FLYER Exhibitions
First, a little history (feel free to skip this bit). I learnt to fly in the UK back in 2006. Got my JAA CPL/IR/ME in 2009 with aspirations of flying big jets. Not exactly a good time to try and get a job but 6 months later found out about a company based out in Indonesia flying Cessna C208B Grand Caravans. I applied, got an interview and eventually the job; a week after my 30th birthday! So, I rented out the flat, sold one of the cars and moved from soggy old Somerset to hot (and at times soggy) Indonesia.
It didn't take me long to realise this bush flying was bloody good fun and why on earth would I want to fly a big shiny jet. A couple of tours in Papua were all I needed to realise this was the sort of flying I want to do. Luckily for me, the company I work for also has a fleet of PC-6 Porters and it wasn't until I was posted to Papua that I got to have a couple of flights in one. I was smitten. I knew I had to get flying these one day. After two years flying the C208 my chance finally came and I was offered the position on the Porter fleet with one catch. I had to go and do some tailwheel time. No problem, as I had a holiday booked back in the UK so booked up a Supercub course at Clacton who were fantastic.
Upon my return I then went back out to Papua to begin training with our in-house instructor and PC-6 god. The training mostly comprised of lots and lots of circuits:
It was very hot work in the 30 degree heat and humidity of Papua but obviously vital to ensure I could land and take-off in all configurations safely. Other parts of the training involved general handling, emergencies, loading and securing the aircraft (the elevator and rudder lock is a work of insanity!).
Training complete, I was treated to a few of the local airstrips with my instructor in the right seat.
(more on Flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/indo_pilot/)
So to the Porter and my thoughts of it.
Firstly, it's pretty basic; which is a good thing for a bush aircraft. If it doesn't need it, it doesn't have it which makes for an airframe that can carry nearly it's own weight in payload out of pretty much anything you want to call an airstrip. Our aircraft come with 2x bench seats capable of carrying 3 pax and 2x single seats (which can be stowed in the tail section) giving us up to 9 pax seats if you take one up front along side. There's also a trapdoor built into the floor which you can open via a handle in the cockpit. It's mainly used for survey/camera equipment.
The engine is a de-rated Pratt & Whitney PT6A-27 turboprop providing 550 SHP. It has both beta and reverse thrust capability which allow for very rapid rates of descent as it's one of the few aircraft in the world certified to use beta in the air. Reverse thrust is handy to help slow you up on muddy airstrips although you have to be quick with the rudder to catch the yaw.
The ailerons and rudder are linked to aid coordinated turns but you still need a fair bit of rudder to keep them coordinated (this is not an aircraft for those with lazy feet). The tailwheel is steerable up to 25 degrees either side after which it'll swivel. It's also lockable for take-off and landing. All control surfaces are trimable via the electric trim system. There is no manual trim system. The elevator has a backup system in-case the primary fails and there's also an interrupt switch should you get a trim runaway. If this isn't working in your pre-flight, you don't go flying.
Take-offs are a fairly straight forward affair. Smoothly add power whilst adding in right rudder to keep it straight, maybe even a dab of right toe brake too. The locked tailwheel really helps keep things tidy here compared to say the Supercub where it seems to be a small battle to keep straight. The other thing is to ensure before take-off is that you have the trims set correctly. Failure to do this has resulted in pilots loosing control shortly after take-off. Pilatus consider it so important that the elevator trim is set correctly, that there's an audio warning if you go out of the t/o trim range whilst on the ground.
Flying is a delight. You can really throw it about with the lovely, harmonised controls. And I really enjoy flying with a stick. It makes total sense for this sort of aircraft. Even at full weight (2800kg) you can achieve 1000ft/min rates of climb. And with beta, the rate of descent is incredible. I've not actually looked down yet to see what it is but the fact the ROD indicator's calibrated to 6000ft/min is obviously an indicator as to how fast you can go down.
Landings are again not too tricky for such a large tailwheel aircraft. We always aim for a three pointer landing and provided you land straight, the roll-out is pretty uneventful. If you do land a little skew you do have to be quick with the rudder pedals and toe brakes to keep things straight. Those huge oleos and low pressure main wheels (20psi) can smooth out even the most bumpy airstrip (or dodgy landing
)So there you go. Hope my rambling prove interesting for some of you and I'll happily answer any questions anyone might have about the Porter or about flying out in Indonesia in general (and possibly the C208 if I cast my memory back a bit).
I'll leave you with this photo of the PC-6 in it's natural environment:
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