On another thread some of the boys were asking about flying the Pilatus Porter , I'm sure there are a few civilian and military pilots here that have flown the Porter and could post a few stories and pics.
It's been 10 years since I flew one now but the Porter is still one of my favorite aircraft.
The one I flew started life as A14-689
In January 1968 the RAAF serial prefix A14 was allocated to the Porter, with the last three digits of the constructor's number completing the aircraft serial number. All aircraft were ferried to Australia with Swiss civil registrations, with the first aircraft, A14-652, being received at RAAF Amberley on 9 February 1968. The Army accepted the first four aircraft (A14-652, 653, -661 and -662) on 16 February, and held an official handover on 10 May 1968. The new aircraft demonstrated a startling short take-off and landing (STOL) capability, which proved ideal for inserting SAS patrols into strips less than 150 metres (500 feet) long.
Two more aircraft, A14-680 and A14-681, were received in October 1968, followed by the remainder of the order over that December and January. These eight aircraft were serialled between A14-683 and A14-693. A fifteenth Porter, A14-701, was delivered in May 1969. During 1969 the Army allocated these aircraft consecutive serials A14-301 to A14-315, but this change was never implemented.
The Porter was flown on operations in Vietnam by No 161 Independent Reconnaissance Flight, and during operations A14-686 was shot down near the Australian Task Force at Nui Dat in December 1969.
With 12 aircraft remaining, the Porter was officially retired on 17 October 1992,
Of the dozen Porters available for disposal, 10 were sold by CSW Associates of Essendon. The first aircraft sold was A14-705, the last Army Porter, which was registered as VH-ZCZ. The other nine aircraft were bought back by Pilatus in early 1993, with six of these being dismantled by Interair and shipped to Switzerland. Of the remaining three, two were purchased by civilian owners in Australia for sports parachuting.
http://www.airforce.gov.au/raafmuseum/research/aircraft/series3/A14.htm
Pilatus Turbo Porter A14-689 PC-6/B1-H2 built in 1968 was my first ever 'warbird' other than a couple of pax flights in a Stearman and a SNJ owned by some friends of mine
I used to fly for a skydiving club and when the boys were looking for a new aircraft I suggested the Porter as the Australian Army was retiring them at the time
It was purchased in 1993 by a group within the skydiving club and flew skydivers in South Australia , Victoria and New South Wales still wearing its Army Camo paint job before being sold for twice what they paid for it in 2001 (it's now in France with a 'pimp my ride' paint job).
In this photo you can see the Porter wearing both it's military dash (A14-689) and it's civilian registration VH-MKT (initials of some of the owners)
I did my endorsement with a CAA examiner who had 5,000 hrs on type with the military, he signed me off after 3.5hrs of dual , highlights of the endorsement were a max power take off , bringing the engine up to full power while being held on the brakes with the stick way back , with just 2 of us on board I would guess the tires did 10 revolutions before we were off the ground (we had a headwind also) and doing practice engine failures down to landing on the runway at Edinburgh AFB in Adelaide South Australia.
Most flights were to 12,000ft for meat bombing but we did a couple to 18,000ft on oxygen.
With a full load of 10 skydivers and pilot it would take 15 to 20 mins to get to 12,000ft depending on the temperature (A14-689 had the small PT6A-20 engine not the -27 in the later models) but coming down was FUN ! Drop the skydivers out the RHS sliding door at 70kts, bring the power back to flight idle, 90 deg diving turn to the left , 38 deg nose down , 120kts and let the prop act like a huge speed brake to enter downwind at 10,000ft with the rate of descent around 6,000fpm, turn on to base at 6,000ft , finals at 3,000ft and let the ground rush up at you until around 200' put on a bit of power to take the prop out of it's slight beta setting at idle bleed off speed to 60kts and touch down in a very tail low wheeler ... it all took 2.5 mins , the skydivers are still under canopy when we were landing and we had usually got the next load on board and ready to roll when the guys we just dropped were landing.
Another interesting flight was with a 70kt wind at 12,000ft which meant I had to reverse the Porter over the drop point from a point upwind , that had everyone laughing on board.
When we got it it still had the rocket hardpoints , military radios , nice big Collins ADI which of course was all stripped out by the owners saving around 300lbs of weight.
I'll post some of my own pics later as I have to scan them first (I didnt have a digital cam in the early '90s)
Me in my flight shorts, t-shirt and parachute around 1993 it was over 40 deg C that day on the dusty plains outside of Adelaide South Australia (Lower Light)
Are the other 2 ex Army Porters that went into skydiving ops still flying in Oz ?
Anyone else with some Porter stories or pics please post away
