—so they agreed to give his idea a try. “It’s been a great partnership ever since,” Allmon says. To date, Blackhawk has purchased some 1,800 PT6 engines for aircraft-modification work. The company doesn’t handle all of the physical work in Waco, relying on a number of dealers such as Stevens Aerospace, Elliott Aviation, Ballard Aviation, Silverhawk Aviation and Textron Aviation to handle some of the load.

Blackhawk’s latest package—the XP67A upgrade—swaps a stock King Air 350′s 1,060 shaft horsepower P&W PT6A-60As for 67As and replaces the standard four-blade Hartzell metal props with German-made five-bladed MT composite propellers. The upgraded engines are derated from 1,800 shp to 1,200 shp yet increase available horsepower on the modified airplane by 24 percent, allowing them to maintain rated power to the rarefied flight levels that produce much faster climb rates and higher cruising speeds.

Company-provided background material claims a modified King Air 350 is capable of a 60 percent increase in climb rate, a cruise speed of at least 332 ktas and a 62 percent increase in payload. The upgraded engines also carry an increased Pratt & Whitney warranty good for 3,600 hours. When it comes time to decide whether to modify, Pratt & Whitney offers a nudge in the form of engine core credits of up to $70 per hour per engine for every hour remaining up to the factory TBO. Blackhawk says operators flying at least 500 hours per year will experience a savings of $90,000 in annual operating costs. The company website claims, “Nearly every Blackhawk-powered aircraft sold within 500 hours of the upgrade recovered close to or more than the combined investment of the airframe and engines.”

Edwin Black, the company’s senior vice president of sale and marketing, answered some of the other questions often on the minds of stock 350 owners. “The price range [for the 67A upgrade] will vary depending on core-engine status. If you were on the [Eagle Service] plan from Pratt, the cost to upgrade can be as low as the $800,000 range. We have had 10 operators on ESP upgrade so far. If you are not on the ESP and the engines are timed out, a ballpark estimate is in the $1.8 million range (exchange). This compared to a typical overhaul cost of $800,000 for the first run, $1 million for the second run, and we have even seen three third-run overhauls in the $1.5 million range (for both engines). Point being: Never risk overhauling a third-run engine. And our price includes two new MT five-blade props.” Blackhawk says the time it takes to modify a King Air 350 with the 67A package runs about 2 to 3 weeks (10 to 15 working days).

Putting XP67A Through Its Paces

We recently had an opportunity to put a modified King Air 350 to the test for an up-close look at the 67A modification. Paul Armstrong, general manager of SkyWest Aviation—also an A&P with inspection authorization—flew a King Air 350 up from Waco, Texas, and met me at Signature Flight Support at Chicago Executive Airport (KPWK). SkyWest Aviation operates N333HC for its owners.

N333HC was built in 2000, some 18 years before the then-owner made the decision to purchase the XP67A upgrade. Because the airplane arrived for the Blackhawk modification with a Garmin G1000 package, the upgrade also required turning the avionics into the Garmin NXi to ensure compatibility with the engines. The aircraft was also modified earlier with the CenTex fuel tanks.

Stepping into the cockpit of this King Air 350 was like a trip back in time because Beechcraft didn’t change much on its popular turboprop. Even relatively new, the airplane’s panel was still adorned with analog dials and toggle switches. The only clue you were inside an airplane built in the 21st century were those Garmin G1000 avionics. As Armstrong and I taxied to Runway 16 at KPWK, I noted the outside air temperature was at 32 degrees Celsius, or roughly 90 degrees Fahrenheit. There were three of us on board, including Blackhawk’s chief pilot Chris Duncan and about 1,250 pounds of fuel per side. The CenTex saddle tanks were empty. We calculated our takeoff weight at 12,470 pounds, about 2,500 pounds under maximum gross takeoff weight. With an empty weight of approximately 9,955 pounds and a useful load of 5,145 pounds, this airplane carries full fuel and still has room for 1,534 pounds of people and bags.

One reason there’s really no training needed after a Blackhawk upgrade is that all the standard takeoff and landing numbers remain the same; only the engine operating parameters change, keeping in mind that single-engine performance up high improves significantly. Blackhawk provides a complete flight-manual supplement highlighting the new cruise and single-engine performance. One item of note for longtime King Air pilots using the new propellers is the elimination of the low-pitch propeller stops. In the stock 350, weight on wheels makes the props automatically flatten out. Armstrong said one annoying issue was that the original props didn’t always change pitch at exactly the same moment, resulting in the airplane often wigwagging down the runway on landing. Now, the props change in a coordinated fashion on landing.

We filed an IFR flight plan northeast toward Traverse City, Michigan, to allow time to climb and evaluate the aircraft, but the lengthy segment turned out to be unnecessary because the airplane climbed so quickly. Remember, we were light. On takeoff, torque came up to about 80 to 90 percent with the propellers set to 1,700 rpm, knowing torque would eventually rise as we began the roll. By rotation, the engines were set at 100 percent. Once the gear disappeared, we pulled the props back to 1,600 rpm.

For demonstration purposes, Armstrong suggested an airspeed of 140 kias which translated into a deck angle of 10 to 11 degrees and a climb rate close to 4,000 fpm. He said he normally uses 160 kias for a deck angle near 7 degrees, which is a little more comfortable for people in back and for keeping an eye out for traffic, even though we were snuggly ensconced in the Chicago Class B airspace. The outside temperatures were quite a bit higher than ISA that day as we climbed toward 14,000 feet msl. I watched as the interstage turbine temperatures slowly began inching toward the magic 840-degree limit. Chicago Center briefly stopped us at 15,000 and turned us northwest toward Milwaukee before letting us continue to 17,000 feet.

Just to make things interesting, Armstrong pulled back the left throttle to idle to demonstrate single-engine climb performance, though we didn’t actually feather the prop. The OAT was ISA+18, and we were now cleared to FL 230. As we initially slowed to 140 kias, the rate of climb remained steady at 1,500 fpm. Armstrong said his preferred single-engine climb speed was 125 kias. As he let the aircraft seek that number, the climb rate eventually slowed to 1,200 fpm and stayed put through FL 220. “I can go practically anywhere in the US, and this airplane will climb on one engine,” he said. Think about that when you lose an engine in most other twins, especially if there’s ice or mountains hiding inside the clouds.

Diving into the updated aircraft flight manual, the data showed that at our weight, the aircraft would have continued on one engine up to FL 260. At maximum gross weight and ISA+20C, we could have made FL 240. Though the book shows no numbers above 24,000, Armstrong said, “I could fly it to 28,000 feet with just one [air-conditioning] pack” to maintain cabin pressurization. The King Air 350′s cabin rises to 10,000 feet once the airplane reaches its service ceiling of FL 350.

We added back the good engine as we headed to FL 290, our final altitude. Armstrong said, “Flight Level 280 to 290 is really the sweet spot with this airplane.” The ITTs remained steady at just under 820 degrees. “Although this airplane will run all day long at the maximum ITT of 840 degrees, I don’t run my engines too hard. I like 817 ITT in cruise. My rule is to run them 20 degrees shy of max unless I need it,” even though he says he won’t push them above 835 degrees, except in an emergency. “On a standard day, this airplane will average 2,500 fpm to FL 300,” he added.

Leaving FL 270, the airplane was climbing at 1,650 fpm. Once we reached FL 290, we let the airplane accelerate for about five or six minutes before pulling the propellers back to the standard cruise rpm of 1,500. It didn’t take long before I saw 333 knots of true airspeed. On a flight up high, say FL 320 or above, Armstrong regularly plans a fuel burn of 800 pounds the first hour and 700 for the second and third. The book says that at this same altitude on an ISA+20 day, but with the aircraft at max gross weight, cruise speed will slow to about 294 kias.

What Pilots Are Saying

Daniel Blazer and his dad both fly their Blackhawk 67A-modified King Air 350 in support of their retail and wholesale food company, as well as to keep an eye on their fleet of container ships. They’ll sometimes operate the airplane single-pilot and, at other times, with two pilots up front on trips that include legs between Atlanta and St. Petersburg, Florida (400 nm), and to ports along both coasts of Mexico (1,000 to 1,500 nm).

“We’ve owned a number of King Air 350s with the 60A engines on them,” Daniel says. When they began thinking about upgrading one of them—a 2012 airframe equipped with Garmin G1000 avionics—a deciding factor turned out to be Pratt & Whitney’s willingness to negotiate on core time as the engines neared another hot section, a strategy probably made easier by the airplane’s ongoing enrollment in Pratt’s ESP Gold program. The Blazers were one of the first to purchase the newest Blackhawk upgrade, and they used Elliott Aviation in Moline, Illinois, for the work, including upgrading their Garmin panel to the NXi version.

With a couple hundred hours logged on the new airplane, Daniel Blazer says: “This airplane climbs really nice through the mid-20s. The stock 350 started slowing just leaving 10,000 feet. Now we’re often climbing at 1,500 fpm up to the 30s where the fuel flows are running about 640 pounds total per hour. On the old airplane, we never cruised too high and often had to run the engine ice, which slowed us down even more. Now, we just use the engine anti-ice to climb through the weather. In cruise, there’s probably a 40-knot difference between the old airplane and the Blackhawk version.” Anything he wishes he could add to the Blackhawk upgrade? “The MT props don’t connect into the Beechcraft active sound-management system. It would be nice to figure out a way to make that work. But there’s nothing else really…except maybe I wish it would go a little faster.”

Paul Armstrong says the company for which he flies N333HC “was originally looking at [a Cessna Citation] CJ3+ for 1,800-mile trips. But some of our destinations require [that we operate out of] hot, high and short runways, and I was worried we might have performance issues in the mountains. In the [Blackhawk King Air], I can fill the tanks and take eight people out of 4,000-foot strips. It’s a monster as far as what it will haul. Jets cost two to three times more, and we’d only gain about 12 minutes an hour on a two-hour trip. This airplane with the 67As is like a whole new animal. Now we don’t need a jet. This is the most amazing plane I’ve ever flown. It really does what they say it will.”

This story appeared in the October 2020 issue of Flying Magazine

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SIMCOM holdings Inc. will soon join Directional Aviation’s family of private business aviation companies that include Flexjet, Sentient Jet and Flight Options. The deal, announced last week between Directional and SIMCOM’s current owner J.W. Childs Associates, is expected to close by next month and is subject to the satisfaction of customary closing conditions. No financial terms of the transaction were disclosed. SIMCOM is believed to be the largest independent provider of flight simulator-based training services to the global general aviation, business aviation and regional airline markets. Headquartered in Orlando, Florida, SIMCOM provides training services at centers in Orlando, and Scottsdale as well as the United Kingdom.

Directional Aviation’s global network and reach are expected to enhance SIMCOM’s operational stability and provide industry best practices. From fractional jet ownership to jet cards and charter, to open and closed fleets, jet remanufacturing, maintenance, aviation parts distribution centers and more, Directional brings to SIMCOM a specialized knowledge of the financial, operational and technical needs of the private aviation industry.

“Simulator-based training is a huge part of our industry, one that touches every single pilot and flight provider,” said Kenn Ricci, Principal at Directional Aviation. “We are very excited about the opportunities this will bring for SIMCOM to play a leading role in helping to hone the skills of aviators across the world.” Eric Hinson will continue to lead SIMCOM in its next period of growth and innovation as Chief Executive Officer.

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As in-person attendance numbers for recurrent training decline because of the COVID-19 virus, companies such as FlightSafety International and Legacy Flight Training have transferred one of the most people-intensive portion of their courses—groundschool—to the internet. Legacy Flight Training is the exclusive authorized Piper training provider for the M600.

FlightSafety International now provides the ground school portion of its recurrent programs online for more than 20 helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft models through the instructor-led LiveLearning training system, while Legacy Flight Training said its courses for Piper’s turbine-powered M600, M500 using the G1000 avionics, and the Avidyne Meridian will also go online.

Steve Gross, senior vice president, sales and marketing at FlightSafety said, “With LiveLearning, our customers have live interaction with their instructor and others taking the course and use of online annotation tools, cockpit recordings, video, interactive features and more.” The coursework at Legacy Flight Training is continually monitored by a company instructor. The student and instructor may additionally interact via web-chat as necessary. FlightSafety said the simulator portion of recurrent training must be accomplished within 90 days of completing ground school.

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With the pandemic still raging in the US, pilots have been focused on how long layoffs from their individual airline might last. If a new CAE Pilot Demand Outlook 2020/2029 published on November 8, 2020, holds up to the reality of an uncertain economy, many of those pilots may find themselves back in the cockpit sooner than they expected.

CAE’s news release on the 2020-2029 Outlook, the third edition of the CAE Pilot Demand Outlook, says, “Retirement and attrition are expected to continue to be a challenge for the civil aviation industry as air travel recovers progressively. This is expected to drive an acute demand for pilots, resulting in an estimated short-term need for approximately 27,000 new professional pilots starting in late 2021. The report demonstrates that despite the short-term decline in the number of active pilots due to the impact of COVID-19, the civil aviation industry is expected to require more than 260,000 new pilots over the next decade.”

The news release added, “The renewed 10-year view offers fleet operators key insights on the future need for professional pilots in both commercial and business aviation, building on the markets’ key drivers, variables, and trends. Additionally, the 2020-2029 Outlook says, “retirement and attrition are expected to continue to be a challenge for the civil aviation industry as air travel recovers progressively.”

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Just 18 short months ago, pilots chasing an airline job had a nearly bottomless well of opportunities to draw from. Industry experts compared the scarcity of experienced cockpit crewmembers to the 1960s—when the major airlines were so needy, they actually subsidized pilot training. As 2019 drew to a close, it was fairly common for regional airlines to pay substantial hiring bonuses for the right pilot and then add another lump sum once they’d completed training.

Then, in the first quarter of 2020, the COVID-19 virus began choking the life out of the airline industry people had taken for granted as demand for airline travel plummeted to unheard-of lows. By mid-April, the TSA reported screenings at US airports had declined by as much as 96 percent year over year. Stories circulated among pilots who were flying nearly empty airplanes. International travel became almost nonexistent as airlines around the world began parking tens of thousands of unused airplanes. The pandemic appeared to ring the death knell for iconic aircraft such as the Boeing 747 and Airbus A380. The US government stepped in with some financial assistance, but since March 2020, most airlines around the world have been limping along with traffic spikes and lulls that vacillated like waves on an ocean shoreline.

Calling the pandemic a punch in the gut to the people who saw their future in the sky was an understatement. Thousands of airline-pilot hopefuls simply gave up their dreams of ever seeing a jet cockpit. Almost without any fanfare, however, many senior airline pilots jumped in to help their companies and the new folks waiting to climb the ladder by accepting early retirement offers to help reduce costs. Others who’d been preparing for furloughs chose to take pay cuts and drastically reduced their flying schedules in order to remain on the payroll while gambling on the future. This is not the first time airline pilots have faced uncertain futures.

Understanding Airline Hiring Up to Now

People with decades of industry history under their belts warn potential airline pilots not to lose sight of the cyclical nature of the business as a way to keep the hiring game in perspective.

As pilot Louis Smith said: “The PATCO strike in 1981 put plenty of pilots on the street, as did the 1991 Gulf War. The 9/11 attacks required government bailouts to keep the industry alive as more than 7,000 were furloughed from the major airlines.” Smith, a retired DC-10 captain, is the chairman and president of Future and Active Pilot Advisors, a professional-pilot career- and financial-advisory service. Between 2003 and the end of 2007, Smith said, the second Gulf War and SARS depressed demand, and this combined with high oil prices caused significant layoffs. “The change in the mandatory retirement age to 65 years on December 13, 2007, depressed airline hiring for five years while it provided senior pilots five more years to restore their personal balance sheet decimated by the airline bankruptcies.” In total, between 2004 and 2014, “more than 8,000 pilots watched their companies collapse.” But in 2019, airline hiring had taken off, bringing on nearly 5,000 pilots and 2,400 more in the early months of 2020 before the industry slammed on the brakes. To put the current pilot-hiring atmosphere into perspective, Smith said, “If all of these past events combined represented economic storms, 2020 and the resulting loss of pilots’ jobs has been a tsunami.”

A viable airline career today absolutely demands that individuals track industry news of the day and stay abreast of data pointing to where the industry is headed. For instance, some pilots might point to the bad news today that some regional pilots are still on furlough after a year. However, the better news that should go hand in hand with the plight at the regionals is that pilot numbers at the majors have actually remained pretty constant, more so than in many previous downturns. Southwest Airlines did not lay off a single pilot during 2020, nor did United or FedEx. American Airlines, Allegiant and Hawaiian did furlough some cockpit crew members, though.

Flying activity in early spring 2021 showed a major change, with much of it focused on freight carriers and low-cost airlines aimed at leisure flyers. “We expect the three freight airlines to hire more than 1,200 pilots this year,” Smith said. “Passenger-airline staffing representatives are still too shellshocked from the pandemic to forecast any precise numbers, but passenger-airline-pilot hiring will likely remain less than 1,000.” Detailing some additional good news in mid-March, Smith said that “the airlines do indeed have a pulse, as the regionals, [such as] SkyWest, began bringing back pilots from classes that were canceled last year.”

What Happens Now?

With 2020 headed for the history books as the worst downturn ever for the airlines, it’s critical that pilot applicants summon up serious amounts of patience. The industry continues to evolve positively, perhaps almost as quickly as the chaos began this past year. The key for new pilots is to not give up on their dreams and continue preparing for the flying that’s coming down the road.

Working toward any flying career requires time, training, and a belief in the strategy to keep flying no matter what it takes. Absolutely the wrong tactic right now would be to wait and see—or for a prospective pilot to convince themselves that they’ll wait to begin or continue their training until after the industry recovers.

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If you’re an airline hopeful starting right now from zero flight hours, it’s certain that the aviation industry will look very different a few years down the road when you’ve logged the 1,500 hours of flight required to qualify for an airline transport pilot certificate. For proof of that, compare the doom and gloom the industry was dealing with just one year ago to the mind-numbing news that some industry experts are already talking about a pilot shortage once COVID-19 has passed.

A recent Oliver Wyman study on the airline industry—”After COVID-19, Aviation Faces a Pilot Shortage”—said: “For carriers that were struggling with pilot supply, this [the COVID-19 crisis] has provided a momentary reprieve. It will not last, and decisions taken today to survive the coronavirus pandemic may threaten the ability of airlines in some regions to recover and grow in the future. The global in-service fleet has already recovered in size to 76 percent of pre-COVID levels.” Wyman polled companies in 2019 and learned that 62 percent listed a shortage of qualified pilots as a key risk with conditions differing by region. The root cause in the United States is “an aging workforce facing mandatory retirement, fewer pilots exiting the military, and barriers to entry, including the cost of training.” The Wyman study makes it clear that more pilots will be needed—soon.

The most important question according to the Wyman report is not “whether a pilot shortage will reemerge, but when it will occur and how large the gap will be between supply and demand.” The report said its creators believe there will be a global gap of 34,000 pilots by 2025, possibly increasing to as high as 50,000 in extreme scenarios. Eventually, the impact of furloughs, retirements and defections will create very real challenges for even some of the biggest carriers. “One cushion airlines have created consists of 100,000 pilots still on payroll but flying-reduced schedules or on voluntary company leave. In the US, such programs have been very popular and will provide the airlines some flexibility once the industry begins to recover.” With an aging pilot population and heavy use of early retirements in North America, the shortage reemerges quickly and is projected to number more than 12,000 pilots by 2023—13 percent of total demand. The study recommended that in order to avoid a pilot shortage in the near future, carriers should “reinforce the pipeline by continuing to invest in training programs and pilot recruitment.”

While hiring still has a long way to go to match that of 2019, it does appear the logjam is beginning to break—albeit slowly—which means future pilots should pay close attention. With a number of COVID-19 vaccines in distribution, the airline executives are preparing for the future, as should pilot applicants.

The latest FAPA hiring data shows that Air Wisconsin has started hiring first officers off the street. No classes have yet been scheduled, but some are expected to be announced shortly. CommutAir is hiring FOs and has a new class beginning every two weeks. Endeavor Air is also hiring new first officers and plans to hire 450 pilots this year, though no class dates have been published. GoJet Airlines is hiring FOs and has new classes already scheduled. Horizon Air had a hiring window in March that has since closed, but the carrier is planning new-hire classes soon. Mesa Airlines has not restarted the initial hiring process just yet but has been recalling pilots with contingent job offers from this past year. Mesa’s first such new-hire class began on April 6. Piedmont Airlines is accepting applications and has plans to begin new classes in April. PSA Airlines is aggressively hiring FOs off the street and has plans to fill classes every two weeks starting in April with 30 candidates. SkyWest Airlines has begun recruiting new pilots. Finally, as of press time, there was no word on hiring activity at Envoy Air or Republic Airways. Louis Smith said Atlas, FedEx and UPS hired more than 100 pilots in February while the major passenger airlines hired zero. But, as noted above, there had been a good start from the regionals.

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A Wall Street Journal story in mid-March—”Is Airline Travel Coming Back?”—in the midst of spring break, quoted Delta Air Lines CEO Ed Bastian about the increased passenger demand the carrier experienced following a weekend when airport passenger volumes hit their highest levels in a year. “We’ve seen some glimmers of hope over the last year, but they’ve been false hope,” Bastian said. “But this seems like it’s real. Bookings began picking up five or six weeks ago as people began making plans for spring and summer.” In the same story, executives from both United and Delta said that while they remain cautious, they believe their airlines might soon stop hemorrhaging cash, another positive sign. So keep the faith and keep flying.

Tales from the Front

Many a new airline-pilot hopeful has probably spent a portion of the past year wondering if, in a post-COVID world, they might not be better off considering a future in over-the-road trucking rather than aviation. While airline traffic in the US hasn’t returned to pre-COVID levels yet, Ashley Pillon says, “The future [of an airline career] definitely looks bright.” Pillon is the manager of airline and corporate partnerships at Jacksonville, Florida-based ATP Flight School. ATP works closely with some 1,500 enrollees across its 55 locations. Pillion’s optimistic outlook comes from hard data: “Many of the regionals are in the works of revamping and restarting their cadet programs, as hiring resumes.”

Mike Arnold, ATP’s director of marketing, offers additional hope. “The pilot job market we see today is not one that aspiring pilots will be looking at in the two years it takes for them to become a qualified airline pilot. That job market is two years in the future.” For those nearing the magic 1,500 hours required for an ATP certificate, the school has added new professional relationships with Part 135 charter companies as well as with Frontier Airlines under the Frontier Direct Program, while strengthening ties to most of the nation’s regional carriers.

Chris Richards is president of the Academy of Aviation, one of the oldest flight schools out of roughly 13 at Republic Airport in Farmingdale, New York. The school operates additional campuses in White Plains, New York; Charlotte, North Carolina; and Falcon Field in Atlanta, Georgia, for its 400 students. “We had to shut our New York locations in March [2020] due to COVID-19, but we quickly reopened last June. Our North Carolina and Georgia locations never stopped training, however.”

Student demand drove the reopening in New York and also helped the school expand for its career-pilot student body. AOA’s airline hiring strategy operates a bit differently than ATP’s and depends on qualified pilots taking the reins of their own career. “The airlines have such a need for pilots that we don’t need a direct line into any regional airline program,” Richards says. “We advise our students to pick the airline that best fits them. There is so much opportunity in aviation today that pilots can have an amazing career as long as they are passionate about it and apply themselves. There are always going to be hard times in life, but that’s what makes the good times so good.”

This story appeared in the 2021 Learn to Fly Special Issue of Flying Magazine

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An aircraft auxiliary power unit serves as an additional energy source normally used to start one of the main engines on an airliner or business jet. The APU is equipped with an extra electrical generator to create enough power to operate onboard lighting, galley electrics and cockpit avionics, usually while the aircraft is parked at the gate. Drawing bleed air from its own compressor, an APU also drives the environmental packs used to heat and cool the aircraft.

And most important, operating an APU negates the need to start one of the aircraft’s main engines while waiting for passengers to arrive, thereby saving on fuel and maintenance for a more expensive power plant.

In most cases, the APU is shut down before takeoff and reignited when the aircraft clears the runway after landing. While most of an APU’s active service life occurs as the aircraft sits on the ground, in some instances the APU is used as an emergency electrical power source while the aircraft is airborne.

The APU is a small turbine engine installed near the rear of the fuselage. But calling the APU an extra jet engine is not accurate because the turbine exhaust from the APU is vented overboard. A jet engine would be used to propel the aircraft forward.

The earliest APUs could be found on the B-29 Superfortress, looking essentially like a motorcycle engine installed inside the fuselage. The Convair XP5Y-1 also used an early APU, while America’s first jet airliner, the Boeing 707, was delivered without one. The 727 was the first Boeing to be APU-equipped.

Today, APUs can be found in medium-size and larger civil and military jets, some turboprop aircraft and a handful of military fighters. Smaller civilian jets like the Cessna Citation CJ or One Aviation’s Eclipse jet don’t carry an APU because the extra weight of even a small extra turbine engine can significantly impact the airplane’s useful load.

The aircraft manufacturer determines APU requirements after considering the size of the cabin, the amount of bleed air required to power the environmental packs, and the generator size needed to power the cockpit and cabin and start an engine. It is then the job of the APU manufacturer, usually a subcontractor to the aircraft manufacturer, to deliver a unit meeting those specifications.

While readying the avionics is an important element of preparing an aircraft for departure, creating a comfortable cabin environment before passengers arrive is almost more important to most operators. During hot summer months, the APU driving the environmental packs might require half an hour to cool the cabin of an aircraft sitting in Miami, and equally as long to heat one in winter on the ramp in Fargo, North Dakota.

During some extended-range twin-engine (ETOPS) flights, which permit twin-engine aircraft to operate on routes more than 60 flying minutes away from a suitable emergency airport, the APU system must be tested — using a cold-start procedure — to verify start reliability in case it might be needed, should one of the aircraft’s main engines fail in flight.

One drawback to APUs is the noise they often produce while running on the ground. In some older aircraft, the noise of the APU’s turbine engine can become worse once the bleed air is switched on to heat or cool the cabin. A number of airports in the United States still restrict the operation of APUs, especially at night, to avoid annoying people in nearby communities.

Like all modern turbine engines, an APU is equipped with a fire-extinguishing system, often operated automatically in newer aircraft. Those operating an APU without automatic extinguishing systems usually require at least one pilot to remain near the aircraft in order to hop aboard and manually discharge the APU fire bottle should a blaze erupt.

Unlike the aircraft’s main engines, which require regular tear-downs at very specific time points for maintenance, many APUs are treated more like pass/fail items, allowing operators to run them until something breaks, unless, of course, the unit is part of an ETOPS operation.

In days past, when the price of jet fuel was considerably more expensive than today, some airlines were known to wait until just before departure time to start the APU in order to save money. Luckily, for passengers at least, that strategy to economize was quickly superseded by passengers’ demand to board an aircraft with a comfortable cabin.

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