We Fly: Pilatus PC-12 Pro

In the more than 30 years the Pilatus PC-12 has been in service, its unique combination of speed, load-carrying ability, massive cargo door, large, flat-floored cabin, operating flexibility in high-density terminals as well as the backcountry, and fuel efficiency has caused it to acquire several flattering nicknames, including, and perhaps most accurate, the “Flying Turbine Suburban.”

However, after two days of flying the recently released PC-12 Pro, with its new Garmin G3000 Prime integrated flight deck (customized for Pilatus) and another 100 pounds of useful load, I came away unable to stop thinking of the title of Carlos Santana’s 1971 hard-driving rock song, “Everybody’s Everything.”

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With well over 2,000 PC-12s in the field worldwide, the PC-12 Pro is the culmination of years of listening to operator feedback, tweaking the airframe and engine to steadily up max cruise speed by some 20 knots faster than the original PC-12, and with the Pro, making subtle but meaningful changes to such things as cabin cabinetry, the lav, reducing empty weight by 100 pounds, and creating quick releases for passenger seats to speed removal or installation as the need for cargo capacity changes from one flight to the next.

Pilatus has taken a single-engine turboprop that does everything well and made it even more user friendly with cutting-edge Garmin avionics. “Everybody’s Everything” begins with the line, “Seems like everybody’s waitin’ for the new change to come around.” Well, this new change has arrived with the PC-12 Pro.

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The Pro builds on the alterations made to the aircraft in 2019 when Pilatus released the PC-12 NGX, which FLYING reviewed back in April 2020. It was equipped with a five-blade, composite prop being swung by a Pratt & Whitney PT6E-67XP developing 1,200 shp with dual-channel EPECS (Electronic Propeller and Engine Control System—think full FADEC for both engine power and propeller control).

To see how the Pro handled a real-world mission, I visited Pilatus Business Aircraft’s facility in the Denver suburb of Broomfield, Colorado, for several days of briefings and flying missions with demo pilot Brian Mead.

Overview

The airplane Mead and I flew had an empty weight of 6,505 pounds. Max ramp weight is 10,495, with max takeoff weight of 10,450, giving a useful load of 3,993 pounds. Max usable fuel is 2,704 pounds (402 gallons). Fuel balancing between the tanks is automatic. The zero-fuel weight is 9,039 pounds—giving a maximum cabin load in the airplane flown of 2,534 pounds.

With a full bag of fuel, 1,286 pounds could be carried in the cabin—six 200 pounders and 86 pounds of baggage. With that loading, a pilot plus five passengers, NBAA range is 1,665 nm at max cruise. The PC-12 series has a reputation for a long center of gravity range. We ran a series of weight-and-balance problems for the Pro and found that unless you’re carrying gold bricks in weird locations, it’s difficult to load the airplane out of CG. Maximum landing weight is 9,921 pounds.

Pilatus PC-12 Pro [CreditL: Pilatus Aircraft]

To meet FAR Part 23 stall speed certification requirements, all PC-12s have 70 percent wingspan Fowler flaps. That means relatively small ailerons. However, one has a servo tab (Pilatus refers to it by the classic name: Flettner tab) to reduce control force for a given roll rate, which helps to nicely balance the controls in all three axes. There is an aileron-rudder control interconnect that acts so subtly and effectively in flight that we didn’t notice it except during taxi when the control yoke moved with rudder inputs.

Maximum pressurization differential is 5.75 psi, giving a cabin altitude of nearly 10,000 feet at the max operating altitude of 30,000 feet. The massive cargo door (53 inches wide and 52 inches high) means that all baggage or cargo is inside the pressure vessel and accessible during flight. It also functions as an emergency exit.

The electrical system is a 28-volt, dual-channel system powered by two 300-amp generators. In the Pro, Pilatus switched to the same lightweight lithium-ion batteries from True Blue Power that it uses on its PC-24 jet after good experience with their lack of drawdown during engine start, speed of recovery, and communicating condition in real time to the aircraft and crew.

The Pro is certified for flight into known icing (FIKI) and uses boots to deice the wings and horizontal stabilizer. There is fuel in the two wing cells all the way to the leading edge, however, the combination of the deicing boots and wing skins made of a stiffened clad aluminum alloy mean that there is significant protection against breaching a fuel tank in a crash.

Pilatus paid attention to crashworthiness by placing the fuel in the wings as far outboard as possible and routing all fuel lines outside of the pressure vessel. The crew is restrained by four-point harnesses and the passengers by three-point.

Avionics

The biggest change coming with the PC-12 Pro is incorporation of the Garmin G3000 Prime integrated flight deck and the capabilities it adds to the automation and assistance and support it provides to a pilot or two-person crew. For a deep dive into G3000 Prime, look at FLYING’s dedicated coverage in Issue 953.

Prime is Garmin’s third-generation integrated flight deck and is designed for Part 23 turbine aircraft. Pilatus is the first manufacturer to deliver an aircraft certified with Prime. Garmin put its most sophisticated applications and capabilities into the flight deck and streamlined the user interface, improving the quality of the display and increasing its operational speed and connectivity by an order of magnitude.

The Garmin G3000 Prime panel features touch-control screens. The inverted ‘W’ control wheel, which proved popular on the PC-24, is now on the PC-12. [Credit: Rick Durden]

After two days of briefings and flying the PC-12 Pro twice, I came away impressed with the customization of Prime by Pilatus and Garmin in concert to make the flight deck even more pilot friendly by making the menu structure horizontal and shallower, reducing the steps needed to reach any screen or to customize a presentation.

On the Pro flight deck, the pilot can decide which four apps are most used and make them “hot” so that they are immediately ready to display with one press of the touchscreen or a click of the “enter” button on the cursor control device (CCD). Historically, Pilatus has used Honeywell avionics that included a cursor/trackball similar to a computer mouse to access information. Pilatus insisted—based on owner feedback—on the CCD, which can float over any of the five screens.

The CCD is located on the aft end of the power pedestal. Especially in turbulence, it was an excellent way to control the integrated flight deck. It was easier to roll the control ball to move the cursor to the desired location and click “enter” than to lean forward and touch the same location on the touchscreen.

There is also a “Rubik’s Cube,” as Mead described it, in the corner of each display—clicking on it brings up secondary menus.

A “hamburger” pulls up things that can be overlayed on the display in use as well as advanced settings. This leads into crew profiles—the flight deck can be customized by pilots to create a profile to individualize the overall default display on all five screens. As many as 25 profiles can be in the system at any one time.

The safety functions of the integrated flight deck are manifold. The top of the list is Garmin’s Emergency Autoland, which Pilatus refers to as Safety Autoland. Autoland is a major leap forward in general aviation safety. When activated, it takes control of the airplane, briefs the occupants about the situation, selects an appropriate airport and runway for a landing based on weather, aircraft capabilities and NOTAMs (to make sure the runway isn’t closed), and flies the airplane toward the runway.

It simultaneously codes 7700 on the transponder and transmits emergency calls on appropriate radio frequencies. It then lands the airplane, brings it to a stop on the runway, shuts the engine down, and directs the occupants to evacuate. Pilatus is in the late stages of certification of Safety Autoland—any airplanes delivered before it is approved will be retrofitted.

Safety Autoland can be activated by anyone in the aircraft by pressing a red button overhead. The pilot can override and shut down the system at any time. The system can also activate itself (the pilot can still shut it down) based on an algorithm indicating that the pilot has become incapacitated.

In addition, if there is a cabin depressurization at high altitude, another safety system, Emergency Descent Mode (EDM), activates, turns the airplane 90 degrees, pulls the power to idle and descends (away from terrain) at VMO minus-10 to 15,000 feet, where the autopilot flies the airplane level at 160 kias. If the pilot does not then interact with the flight deck, Safety Autoland activates.

Finally, if the Electronic Stability and Protection (ESP) safety system has sensed pilot control inputs that repeatedly exceeded given limits and approach dangerous conditions—for example, a diving spiral—without the pilot shutting off ESP (indicating the control inputs are on purpose) and returns the aircraft to level flight, Safety Autoland will activate.

Pilatus says ESP is designed to “discourage the exceedance of attitude, established airspeed and bank angle parameters.” It acts to assist a pilot who may be disoriented or distracted and helps the pilot return the aircraft to a stabilized attitude. With ESP, if the autopilot and/or autothrottle engage to help the pilot, they shut off once the airplane is stabilized—the automation returns control to the pilot. When it activates, Mead said that ESP comes across to the pilot as a “CFI nudge” to help get the airplane back to desired pitch, roll, and speed parameters.

The Emergency Return feature sets up a visual or IMC emergency return after takeoff based on what the pilot has told the system during the pretakeoff checks as to the runway and approach desired if an immediate return is needed. A single button push pulls up the approach information, sets frequencies, and gives the route directly to the final approach fix.

Having made emergency returns after takeoff and dealing with what can be an incredibly high workload event, Emergency Return is a major asset for a pilot during a high-stress situation.

A major part of the avionics suite is the Garmin GWX 8000 StormOptix weather radar. Using a new 12-inch dish on the right wingtip (which also helps counteract P-factor on takeoff), it is fully automatic—the crew only need to select the range. It has 3D volumetric scanning and automatically suppresses ground clutter, warns of potential areas of radar attenuation, and boasts hail and lightning prediction. For takeoff and landing, it has predictive wind shear.

What Garmin calls Linked View allows a pilot to view an existing flight plan and manipulate it to create an alternative route and then compare them side by side graphically before executing any changes. It allows a pilot to look at all arrival or departure procedures, toggling through them with a hot key before choosing one and loading it.

Anytime a Crew Alerting System (CAS) warning appears, clicking on it opens the appropriate checklist for the alert—no more pulling out a large binder and leafing through it. As with the regular checklist display, working through individual items of a CAS checklist clicks off each item in succession until the checklist is complete.

Smart Glide gives the crew information on available airports in the event of engine failure. Should the propeller fail, the Electronic Engine and Propeller Control System (EEPCS) feathers the prop but keeps the engine running to supply electrical power and pressurization during the descent for landing, making the PC-12 Pro the world’s most capable glider.

Garmin’s Runway Overrun Awareness and Alerting System (ROAAS) uses data on runway length, condition, slope weather, airplane configuration, speed, and descent angle to confirm that there is enough runway to safely stop. If not, it issues a series of progressively more urgent visual and audial alerts and warnings.

Runway Occupancy Awareness (ROA) uses relevant GPS and ADS-B traffic information to alert the crew of a possible runway incursion or collision.

Ins and Outs

The walkaround revealed superb fit and finish on the exterior with attention to small details—such as screws being painted individually before being installed rather than after installation so that the first time a screw is removed the exterior paint isn’t torn up.

All systems can be accessed via doors or hatches that can be opened easily. Some hatches open downward and are designed to catch leaks—painting the inside of all hatches and compartments white helps make leaks stand out.

**The author descending the airstairs (left).**

As might be expected from an airplane in this class, the cabin furnishing from BMW Designworks is rich, yet not overstated. The seats can lie flat, cabin lighting has been upgraded, and USB ports and power outlets are near each seat. Up to nine seats in commuter configuration can be installed, allowing for 10 passengers—one in the copilot seat. The most common configuration is six cabin seats with the front four in a club seating arrangement.

A medevac kit with two stretchers and three cabin seats is available. It, plus the rugged landing gear, triggered my memory that the original PC-12 was developed in conjunction with the Royal Flying Doctor Service of Australia for operation in the outback and rapid transport of patients.

Put bluntly, the cabin is amazingly flexible. It can be rapidly changed from upscale, luxury transportation to medevac units to down-and-dirty freight hauling where a forklift can pull up directly to the cargo door without having to worry about hitting the T-tail.

The first look into the flight deck reveals that some of the DNA from the PC-24 jet has been injected into the Pro—notably the inverted “W” yokes that I liked so much when we flew the jet for the October 2024 Issue 951 of FLYING.

The most common configuration is six cabin seats with the front four arranged club style. [Credit: Pilatus Aircraft]

The Garmin touch control panel has three 14-inch screens (two Primary Flight Windows and one Multifunction Window) and two 7-inch screens—the Secondary Display Units (SDUs) for data entry and system control. All screens are very high resolution and easy to read in any lighting condition. They can be controlled by touch or the CCD. Anti/deice controls are to the left of the center console, with pressurization controls to the right.

Flying It

With the EEPCS, startup is amazingly simple: Turn on the batteries, move the engine switch to “RUN,” make sure that the fuel pumps are running, and touch the start switch once. Then it’s only a matter of monitoring the start as the EPECS will automatically abort a start if there is an ITT exceedance, hung start, no light-off, or the starter switch is pressed again.

Preparing for departure does not take long as the Prime system walks the crew through checklists, and the IFR takeoff preset configures the screens.

Lining up for takeoff with 15 degrees of flap and autothrottle selected, we moved the PCL forward until the autothrottle took it away and set max power. Acceleration was swift, but not breakneck with an 8.71 pounds/horsepower power loading. The 1,200 shp and five-bladed prop up front mean right rudder was most definitely required during the takeoff roll.

Departure was from Denver’s Rocky Mountain Metropolitan Airport (KBJC), which has a field elevation of 5,673 feet. Takeoff distance over a 50-foot obstacle at gross weight on a standard day at sea level is published as 2,485 feet. Mead and I were well below gross weight on our takeoffs from Metro and, later, Telluride Regional Airport (KTEX/elevation 9,078), and the airplane appeared to meet book performance, getting up and away handily.

Rotation speed was 82 kias. The gear came up with positive rate, the yaw damper was engaged, and we transitioned to a climb speed of 130 kias with the flaps up. We initially saw a rate of climb out of Metro of just under 2,000 fpm, which diminished to about 1,500 fpm before we leveled off at 14,500 feet for airwork.

Slow flight with full flaps and the gear extended was solid all the way down to where the ESP system sensed that we were approaching a stall, activated the autothrottle, and lowered the nose.

Even flying with full flaps, the ailerons would generate a rapid roll rate when asked. Steep turns were simply fun—rolling in and out rapidly and holding appropriate back pressure to maintain altitude as the speed scrubbed off.

Control forces are what one expects in an airplane of this size designed for travel, firm but not ponderous. In cruise, I liked holding the left base of the control yoke with my left fingertips while resting my hand on my left leg. My right hand fell naturally onto the CCD.

We made two max cruise power speed runs, one at 14,500 feet where we observed 264 ktas (book is 272) at plus-14 ISA and a fuel flow of 523 pph (book is 536). The speed seemed right for the warm day. At FL 240 and plus-14 ISA we observed 268 ktas versus the book speed of 271—again about right for the high temperature. Fuel flow was 407 pph versus a book number of 415.

Mead walked me through some of the safety features of the Garmin flight deck including ESP. Attempting to bank more than 51 degrees, the ESP gave us that “CFI nudge” to reduce the bank angle to 30 degrees. When we commanded an excessive rate of descent with high power and the autopilot engaged, the ESP used the autothrottle to keep speed below redline but to maintain the descent profile we had selected—demonstrating that ESP is there to help a pilot who becomes distracted or disoriented, not take over.

We used Linked View to change our flight plan on the way to Telluride, calling up revised routing, comparing it to what was in use, and noting the differences before loading and activating it. The autopilot initiated the descent almost imperceptibly and flew the approach more smoothly than I’ve experienced with earlier autopilots. Pilatus personnel explained that autopilot smoothness was one of the important parts in the design of G3000 Prime and its integration into the PC-12 Pro.

On approach, the system presents a Dynamic Speed Bug (DSB) as a small green circle on the airspeed indicator. It constantly shows the 1.3 VSO approach speed for the airplane configuration, whether it is turning or wings level.

I was advised to fly final at DSB plus-5 knots, which proved amazingly easy to do. The big prop can be a major-league producer of thrust or a throw-out-the-anchor speedbrake. Our landings were with 15 and 30 degrees of flap extension.

As the radar altimeter counted down the altitude in tens of feet below 50 feet on each landing, I followed Mead’s advice to simultaneously pull the power to idle and flare just slightly at 10 feet.

It worked beautifully. The prop flattens, the airplane slows, but the gentle flare reduces the descent rate to nearly zero, resulting in a smooth touchdown.

At least I think I did it right—the trailing link gear will make even bad pilots look good.

Conclusion

As of October, there is a 39 percent import tax on Swiss aircraft coming into the U.S., despite the PC-12 Pro being partially built in America. Fortunately, Pilatus did not fully stop deliveries and they are now ramping up ferry flights and production.

I’ve liked the PC-12 since I first flew it over 20 years ago. I was impressed by Garmin’s G3000 Prime integrated flight deck when introduced to it last year.

The marriage of the two, with customization by Pilatus and Garmin, has produced a remarkable airplane with vast mission flexibility—everybody’s
everything.