Professional Pilot, March 2018

Employees of Pilatus Business Aircraft hand over the first of 6 PC 24s to long time Pilatus customer PlaneSense types built and used for the flight test program along with 2 static test articles Williams FJ44 4A QPM engines The PC 24 is powered by 2 Williams FJ44 4 engines developing 3420 pounds of thrust with 3600 available in reserve The starboard side engine features a unique Quiet Power Mode QPM developed by Williams which allows it to act as an onboard auxiliary power unit Honeywell ACE avionics The flightdeck is equipped with the Advanced Cockpit Environment ACE avionics system developed by Honeywell that is unique to the PC 24 It features 4 12 inch screens and includes a synthetic vision system auto throttles graphical flight planning TCAS II LPV guidance capability and ADS B in and out Single pilot ops The new PC 24 is certified for single pilot operation although Plane Sense will fly it with 2 pilots It features a 43x41 ft cargo door unique to jets in this class 28 PROFESSIONAL PILOT March 2018 Standard equipment in the Pilatus ACE cockpit by Honeywell includes SVS autothrottle graphical flight planning Traffic Collision Avoidance System TCAS II and Localizer Performance with Vertical LPV guidance Performance specs The PC 24 s cruise speed is 440 knots Mach 74 and its certified to FL450 Maximum range is 2112 nm at long range power and 1941 nm at maximum cruise power Maximum takeoff weight is 17968 lbs The aircraft features a balanced field length of 2810 ft from a sea level dry paved runway although it is configured to operate from gravel or grass runways as well The PC 24 is 55 ft 2 inches long and has a wingspan of 55 ft 9 inches It stands 17 ft 4 inches tall at the top of its T tail Internally the cabin is 5 ft 7 inches wide and 5 ft 2 inches tall with a flat floor The first 8 PC 24s are slated to be completed in Stans after which aircraft intended for the western hemisphere market will be flown to the BJC facility for completion The PlaneSense PC 24 aircraft will be completed in Stans like its PC 12s PlaneSense will get 6 PC 24s The PC 24 just delivered is the 1st of 6 that PlaneSense is scheduled to receive by the end of 2019 Initially it will augment a fleet of 4 Nextant XTi jets that PlaneSense currently operates along with its fleet of more than 35 Pilatus PC 12NGs PlaneSense acquired its first PC 12 more than 23 years ago and recently took delivery of its 62nd new PC 12 Pilatus first showed a mockup of the PC 24 at EBACE in 2014 and signed contracts for the first 84 aircraft during the show including the 6 PlaneSense orders No further orders have been accepted since but Pilatus says it expects to resume taking orders in 2019 PlaneSense continues to grow PlaneSense was founded as a fractional operator in 1996 Last year the companys planes landed in 47 of the 48 contiguous United States as well as in Canada Mexico Central America the Caribbean the Bahamas and in Bermuda Have airplane will travel Antoniadis observed Photos by Mike Potts PC 24 carries up to 11 pax 1 pilot Pax seats can be quickly added or removed and the aft partition is movable so you can easily enlarge the passenger cabin or increase the baggage compartment volume Mike Potts is senior editorial contributor for Professional Pilot He was in corporate communications for Beech and Raytheon Aircraft between 1979 and 1997