Earlier this year I was fortunate to return to flying full-time with Surf Air (after an 8 year "hiatus"). The PC-12NG has been a hoot. Captured a bunch of video throughout the year and meshed it all into one...

https://youtu.be/GtZVdSfl5XU

Sweet, thanks for sharing your flying adventures.

Great video Chaz! Congrats for getting back to flying. The PC12 looks like a blast to fly. Where are you flying out of?

Very good stuff. I always enjoy in-cockpit videos.

Surfair. Very interesting business model with the one price all-you-can-fly concept. I guess you see a lot of repetitive customers on your flights.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surf_Air

That is very cool flying, lots of relatively short flights with very varied terrain and conditions. Guess density altitude is a real factor for you. I like the Pilatus and am envious of you. Looks like a pretty new fleet of aircraft. I guess that you do a bit of baggage handling, customer care, and non-pilot things since it is a small company and probably doesn't have a large ground support structure.

A lot of people are going to miss this it being posted here rather than in Community Hall. It is worth sharing.

Such is the life of a charter, fractional or businesss aircraft pilot OG. It tends to be all hands on deck to get things done. One moment you are flying a very expensive piece of hardware, and minutes later you could be your own baggage handler, aircraft cleaner and even find yourself donning the rubber gloves to clean the lav(s) . It's all good though I think, as it helps to keep you 'grounded'.

Usually I don't like this song with flying videos, but this time it fit perfectly.

Hey Paul. I'm based out of the SF Bay Area. IIRC, you fly the Challenger 60x? I remember some pics you posted a while back. The PC-12 has been a great aircraft for me personally to get back into flying after 8 years. A couple of months in the right seat to knock off the rust, then I upgraded to Captain and it's been a blast. Though, I'm always open to moving up into something bigger and faster.



OG, the core of our business is between the SF Bay Area and Los Angeles. We do also fly to Truckee, Napa, Monterey, Santa Barbara and Palm Springs. Lots of growth opportunities out-of-state coming up as well. The company targets the every day/week business traveler that wants to avoid long security lines, traffic to/from major airports (SFO/LAX) and the general hassles of traditional airline travel. Our customers can show up 15 to 25 minutes prior to departure. You are correct, we have the same core customers on a weekly basis and it's pretty cool once we get to know them.

We do the baggage and 'flight attendant' duties (pre-flight announcements), but it's easy stuff with only 8 seats in the PC-12. We also have ground crew aka Concierge to help us so we're not completely on our own. Most of our customers bring backpacks for the day. We operate like an airline with a set schedule, but under Part 135 regs for more flexibility instead of Part 121. I've done the corporate and charter on-demand flying and that requires more flexibility on the pilots' side. Not exactly my cup of tea though. Well, if the pay is right.

A good friend of mine works for www.planesense.com, I think he's in charge of the scheduling of these planes out of PSM. He's been able to do some of their A2A work.

Top Gun, I see they are flying Pilatus as well. Good airplane. I got to spend some time with Jimmy Buffet when he and his pilot flew Buffets Pilatus into KBKV. Buffet was real proud of the plane and showed me around inside. I asked if he missed us Alabatross, and he said sort of. Real fun plane and unique, but a pain to keep flying. It was old and needed constant attention. He said the Pilatus was so much more practical.

Chaz, what position are you flying ? Either seat, I am envious.

Captain.

I've got a ton of video and pics from the year. Been thinking of posting the media. Will take some time to sort through it.

I would like to see some. It doesn't have to be a lot. Just some of what you think would be interesting.

I was flying the 604 up until late last year. Since then I have been flying the Global XRS for the same company. It's a sweet ride but you need a pretty big suitcase. I'm guessing you are home almost every night?

[quote=Paul Rix

I was flying the 604 up until late last year. Since then I have been flying the Global XRS for the same company. It's a sweet ride but you need a pretty big suitcase. I'm guessing you are home almost every night? [/quote]

Global XRS, sweet! Yeah our schedules are all day trips so we're home every night. One of the few flying jobs with that perk. But I'd like to move on eventually. Pc12 pay isn't going to put my kids through college. If you're ever bored in SJC, let me know and we'll go grab coffee or whatever.

If I'm ever in the area I'll be sure to give you a shout Chaz!

Great video! Always liked the PC-12. 90% of a King Air for half the money

Quick re-position flight SJC (San Jose, CA) to SQL (San Carlos,CA)

pc12 is a very interesting and robust aircraft. how do you like it?

have you done any rough field flying or bush flying with it?

i love all the redundant systems the pc12 has, if you can't have a twin the pc12 has to be the next best thing.

1200 ponies on the nose. Glass cockpit. 280 KTAS cruise. 5 to 6 hour endurance. King Air performance for the price of a single engine. What's not to like about the Swiss bird?

Nope, no rough field experience. Would be sweet though. Sadly, I'm moving onto a bigger bird (with 2 engines ) . Gonna miss the PC-12.

It's always good to have a spare engine. Even the bulletproof PT6 fails occasionally . What are you moving up to Chaz?

Cool video Chaz.


Wheels

Finally cleared out my GoPro from earlier this year and put together this video. Footage captured in January and February.

I left Surf Air and moved to Hawaii after February. Been flying the Bombardier Q400. Unfortunately, the FAA prohibits us from posting pics and videos during flight.



Full link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JmH4uCgmz5o

So I subscribed to your channel and will be surfing my way through the Land Of The Glass Panel. Neat.