Posted January 27, 2011 11:36 AM
By Peter Webber
Doing the research - getting out of the office
Obviously the large amount of data held by Ascend in the ASO database does not get there by itself. The data team work in their respective work areas (we tend to split by aircraft class or OEM) going through hundreds of documents daily to capture ownership changes, finance transactions, leases, upgrades and much more. We also get out from behind the computer visiting trade shows, OEM’s, agencies and customers.
Recently I had the chance to travel to Switzerland to visit Pilatus and look at the PC12 program in some detail. One advantage of being based at Heathrow is the ease with which you can plan such trips. An early start saw me getting the first flight of the day down to Zurich, followed by a train trip to meet my contact and make our way to the factory.
Two Pilatus owned aircraft on the ramp, one used for avionics development, the other in use as a crew trainer
Pilatus are a major player in the GA field now, the PC12 is well established in the market and continues to sell very well. The smaller PC6 is still a firm favorite with operators who need a utility type and it has recently sold well into new markets in Asia.
I had the chance to talk over the PC12 is some detail, gaining a good insight into matters such as new aircraft prices, secondhand values and the opinion of Pilatus on the secondhand market for the PC12 and other types, production and delivery rates. All this is fed into the ASO database and used to inform our opinions on the aircraft and the GA market in general. I also had the chance to take a walk around the production line and saw aircraft being checked prior to customer delivery.
We also talked about Pilatus projects in work at the moment, sketchy details as yet but look out for a bigger, clean sheet of paper aircraft soon, we may get some clearer details as soon as 2011.
Going back to the PC12, let’s take an overview of the type.
First flight of the prototype was on May 31st 1991, and deliveries to customers started in 1994.
Some 1034 aircraft have been built so far. 72 delivered in 2010.
Of these 12 aircraft have been lost as the result of accidents.
Main uses for the aircraft are Business/Corporate, but it is also very popular as an Aero Medical platform. The large cabin size and generous freight door also make it a very adaptable aircraft and is used by a number of police forces and military air arms.
Visits such as these are all part of gathering the data, we follow all and any angles to ensure the very best data is available to you through the ASO platform. What you see here only scratches the surface, much more analysis can be done with full access.
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