Pat Epps receives prestigious 'Doswell Award'

The National Business Aviation Association could hardly have picked a more deserving recipient for this year’s Doswell Award than Georgia resident E. Patrick “Pat” Epps, president of Epps Aviation, especially with the convention being held in Atlanta this year as Georgia celebrates its 100th anniversary of powered flight. Named for John P. “Jack” Doswell, the award recognizes lifelong individual achievement on behalf and in support of the aims, goals and objectives of business aviation.

Epps’ connection to aviation goes back well before he was even born. His father, aviation pioneer Ben Epps, was the first person to fly an airplane in the state of Georgia (a canard craft of his own design) in 1907. An electrical contractor in Athens, he liked “tinkering with airplanes,” in the words of his granddaughter, Elaine Persons. He had eight airplane designs and sold airplanes. The airport in Athens is named for him.

Pat, the youngest son, was only three when his father was killed in an airplane crash in 1937. All his brothers and sisters except one learned to fly, and today, two daughters, Persons and Marian Epps, and a son, Pat Jr., work at Epps Aviation at Atlanta DeKalb-Peachtree Airport (PDK), where the company has been based for 42 years. Pat’s wife Anne is vice president. Persons handles marketing and employee benefits, Marian is CFO and Pat Jr. is involved with Pilatus PC-12 sales and service. Persons’s husband Gus is maintenance administrator.

Press release - Next Generation PC-12 in high demand

Pilatus is experiencing unprecedented demand for the Next Generation PC-12. The high performance single-engine turboprop is making its public debut at the 2007 National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) convention in Atlanta, Georgia.

“When the Next Generation PC-12 was announced at NBAA last year, it immediately became a sensation,” said Thomas Bosshard, CEO of Pilatus Aircraft Ltd. “Even before we had released many details about the aircraft, orders began to pour in. Now that people are seeing it in person for the first time, the excitement is tremendous.”

Pilatus sells most of its PC-12s through a worldwide network of Pilatus Sales Centers, who then retail them to individual customers. Many Pilatus Sales Centers are already sold out of Next Generation PC-12s through the end of 2009.

Strong sales have been a hallmark of the PC-12 program. According to statistics from the General Aviation Manufacturers Association, the PC-12 has been the number one selling turbine-powered business aircraft for the last four years. The PC-12’s reputation for quality, a broad performance envelope, and award-winning product support have helped fuel its success.

The Next Generation PC-12 features a number of improvements, including a fully integrated Honeywell Primus Apex avionics system, a new cockpit designed by BMW Designworks USA, and a more powerful Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6A engine.

Customs & Border Patrol

U.S. Customs and Border Protection officially opened the North Dakota Air Branch at Grand Forks International Airport on Sep 22, 2007. As part of a northern border security strategy, this is the forth of five planned new facilities to augment CBPs northern border capabilities with air and marine law enforcement, surveillance and airspace security.

At full capacity, the Air Branch will consist of up to 50 air interdiction agents (pilots), air enforcement agents and mission support personnel. Amongst the Air Branch assets a Pilatus PC-12 Spectre surveillance and tracking aircraft, and Predator B unmanned aircraft systems providing high altitude detection and surveillance support capabilities. The Air Branch will support border security operations and conduct regular mission patrols

Royal Flying Doctors Service

The Alice Springs Royal Flying Doctor Service has been upgraded for the first time in 12 years. A new AUS$5.2 million Swiss-made Pilatus PC-12 aircraft will be operational in March next year. RFDS Central Operations chief executive officer John Lynch said the addition of the Pilatus would take the total number of planes in Alice Springs to four.

In 2006/07, RFDS made more than 9600 patient contacts.

Mr Lynch said: ``This is an important development and reflects the increasing hours we have been flying in recent years in Central Australia, which has incorporated a growth in transfers of patients from Alice Springs to Adelaide.

``The aircraft will be flown from Switzerland in January next year and it will be fully equipped when it comes online for Alice Springs by March.

``In an overall sense, we will be looking at our total operation in Alice Springs and this will also need to incorporate a review of our hangar facilities.

Mr Lynch said that while the RFDS' existing facilities work well, the addition of another aircraft would necessitate some possible enhancements to infrastructure.

He said: `` It's certainly an exciting period of transition.

Air Alpha to service PC-12's in Russia

The Federal Service for Supervision of Transportation has licensed the Danish AIR ALPHA MAINTENANCE A/S company to service aircraft in Russia.

The Danish company will provide line and scheduled maintenance to Swiss-made Pilatus PC-12 Series aircraft. A service centre for Pilatus aircraft is about to open.

Smiling Flyer about to launch

We are a group of entrepreneurs living in Mallorca. One day we decided to take a single engine Pilatus PC-12 and travel around the world. Captain Morten Sondergaard started the planing and “The Smiling Flyer” was born.

This trip is about men, who have built their professional lives taking risk and are seeing this trip as a natural way of having fun. People have asked us why we are doing the “SmilingFlyer” and the simple answer is: “Because it can be done”.

We will be taking off from Mallorca in Spain on November 3rd 2007 and visiting the following places: Egypt – Alexandria, Dubai, New Delhi, Nepal, Bhutan, Myanmar (Burma), Thailand, Cambodia, Malaysia, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Australia, Tonga, Fiji, Samoa, French Polynesia, Easter Island, Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil, Cape Verde, Morocco, Spain.

We plan to be back in Mallorca, Spain 21st of Februay 2008 having completed more than 60.000 km through some of the most remote areas of the world

http://www.smilingflyer.com

PT6A-67P receives certification

Pratt & Whitney Canada has received type certification from Transport Canada for its PT6A-67P engine, selected to power the next-generation Pilatus PC-12 business turboprop aircraft

A derivative of the popular PT6 family, the PT6A-67P is rated at 1,200 shp (1,824 thermal eshp). It delivers 15 per cent more thermodynamic power to the new PC-12 aircraft for faster climbs and higher cruise speeds.

"We are delighted to work with our long-time customer Pilatus to build on the success of its flagship PC-12 business turboprop with our PT6A-67P engine," said Michael Perodeau, Vice President, Corporate Aviation, P&WC. "The PT6A series continues to lead today as a result of the improvements we inject into these highly dependable engines as well as our excellent customer support."

P&WC has certified close to 70 engine models within the PT6A turboprop series and produced over 35,000 PT6A engines for applications in corporate, utility and agricultural markets around the world. The majority of these engines continue to fly today.