My friend's buddy just got hired to fly for them. Looks like a nice operation. You get 45 hours per year when you buy a 1/16 fraction.

Has anyone been to New Hampshire to see them?

http://www.planesense.com/index.html

A couple of summers ago my wife and two younger kids and I flew to Portsmouth to visit our friends that had recently moved to the area from Pinehurst.

I of course noticed all the Pilati's on the ramp. Our friends, not being flying type folk, had no clue.

Impressive operation though Arlen.


blue skies

I flew from Boston to Nantucket and back a few weekends ago and I think we counted 12 (!!) of those aircraft on frequency that day. All the tail numbers end in "AF." Huge operation around here.

That sounds pretty cool. Any idea what the costs are like (yes I know if you have to ask)?

I've had clients in the past 3 years looking into opening a similar PC-12 focused operation in the West Coast. Plane Sense appears to be running succesfully.

They are doing with a real plane what DayJet failed at with the mickey-mouse jet.

I dont know what their actual cost are, I would guess that they are just enough below NetJets that the company beancounters move some of that business their way.

Well, 1/16th share of a new PC12 would be about $250K. But I doubt their PC12's are new soooo......

$250K + Operating fees sounds like a lot of money for 45 hours a year. I'd blow through 45 hours in a couple months. Plus, what kind of lead time do they need to schedule a trip?

This program just wouldn't be for guys who are used to owning their own airplanes.

Their web site ways the average age of the fleet is 3.8 years.

They have a management fee and hourly fee.

I suppose for the business that only needs perhaps 90 hours per year (or 2/16 of a plane), their investment would be less than $1 million. Is that better than buying, maintaining, and hiring pilots for your own PC-12?

Their web site ways the average age of the fleet is 3.8 years.

They have a management fee and hourly fee.

I suppose for the business that only needs perhaps 90 hours per year (or 2/16 of a plane), their investment would be less than $1 million. Is that better than buying, maintaining, and hiring pilots for your own PC-12?

In a real fractional deal, you own a share of the title for a group of planes. Unless otherwise restrained by contract, you could sell that interest to someone else. Now, netjets for example tries to force their shareholders to sell them back to the company rather than allowing them to sell/assign them to third parties. They got into some hot water in europe about their business practices in that regard earlier this year. A friend of the family owns a share of a fleet of jets. It is run by a local FBO and doesn't carry such a restriction. As they are not Warren Buffet, they couldn't even buy the shares back if they wanted to. Their interest is to keep the aircraft flying to participate in the management fees, fuel sales and ancillaries, so rather than standing in the way they will try to find a buyer for anyone who wants to get out of his share.

So while it's not gone, you certainly take a beating if you have to sell back to the company.

I have never been interested in any kind of partnership. Too many variables, someone getting the raw end of the deal. Being subjected to a timeshare salesman, I listen intently for about 10 minutes, asking them questions, adding up total costs, divide it by days available. I then let them know that I just need a comfortable bed to lay my head and shower. I get that for 15 to 25 a nite in my favorite caribbean cheap joints. I dont want the pink slip shared amongst a thousand owners, they drop me like a rock.

Arlen - I did a bunch of landings at Portsmouth this evening, and there were a number of PC-12s on their ramp. It looked like somebody was taking pictures for the website right at sunset as they had 3 Pilati lined up and somebody standing on a set of airstairs 20 or so feet ahead of the aircraft.