At the AOPA Expo in Philadelphia Thursday, the company's North American Chief Pilot Randy Schneider and Ken Schaelchlin, the Manager of Customer Support, made a group of us current on what's happening with their big single, the PT6-67B-powered Pilatus PC-12.

This military-inspired turboprop has, since its certification in 1994, been earning the respect of the 'big-single' crowd, with its long range, heavy hauling capacity, and short-field abilities. Coupled with these good qualities, the 270kt cruise and single-power-lever flying make it a favorite with private owners, who now comprise over 80% of the base.

The idea of a 300mph SUV isn't a completely new one, but there are few machines that can claim the title. The PC-12, with four people and two grown-up motorcycles inside, can still haul along for seven or more hours... and if that seems like a long time, remember that you're not wasting time putting along on the road.

Those motorcycles, by the way, need to fit through the standard 52 x 53" cargo door, which, not coincidentally, will also pass a pallet. The bikes will then easily fit on the flat (no spar hump) 16' 11" long, 5' wide cargo floor (as long as they're not over 4'11" tall).

The fleet now numbers just over 400, with 55 of those added so far this year (and 'mid-sixties' predicted for 2004); the total fleet time of nearly 900,000 hours is starting to show that this machine doesn't need a lot of spare parts, either.

If you do need to pay attention to something (it is an airplane, after all), you'll find that many inspection panels are held in place with snap fittings; another few are available to your phillips screwdriver -- routine checks are easy.

The PT-6 family has the largest installed base of any turboprop, and with its 3500 hour TBO (1750 hour hot section), its 'high 50s' gph requirement means that even this big machine is getting five+ mpg -- at over 300 mph. Now, that's an SUV.

Simplicity is a key to ownership with that powerplant, and pilot tasks are made pretty simple, too. The 1600 hp engine (flat-rated to 1200) starts with a 1-button auto start sequence. The prop is automatic (1000 rpm on the ground, 1700 in the air), and it reverses, all with single-lever control. The PC-12 has a system to automatically balance your fuel, too: if one side gets more than 64 pounds heavier than the other, fuel draw is switched automatically to draw from the heavy side. (Fuel is not pumped from one tank to the other, and the auto-balancing can be manually overridden.)

The gear doesn't lock up; it's held in place by hydraulic pressure, so if you have a hydraulic failure, it will swing down under gravitational pull (and the nose gear even has a little help from a spring), until it locks in place, which can happen at speeds under 115 mph or so -- a distinctly friendly failure mode. Since the strong Swiss machine comes in over the numbers in the low-80-knot range (and won't stall at gross until you get to 64), that's plenty of margin. If you have a reason to do it, you can also configure for landing (gear down, flaps at 15 degrees) as fast as 164 knots.

The PC-12 was set up to be "sort of a lower-cost King Air 200," and it's living up to the billing. The single-engine operation isn't putting off too many fliers, either. Ken told us that a lot of PC-12 customers are coming from the ranks of piston twins, with a smattering from each of several other categories: often the new PC-12 customer owned a 182, 206, 210, or the occasional Caravan... and there are the always-popular Bonanza folks.

The modern avionics options, with dual EFIS and glass by Bendix-King, Honeywell, or Garmin, make the PC-12 relatively easy to monitor. In fact, at least two customers, we found out, bought the PC-12 not just as their first airplane, but as the first airplane they'll be flying -- their primary trainer!

That's not the norm, of course. Pilots don't just start flying in a complex, fast, and pretty big machine. A more-typical owner, though he would have little, or even no turbine time, still has a couple thousand hours in the air. (Insurance minima are getting somewhat standardized at around 1000 hours TT, with 50 in type, for PIC insurance.)

Who has them?

There are a couple dozen PC-12s in airline service; the Royal Canadian Mounted Police like the hauling capability, the long range, the speed, and the lousy-field capabilities, and have taken delivery of 13 so far; and those same virtues (plus the flat floor and big room inside) have made PC-12s popular in over air ambulance applications; but the vast majority of the owners are private, who use them for business during the week, and big family utility and fun on vacation.

This sub-10,000 pound machine has product support and training available in North America; there's a new sim in Orlando; the POPA (Pilatus Owners and Pilots Association) is active and helpful; and if you like to rub elbows with fellow owners, there's a PC-12 Maintenance and Operations session every year, at the NBAA convention, too. If you're looking to fly a machine of this caliber, look at around $360/hour operating costs (including engine reserves, fuel, out-of-warranty labor, prop overhaul). After all, as Randy noted, "It's over-engineered, and we're proud of it!"

[Photos: Hansjorg Egger (top); Paul Bowen (bottom)]

FMI: www.pilatusserviceworx.com; www.pilatus-aircraft.com