PC-12 NGX | No limit to perfection

hello theater sky here reporting amidst a succession of generations which does not revolve only around the aviation giants with their axes and neos but also around other players whose creations may not weigh 300 tons but nevertheless thrive in their respective markets are today's hero was born practically yesterday and it is just at the beginning of its rise to glory but taken into consideration is formidable pedigree and new capabilities there is no doubt that it is destined to be successful this is the new generation of the pilatus pc12 behold the ngx naturally if we want to fully understand what this new generation is all about we need to dig into the history of the previous generations pilatus pc12 is a single engine turboprop airplane a real sweetheart for the aiders and the pride of the swiss pilatus aircraft this pride made its appearance in the early 1990s and shortly after earned its place under the sun the aviators took considerable risks when creating this plane but they pulled it off with the pc-12 project pilatus managed to keep the balance between simplicity easy maintenance comfort and flexibility on the one hand this turboprop features quite an ordinary airframe configuration straight wing with only ailerons and flaps with no slats or spoilers a big detail and a robust tricycle landing gear on the other hand it is powered by the latest versions of the pratt whitney pt6 engine it's avionics seem to be taken out of a business jet and the comfort level inside the cabin follows suit and of course the main quirk of these models a huge door on the side of its fuselage like the ones you see on cargo planes thanks to such a set of features the pc12 boasts quite a wide range of capabilities it can be used as a fancy corporate plane an air taxi an air ambulance or even a light cargo aircraft but there was no way of moving forward without making some improvements pilates sorted out all the maturity issues of the newborn model and increased its takeoff weight from 4 100 kilograms to four and a half thousand kilograms or 9900 pounds the results of such debugging were good enough for 10 years the next wave of modernization started only in 2006. most of these were related to the internals comfort improvements cabin lights automatics the aircraft was fitted with new winglets and its weight grew up to and 4740 kilos or ten thousand four hundred and fifty pounds in 2008 another series of improvements was carried out more significant this time the pratt whitney pt6a-67b engine was swapped for the more efficient 67p version next in line was the cockpit with the new set of avionics honeywell primus apex featuring the latest automatics and interfaces naturally the passenger cabin had to do justice to the rest of the aircraft with an upgraded interior improved materials and comfort features bmw design works did their job as expected the upgraded plane got the index of pc1247e or as better known now the pc12 and g such an important improvement put pilatus a step ahead of its rivals for an entire decade and made it possible to relocate the resources for the development of the promising pc24 project the first jet aircraft of the company the ng generation consolidated the leading position of the pc12 in the market niche of single-engine turboprop aircraft even without major modifications it kept evolving it received upgraded interfaces electronics multimedia systems and finally the five blade hertzel propeller which improved his flight performance nowadays the pc12 ng has a price tag of about 5 million dollars which is by no means cheap but this aircraft is still highly demanded and as the guys from pilatus like to outline it has a high resale value by 2020 over 1700 pc12s were sold 1700 units with over 7 million flight hours this sounds more like a system rather than luck one might think that this is victory and all that's left to do is relax and count the cash but as the saying goes there is no limit to perfection on one hand the competitors never threw the towel come on it would be weird if other planes did not have their eye on the tasty pie of the pc-12 on the other hand the hot part of the pc24 development was over the aircraft made its maiden flight and embarked on the certification process this meant that a bunch of engineers had tons of free time and no house that could be implemented perfectly into the turboprop at the nbaa 2019 convention in las vegas the ladders presented a full-grown next generation of their turboprop which was more than just an ordinary update let's find out what the pc12 mgx is all about and how could the top aircraft of it class be improved even further this time around we'll take it to the ground to a hangar at the nukava iii business airport near moscow where the guys from nesteroff aviation and pilatus aircraft are waiting for us with the airplane itself after all the museum legends it is quite odd to deal with the machine which is just a few months old our plane in particular was built as recently as march 2020 we'll start off from what is probably the most important thing from a technical standpoint the most complicated improvement in aviation which entitles an aircraft to the status of a next generation is of course the re-engining in the new plane the pratt whitney pt6a 67p turboprop has seeded this place to the representative of the new e-series pt6e 67xp and it is full of surprises pratt whitney kept the overall configuration of the engine but they gave a major overhaul to some of its elements and used new materials including the single crystal structure of the turbine blades operational temperatures and pressures have grown so they also had to boost the cooling system which brought about some additional bonuses part of the heat dissipated from the engine is now being used to warm up the fuel system which means that the fuel no longer needs anti-freeze agents that's quite nice the dimensions have also changed the new engine is a bit shorter than its predecessor but at the same time it's wider besides it got a bit heavier one could say that it is a sweet deal and nothing else is needed but the engine designers did not think the same way pratt whitney has almost completely redesigned the electronic internals and controls the power plant is filled with sensors and its automation level was taken to the limit here you will find a dual channel propeller and engine control system a full-grown fedex it's about time the computer not only monitors hundreds of parameters but also takes care of a considerable part of work that used to be carried out by the pilots many procedures are now carried out automatically on all flight stages despite the fact that the power remained the same about 1200 horsepower all these solutions helped the engine to use these horses much more efficiently pratt whitney assures that in spite of the apparently identical figures the pilots will experience a 10 increase in power compared to the 67p series of engines in addition to that there has been a reduction in fuel consumption while torque and throttle response have increased the same happened with the time before overhaul which grew from three and a half thousand to five thousand hours while periods between scheduled maintenances have doubled from 300 to 600 hours if that was not enough the plane also received the internet of things after each flight the control system automatically collects engine related data and sends it over to pratt whitney this way the company can gather statistics of the functioning of their engines and issue timely warnings and suggestions to airplane operators in case something goes wrong compared to the ng version improvements in flight performance can be summed up as follows crew speed increased from 528 to 537 kilometers per hour 290 knots although the maximum takeoff weight is still the same 4 740 kilograms or 10 450 pounds enhanced throttle response has reduced the takeoff distance by 35 meters down to 758 meters which is enough for the aircraft to reach the altitude of 15 meters the landing distance is the same 661 meters or 2170 feet but frankly there was no real need to make it even shorter maximum flight range is three and a half thousand kilometers almost 1900 miles and when it is properly loaded and carries six passengers it gets down to 2 900 kilometers or 1500 miles naturally such serious alterations to engine controls have also affected the entire avionics system guess it's time to hop into the cockpit at first glance everything looks familiar glass cabin dark materials 4 big displays and yolks since we just saw the engine let's start off with the engine control panel which became quite empty as a result of the progress of electronics and the emergence of auto throttle the pilots were left only with a solitary power control lever instead of a great variety of knobs and levers the engine takes care of the rest on its own new automatics have yet another feature that is useful not only for flight performance and piloting but also for passenger comfort now you can find one little button named prop low speed once the plane takes off and reaches the crew speed the engine can be switched to a more optimal flight mode the rotation speed of the propeller goes down from 1700 to 1500 revolutions per minute while its pitch automatically changes to maintain the necessary thrust with this mode on the engine and the propeller are most silent which is definitely a nice perk for the passengers i will note that even the previous version of pc12 was not particularly noisy but now it got even better and the sensation inside of it is close to a usual mid-range airliner another new feature is an additional display where before we had a multi-functional panel with buttons in the lower part of the central console now we have a small touch screen yeah they made their way here too the touchscreen controller or tsc undertakes quite a lot of functions and thanks to its adaptable and intuitive interface it is quite easy to use but one thing is worth mentioning the tsc does not replace all the features of the older cockpits and the interface that controls the cursor on the main screens is still there in addition to all the visually noticeable changes there are also some instrumental and software upgrades that cannot be seen with the naked eye in fact honeywell and pilatus have moved here many of the functions from the cockpit of pc24 so now it is called ace just like in its jets sibling among the things that inherited are the synthetic vision improved navigation updated autopilot takeoff and landing electronic aids and some improved safety systems such as tcas emergency descent mode and a warning system that displays instructions for pilots on the screens some might say that this is all too much for a single engine turboprop and that all these features are more akin to some middle class business jet yet the cost of the aircraft doesn't seem to be going through the roof overall the control systems are all familiar so moving crews from pc12ng to the ngx doesn't require serious transition training but these are all internal developments that will be noticed by the engineers maintenance crews and pilots but what about the externals re-engining usually when you hear this word what comes to your mind are the new generations of civil airliners like the a320 neo or boeing 777x whose appearance is just shouting check out my huge engines pilatus does not make a boast of that its engine is enclosed in its nose section and the external attributes have barely changed so now that aviation geeks are satisfied let's bring joy to the usual packs well although the airframe configuration and the materials have barely changed the engineers have toyed around with the windows their size increased by about 10 and now they are similar to those found on the jet pc24 this is a big deal for comfort now you get better views and there is more natural light in the passenger cabin without further ado let's hop into the cabin here the inheritance of design elements from the pc24 becomes obvious bmw design works have brought here most of the improvements from the new airplane including communication and multimedia systems comfort features and above all the seats these are not the same you'll find on the pc 24th but their design is almost identical unlike the classic puffy seats that are so familiar to the pc12 ng passengers these look more sporty but this is no reason to be worried because they are more comfortable than their predecessors their backrests are taller with a better support for shoulders they are a bit thinner and their mechanization is more advanced apart from the usual functions in terms of mobility their backrest can also be reclined to a practically horizontal position the backrests on the previous seats could be reclined only by 29 degrees despite the fact that apart from windows the fuselage is still the same thanks to new finishing materials the space inside has been optimized overall dimensions are the same but it is now more comfortable to be inside and use internal features the major change can be seen on the ceiling and it was done not so much for design or height purposes as for the new air conditioning system the problem of previous versions was the fact that the only cabin air duct was found in the aft section by the side of the ac unit this design had some problems first of all on even temperature levels in the cabin it could be colder in the back seats than in the front secondly while being on the ground on hot days all the air was being passed through this duct during startup and that was quite noisy so to the ngx version beside that tail duct the engineers put an additional one it distributes cold air throughout the entire cabin via several smaller ducts now the cabin climate is more even and what's more important the system got quieter the locations and dimensions of other large elements such as the front passenger and large cargo doors as well as the luggage compartment in the aft section remained the same the toilet is right where it should be in a pilates between the cockpit and the passenger cabin everything is familiar and as usual the finishing materials were worked upon of course but if you've been in one of these airplanes before getting yourself around won't be a problem the choice of cabin configurations and the possibility to change them swiftly is still there there are still tons of configurations to choose from starting with classic vip cabins for six passengers like in the case of our today's plane up to the cramped air taxis for nine passengers or the cargo passenger option with the usual tug war between passenger capacity and cargo space besides considering the fact that the plane can be piloted by just one person the co-pilot seat can also be offered to an additional passenger and of course the pc-12 is very popular in the market of air ambulance aviation which requires lots of space for stretchers and the paramedics with their equipment this is what our today's hero has become the pc12 ngx the successor to previous generations now has to prove its worth and measure up to the bar set by its predecessors some of the finest single-engine turboprops in the world and now it will have to conquer the skies and the market wing to wing with the pc24 it is quite a challenge but the airplane has everything it needs for that so we'll see and our today's adventure has come to an end i would like to thank the guys from yesterday of aviation for granting me access to this airplane and to pilatus aircraft for creating it in the first place and you my dear viewers like comment and subscribe to the channel luxurious flights and soft landings to you [Music] you

Channel: Skyships Eng

Views: 373,729

Rating: 4.9189262 out of 5

Keywords: pilatus, pilatus aircraft, pc-12, pc-12 ng, pc-12ngx, pilatus pc-12, pc-12 ngx review, pc-12 ngn cockpit, pc-12 ngx interior, pc-12 ngx performance, pc-12 ngx landing, PC-6, PT6E-67XP, PT6A-67P, pc-12 fadec

Id: W3-G6dT-YN0

Length: 17min 6sec (1026 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 04 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/Preset-No3]

Great aircraft. Most widely used by the flying doctors in Australia.

[u/NWheelspin]

There must have been a meeting of aircraft manufacturers where they decided to give all their new models the 'raccoon eye' treatment