Press Release

Issued by .

December 12, 2008

The Bournemouth based Pilatus aircraft distributor has achieved accreditation by the CAA to be the first Pilatus PC-12 Type Rating Training organisation in the country.  Examiner Andrew Dixon has been appointed Head of Training at the UK Pilatus Centre who will oversee a team of 3 instructors as the demand for pilots qualified to fly the award winning PC-12 aircraft continues with deliveries now scheduled into 2010.

Bob Berry, Managing Director of the UK Pilatus Centre says that he is delight that Andrew Dixon (who is well known for his DC3, B-17 and Percival Pembroke display flying) is onboard.

"We have 6 pilots enrolled to gain their PC-12 type rating and more enquiries filtering through," said Bob Berry, who has introduced 13 new $4 million, 9 seat, economical and versatile executive aircraft to the UK since 2005.  "We are now seeing earlier models being replaced by customers who want the latest NG version so the demand for type rated pilots is increasing rapidly."

Until the CAA approval was granted, Pilots had to train with the Swiss factory's team at Stans.  The team at Bournemouth also support training on the smaller American produced turbine powered Piper PA-46 Malibu Meridian.