Pilatus Turbo Porter A14-689 - my 1st PIC 'warbird'
Fri Mar 27, 2009 2:52 am
Pilatus Turbo Porter A14-689 PC-6/B1-H1 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 1992 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.
I'm not sure if A14-689 ever served in Vietnam but some of it's sister ships did with a couple lost to ground fire.
The Australian Army Porters were mostly used at very low level for observation and SAS insertion. I think doing para-drops gave the Porter nose bleeds as it was probably rarely flown that high by the Army.
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.
Ok , it's not a Mustang , P-47 and doesn't have a nice supercharged radial or V-12 but it was my first extended play with flying military surplus.I did about 250hrs in the aircraft in the 2yrs that I flew it and it was a lot of fun and good experience and other than the fuel and instructor time for the endorsement I traded my spare time for flying time.
Anyone else flown the Porter or Fairchild Porter ? I still watch my Air America DVD for a Porter fix occassionally. I found it a forgiving aircraft to fly but with the long wingspan and fuselage you where constantly making small control adjustments to eek the max rate of climb out of her.
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 1992/93 it was over 100 deg F that day on the dusty plains outside of Adelaide South Australia (sister city of Austin, Texas by the way)
Regards
Tony
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 1992 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.
I'm not sure if A14-689 ever served in Vietnam but some of it's sister ships did with a couple lost to ground fire.
The Australian Army Porters were mostly used at very low level for observation and SAS insertion. I think doing para-drops gave the Porter nose bleeds as it was probably rarely flown that high by the Army.
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.
Ok , it's not a Mustang , P-47 and doesn't have a nice supercharged radial or V-12 but it was my first extended play with flying military surplus.I did about 250hrs in the aircraft in the 2yrs that I flew it and it was a lot of fun and good experience and other than the fuel and instructor time for the endorsement I traded my spare time for flying time.
Anyone else flown the Porter or Fairchild Porter ? I still watch my Air America DVD for a Porter fix occassionally. I found it a forgiving aircraft to fly but with the long wingspan and fuselage you where constantly making small control adjustments to eek the max rate of climb out of her.
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 1992/93 it was over 100 deg F that day on the dusty plains outside of Adelaide South Australia (sister city of Austin, Texas by the way)
Regards
Tony
Last edited by aseanaero on Fri Mar 27, 2009 9:37 am, edited 5 times in total.
Fri Mar 27, 2009 3:13 am
Hey, no need to make excuses, a warbird's a warbird. Even an L-bird. 
The Porter looks like an awesomely fun plane by all accounts, and I'd love to try it out some day (well, that applies to every airplane) and take it into some places not meant for airplanes.
The Porter looks like an awesomely fun plane by all accounts, and I'd love to try it out some day (well, that applies to every airplane) and take it into some places not meant for airplanes.
Fri Mar 27, 2009 3:21 am
Thanks Vessbot,
Yes , definitely try a Porter sometime.
When they come down in a beta descent you can hear it from about 2 miles away.
We were lucky we flew from a dirt strip on a farm where there were no houses , no other aircraft and no control tower and the farmer LOVED having aircraft around doing wild stuff.
You'll enjoy this link then , this Porter is operated by Susi Air in Irian Jaya , East Indonesia. Most of the strips are 5,000ft elevation and tricky
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYY9s8KKDDs&feature=related
Yes , definitely try a Porter sometime.
When they come down in a beta descent you can hear it from about 2 miles away.
We were lucky we flew from a dirt strip on a farm where there were no houses , no other aircraft and no control tower and the farmer LOVED having aircraft around doing wild stuff.
and take it into some places not meant for airplanes.
You'll enjoy this link then , this Porter is operated by Susi Air in Irian Jaya , East Indonesia. Most of the strips are 5,000ft elevation and tricky
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYY9s8KKDDs&feature=related
Fri Mar 27, 2009 4:45 am
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PU3RecxH ... re=related
here you go 1 short descent
1 VERY quick descent
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AD1xBMth ... re=related
here you go 1 short descent
1 VERY quick descent
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AD1xBMth ... re=related
Fri Mar 27, 2009 4:54 am
There were a few guys that tweaked their Porters beta and could descend vertically and come down in formation with the skydivers at 10,000fpm but IF it ever came out of beta they were going to go through VNE
We decided 2.5 min / 6,000fpm descents were a good enough balance between efficiency and safety !
In link 2 (posted by flyingheritage) the descent starts at 12,000 ft (not 14,000 as it says on the video title) and thats a pretty typical ride down (except he leveled off for a moment at 1,500ft) and he took exactly 2.5 mins for the wheels to touch the runway.
You can see the prop really starting to bite the air at around 9,000ft as the air gets denser. Above 15,000ft there is very little propellor brake effect.
You can see the Porter is quite responsive when it's LIGHT and really bleeds off that excess speed before landing when you pull the nose up.
It was a big jump in performance for the club pilots , before this our jump plane was a 1962 model C182.
The most outlandish proposal for the new 'big' jump plane (before it was decided to get a Porter) was ... a Douglas Skyraider
... now that would have been FUN ! We couldn't figure out how the jumpers would get out as none of us had actually seen a Skyraider in the flesh.
There's a few Skyraider pilots here so now the mystery can be solved 17 years later , isn't there a big door on the side of the fuselage ? Would it be possible to stuff to skydivers in there ?
We decided 2.5 min / 6,000fpm descents were a good enough balance between efficiency and safety !
In link 2 (posted by flyingheritage) the descent starts at 12,000 ft (not 14,000 as it says on the video title) and thats a pretty typical ride down (except he leveled off for a moment at 1,500ft) and he took exactly 2.5 mins for the wheels to touch the runway.
You can see the prop really starting to bite the air at around 9,000ft as the air gets denser. Above 15,000ft there is very little propellor brake effect.
You can see the Porter is quite responsive when it's LIGHT and really bleeds off that excess speed before landing when you pull the nose up.
It was a big jump in performance for the club pilots , before this our jump plane was a 1962 model C182.
The most outlandish proposal for the new 'big' jump plane (before it was decided to get a Porter) was ... a Douglas Skyraider
... now that would have been FUN ! We couldn't figure out how the jumpers would get out as none of us had actually seen a Skyraider in the flesh.
There's a few Skyraider pilots here so now the mystery can be solved 17 years later , isn't there a big door on the side of the fuselage ? Would it be possible to stuff to skydivers in there ?
Fri Mar 27, 2009 9:30 am
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.
from
http://www.airforce.gov.au/raafmuseum/research/aircraft/series3/A14.htm