In an effort to continue providing industry-leading support to over 1,100 worldwide PC-12 customers, Pilatus Aircraft Ltd has completed development of an interactive Aircraft Flight Manual (AFM) for the Apple iOS operating system. The application runs on both the iPad™ and iPhone™ and is available now for free at the Apple App Store™.

The PC-12 Digital AFM for Apple iOS provides pilots with a unique tool for flight preparation as a main part of their electronic flight bag. The Apple iPad™ has recently been approved by the FAA for usage as an EFB. Pilatus pilots will be able to calculate weight and balance, takeoff, climb, cruise, descent and landing performance, and do crosswind calculations for all PC-12 models and interior configurations using a highly graphical and intuitive interface. Many of the program controls feature switchology that mimics controls in the actual aircraft. Performance, weight and balance calculations can be e-mailed to a dispatch center.

Kai Appel, PC-12 Technical Product Manager who led the development effort of the application said, “We are very excited to be one of the first OEMs to offer this convenient tool to our customers. Pilatus operators have long been early adopters of new technology, and we listened to their desires for how we could make their flight preparation easier. Pilatus has offered PDA versions of the Aircraft Flight Manual for Palm™ and Windows Mobile™ devices for some time, and it was only natural to expand to the Apple iOS™ platform.”

The PC-12 Performance Application for Apple iOS™ is available for free to all PC-12 operators at the Apple App Store™. Additional features will be added in the future to suit customer demand. An Android™ version is currently developed and will be released in 2012.

Pilatus press release