Following eight months of refurbishment, repainting and engine and avionics overhauls, Airtime Charters’ Piper Chieftain has entered the charter market.

The aircraft was purchased at the beginning of the year and has undergone an entire refit at the facility of the firm’s sister company, Airtime Aviation, which is also based in Bournemouth, UK.

The aircraft features long range fuel tanks, which chief pilot Richard Breese believes will give it the edge over other Chieftains. “It’s a late model, has very low hours and we get almost 1,000 miles out of

the tanks.

“It’s already come in handy for us. We carried some car parts from Coventry to Sweden, and without the long range tanks we would have had to have made a fuel stop.”

As well as passenger charter and freight missions, the aircraft can be configured for medevac work. The aircraft can be reconfigured in about 30 minutes.

Breese states that Airtime’s clients have been very impressed with the aeroplane: “Most of the Chieftains in the UK are looking a bit tired now, whereas our interior is of the same standard you’d find in a jet.”

Airtime is hoping to log about 400 hours per year with the Chieftain, a figure it is matching with its other aircraft, a managed Piper Navajo.

“We’ve had the Navajo on our AOC for about seven months and the rate we’ve been doing so far is about 200 hours, so it’s all going in the right direction,” he said.

The firm is considering ‘stepping up’ to a King Air or small jet but Breese said it will take things slowly.