24 November 2008, marked the 21st birthday of the first PC-9/A trainer aircraft to be delivered to the RAAF by Pilatus.
A23-001 and A23-002 were delivered to RAAF Base East Sale on 24 November 1987 on delivery flights from Switzerland.
SQNLDR Bill Spiers, who went on to be Officer Commanding ARDU and Director of Air Force Flying Safety, completed acceptance test flying at Bankstown.
AVM Alan Read, Air Officer Commanding Support Command, flew A23-002 upon its arrival at East Sale and commented on the aircraft’s superb handling characteristics, a feature of the aircraft which still allows it to be such a capable training platform today.
PC-9/A aircraft 001 and 002 were the only two aircraft which were fully assembled by Pilatus, the remainder of the fleet being built under licence by Hawker de Havilland in Australia.
The Fleet of 64 aircraft have flown a total of over 375,000 hours.
They are operated at Central Flying School at East Sale Victoria, Number 2 Flying Training School at Pearce Western Australia, Forward Air Control Development Unit at RAAF Williamtown in NSW and the Aerospace Operational Support Group at RAAF Edinburgh in South Australia.
The original planned withdrawal date for the Pilatus PC-9/A fleet was 2008, but the design, robustness and support of both the airframe and the systems has permitted the ADF to extend the life out to 2016, or beyond if required. Defence intend to replace the PC-9/A under Project Air 5428 by a complete Training System.
The Pilatus PC-21 training suite, in operation with the Singaporean and Swiss Air Forces, is a likely contender.