Alaska Bush Pilot Walk around : Bush flying the Pilatus Porter PC-6 a popular bush plane : 2023

foreign this is a bush flying monster are you kidding me 35 inch Alaska Bush Wheels turbine in the nose overall performance designed for short takeoff and Landing or stall it can lift more than its basic empty weight it is a monster machine for the backcountry and it does an excellent job in the mountainous regions especially here in South Central Alaska the owner flies it up to ten thousand twelve thousand feet for Glacier Landings in a few minutes you're up from sea level to you know 10 12 000 feet effortlessly 150. it's very capable it flies like a Super Cub it gets you out of trouble with these 35-inch Bush Wheels in no time and it creates a just a really pleasurable flying experience good morning from Alaska I'm here at the fly Alaska Lodge which is a remote Wilderness Lodge located in the heart of North America's largest national park the Wrangle Saint Elias National Park and Preserve established in 1980 at little over 13 million Acres the Wrangle Saint Elias National Park and Preserve is larger than Yosemite Yellowstone and Switzerland combined including the 18 000 foot Mount Saint Elias this is Philip's summertime base from where he flies friends family visiting Pilots to some of Alaska's most incredible and Scenic Backcountry locations this includes landing on the nearby glaciers going on fishing camping Safari trips and also taking visiting pilots on familiarization flights in the Pilates Porter but more about those familiarization flights in another video in this video I'm following Philip as he does his walk around pre-flight inspection and points out some of the unique features of this Pilates border in these remote locations in Alaska Aviation is an integral part of everyday lifestyle and also the means by which people and services get delivered to these remote locations like for example here on the island of Kodiak which is the second largest island in the United States many remote locations get served by seaplanes that operate from this Basin here in Kodiak foreign [Music] maintains a fleet of several aircraft at his lodge and depending on the mission he'll fly any one of the Pilates border the Husky Super Cub or one of the Cessnas in addition to offering these incredible Outdoor Adventures and excursions Philip is also very involved in the local community offering his air transportation services where there's a need here at 61 degrees Northern latitude which is the same latitude as Anchorage we're not quite on the Arctic Circle which is 66 degrees north but during the long summer days there's quite enough daylight hours to put this Pilates water to good use Philip during his pre-flight inspection is walk around as he gets ready for yet another fun summer day flying here in the Alaska wilderness foreign [Music] Philip good morning Dion What a Beautiful Morning you've already flown this morning oh a lot of fun already you're going to show us a little bit about this airplane as you do the pre-flight and walk around what an amazing aircraft Backcountry flying machine and just a very capable airplane for this kind of environment you're very welcome let's start with the PreFlight I'm gonna show you everything how long have you owned this one since 2016. this is a pratt this is a bread and Whitney a pt6 dash 27. with 550 horsepowers um and that's a screwdriver which comes with every airplane it's specially designed for the possible design for the porter everything is specially made this port is built like a Swiss watch like a Rolex I can imagine that I have no idea how the people did this they designed it 19 58 and went into production 1960 and it's one of the best push planes of the world Philip Ferry this Porter all the way out of Switzerland across the North Atlantic to Alaska and I'll ask him about that a little bit later but first back to the pre-flight there's so much space behind the engine here look at the amount of space behind the in the cowl and so you can tell us why the engine is so far forward it was designed for a piston lightcoming 480 540 geared and the airplane was never a really good performing airplanes I don't like it too much with the business but with the Mr pt6 it's awesome and so now to adjust for the CG with the lighter turbine it needs to be much farther forward as well so I'm just checking the cowling you have to check the oil actually 10 minutes after the air and the engine was running now it's stabilized you see two and actually disturbing you don't check in the morning you check it after 10 minutes is running and if there are no leaks which I'm checking right now I can see not one drop nothing you're fine to go I always keep my screwdriver in my pocket in my right pocket so I'm not forget it because you're if you don't close it it's dangerous actually Philip you Ferry this border all the way from Switzerland to Alaska can you tell us a little bit about this transatlantic Ferry I flew This Plane stop was big in Scotland then we flew to reklavik mid Fuel and actually we fuel fly up here and a thunderstorm Fjord evaluate and Yellow knife and here it was five days 44 hours wow let it pointed like this way but we made a little bit of change up here because the weather was so nice it was what time of the year was was that April April before Valdez here there's a to unlock it's very nice very well done so just to check the control lock like a wind gust wind wind lock yes we have different kind of wind locks this is the easiest way for storage overnight [Music] um yes let's go over here so this port is super light I made it for myself it has empty weight 1233 kilograms and the maximum take of it is 2 800 kilograms so it can hold way more than its own weight tell us a little bit about the landing gear the 35 inch tire is a beautiful on this airplane because the angle of attack is now different it's much steeper and we fly into really rough airstrips like Jake Spa it's a standard standard [Music] um this one has keys so this that's the um the accumulator for these keys it's quite easy to change from skis to Wheels absolutely standard but everything you see on this airplane is overhauled at Pilar to stand at 14 years standard and it was completely disassembled all NDT very high standard so this is 35s they work very nice they actually push wheels for the beaver and a special 10 inch wheel from Behringer hey let's see here okay we will be a party of um three I guess so pilot corporate and three packs so believe we can put actually one seat out if we want the nice thing about it we just do this it goes very simple that's that's a nice thing see it comes out and you can store all six seats in here so you can carry Freight or you can carry passengers on one leg Freight in the other one passengers so I'll show you how this goes foreign and this is it no movement absolutely gorgeous on this port there's not one screw too much or two less everything fits this handle is actually for the skydiver this is skydiver kit so when the sky will ever jump out they don't get stuck on the handle that's standard so as this is an H4 it has this big fin first stabilization with a huge elevator and the whole thing is moving like on a super cup that's a that's not a stone guard that's a guard for uh for for this kind of huge elevator a critical part on the port is always the design of the tail wheel so if you fly in an environment like this you grease it every day it's very expensive on the one hand side and on the other side there are bushings in there and if the dust from the turbine from the engine fills it it's like yes it's bad for it good so we do have big doors we can load it from both sides there's one thing more I would like to show you okay one thing which is awesome about this port about every port this is a standard you have a trapto look at this I open here you can make them closer and have a look at 660 pounds or 300 kilograms and I can open it in Flight Of course off we go you're ready go open so I can drop fish I can draw paragliders through this hole whatever you want and the closing thing I close it now and it works like a Swiss watch like a Rolex everything is designed uh I've I'm around airplane since 40 years and I fly super cups I fly Huskies I fly show cups I fly Highlanders all kind of push plants but this one is I don't know how they did it 1960 or 1958 but somehow it flies like a super cup behaves like a super cup it's just big so and again that's 300 kilograms of load that you can put on those doors yes absolutely that's incredible that's a lot do you do that often where you have to drop supplies to villagers or people on the ground very very seldom but you have the capability to do that yes and it's a standard you only can bite like this so not not so much for for supplies here in Alaska but more skydivers that one is out skydivers yes all the time no no no I use it because it's a novelty for them yes it's just something special I'm preparing everything on the pecs you can load in to the airplanes from both sides that's nice they put in snow machines we put in Steels we put in ATVs it's a big cargo home you're gonna show us a little bit inside on the panel absolutely as this is a very light port most of them is standard this one has manual flaps all the new one has electrical flaps all the new one has beautiful garment 950 and but this is a very very light one and guys as you know push flying it's all about weight the light it is I think this is the lightest one in the world yeah so like you mentioned the electrical flap system came out so you're saving all of that weight and there's a other one other way weight serving a weight saving adjustments that you make there is not one wire in this airplane which is too much normally the people put in ADF and they leave it in there and all the wires and there's nothing I just there's nothing nothing optional and I'm gonna show you the cockpit and the hardest thing actually is to climb in this then you hold left feet you hold yourself in and get in and you're in and this is amazing I teach in this port and everybody says oh this feels like a glove just fits everything is on the cards but everything is perfect I made as little as changes as possible standard the g5s not standard standard instruments this is still counting in liters everything on this airplane is a metric all these are standard of course I have an iPad here and I have a KTX 345 the Garment but this is standard all of them is standards the fuel tanks are standard here you can see the the brakes a Behringer they work very well the the parking brake is working well that's the ski pump so that's true again that's that's this key part okay so you can change from Wheels to skis and you drive this Keys down and on the field condition or the The Fill condition um you'll also have the low idle and high idle and what is the procedure for for taxing versus takeoff do you always take off and land with high idle or does it not matter high idle low idle for a short field take off I use a low Island approach um and a standard is high idle for for takeoff so I'm gonna show you a novelty and this is the manual flaps this is the trim you see the chain here it looks funny but it looks really nice and on this handle that's the flaps I go there's a metal one two three four five six seven and now I'm in takeoff position and that's Landing okay and you see now there are slotted flaps very efficient very efficient I'm gonna go back yeah this is your takeoff position yeah that's take off positions and you mentioned something about the control surfaces are the parts are interchangeable so the flaps can be interchanged with the ailerons um the flaps cannot be interchangeable with the ailerons but each flap can be changed with each flap okay so we have four parts four parts of flaps and you can change any part of the flip so this makes field replacement very easy you don't have to have a specific left or a right side absolutely so the people who designed this airplane some of them were mechanics so they would like to have it as simple as possible I'm gonna show you the trim we're gonna go full down we're gonna go full up and there's like I think you mentioned before there's no hydraulics no electrical control no is there an option option for any other Hydraulics negative only the flaps and the trim there's only one fuel cut off one fuel lever that's it and this actually we call it the yausen Bradley Swiss German and that's where you put your lunch in and it's and it's actually sturdy enough it's designed to carry a little bit of a load absolutely you can put you can sit on here it's a part of the structure nice and we always as a Pilots you know you have to drink something and you have to have lunch so we put a yausen Bradley that's that's incredible what is the so that's the uh the Break um the brakes and controls yes on the toes no no just this side in the middle that adjustment knob ah yeah yeah you can't you cannot adjust the the the the seats and this one but you can adjust the pedals so you see now full forward for bigger people and for the small people like me it's like this and yeah that's the the lock yes so this one is easy and this in the middle here that's this key pump okay let's keep pumping inside Hydraulics Reservoir very cool I hope I gave you an overview about this beautiful Porter it's a really bush plane so if you want come to fly you're more than welcome I and my guys uh refurbishing importers the only two Porters and my least experienced guy has 20 years on type so every screw you find in this port is original there's not one not original screw and all the parts are coming directly from Pilatus you can still buy all the parts every screw you say I want to have I don't know I want to have this handle and then you pull up the parts cut the look and they're gonna send you this handle within the next day and even though Pilates officially stopped the production they will continue to support the the maintenance for how many years 30 years at least 30 years 30 years so finding replacement parts or any kind of Maintenance should never be a problem it's never a problem you can order them right now at the Pilates Factory and tomorrow we're gonna ship it out like for the 12th and the 24 and all the military airplane what do you guys think of the Pilates pc6 quite the machine for the bush in the backcountry right it's fascinating to see how pilots and flight Crews put these to work especially in Back Country locations like uh like Alaska here where most the population lives off of the road system which means accessibility and servicing these communities uh highly depend on aerial transportation and delivered by airplanes not all as big as this one but Bush planes and Bush Pilots that put their lives on on the line to service these communities in in sometimes very very tough weather and climatic conditions this one does some really really interesting work here in McCarthy South Central Alaska and hopefully I can find more like this more examples of bush aircraft and their pilots to show you guys exactly how these machines are put to work and and doing good stuff for the community as well as the neighboring areas in the south central part of Alaska there's some fascinating flying that happens in in these Back Country locations so what do you think of the Pilates Porter pc6 thanks very much for watching if you watched until now hopefully you'll come back and see what else I can find in this region of the world in terms of backcountry flying and interesting applications of Aviation yeah zero seven trolley on the slide I said one Tango approved as requested West clear to land number two yeah a short final now no factor for you 307 Charlie West clear for takeoff really turn out approved for the chicken zero seven Charlie's on the slide [Applause]

Channel: Deon Mitton

Views: 179,717

Keywords: alaska, bushplane, flyalaska.com, bushpilot, pc6, pilatusporter, pilatus porter, adventure, wilderness, off grid, bush pilot, bush pilots, extreme landing, true north star, landing training, flight instruction, bush pilot training, alaska bush pilot, alaska bush pilot training, mountains, wrangell-st-elias, wrangels, national park, flight training, pilatus, pilatus pc6, pc-6, porter

Id: etGflXOQ0-c

Length: 23min 40sec (1420 seconds)

Published: Wed Feb 22 2023