PC-9/A fleet celebrates 25 years in Australia

November 2012 marks the 25th anniversary of the first PC-9/A trainer aircraft delivered to the Royal Australian Air Force.

A23-001 and A23-002 were delivered to RAAF Base East Sale on November 24, 1987 after having flown from Switzerland.

The acceptance test flying was completed at Bankstown by SQNLDR Bill Spiers.

PC-9/A aircraft 001 and 002 were the only two which were fully assembled by Pilatus, the remainder of the fleet being built under licence by Hawker de Havilland in Australia.

The fleet of 63 aircraft have flown a total of over 440,000 hours. They are operated at Central Flying School at East Sale Victoria, Number 2 Flying Training School at Pearce Western Australia, 4 Squadron 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, such as the Pilatus PC-21 training suite which is already in operation with the Singaporean, Swiss and United Arab Emirates Air Force and on order by the Qatar and Saudi-Arabian Air Forces.