Tim La Porte, owner of Iliamna Air Taxi Service in Iliamna, Alaska, celebrates milestone achievement and continues his reign as the highest time PC-12 pilot in the world.

In a special ceremony at the Great Alaska Aviation Gathering in Anchorage, Pilatus Business Aircraft’s Vice President of Customer Service Piotr “Pete” Wolak presented Tim La Porte with a commemorative award to recognize his 10,000 hours as pilot in command of a PC-12.

Iliamna Air Taxi is a family airline run by Tim, his wife Nancy, and daughter Heidi. Iliamna provides charter and scheduled air carrier service in Alaska, and has been in operation since 1977. Their primary service area includes Anchorage, Lake Iliamna, Lake Clark and Bristol Bay.

Through Iliamna Air Taxi, the La Portes currently operate three PC-12 aircraft, one of which they have owned continuously since December 1999. As evidence of their personal involvement in the business, their PC-12s display each of their initials in the registration numbers N715NL, N715HL, and N715TL. The #7 was Tim’s high school hockey jersey number, and Heidi sported #15 on her high school basketball, softball, and volleyball teams.

Wolak commented, “All of us at Pilatus wish to congratulate Tim on this remarkable achievement. We are very proud and honored to have Iliamna Air Taxi as an owner/operator of the PC-12 aircraft. They have brought a whole new, literal meaning to “Pilatus family”. Tim has been an outstanding advocate of the PC-12 program, and has been a big part of helping us develop our customer service efforts to a world-class level. We wish Tim, Nancy, and Heidi continued success and many more hours of safely flying Pilatus aircraft.”

Accepting the award from Pilatus, La Porte stated, “I have to credit my wife Nancy for supporting my crazy idea of purchasing our first PC-12 and especially for putting her total effort into promoting, booking, and scheduling all the flights that made this achievement possible. I truly am blessed to have fulfilled a dream flying career over 41 years and 32,000 hours of Alaskan bush flying. Even after 10,000 hours in the PC-12, I still get incredibly thrilled piloting it on every flight. If I could have any other wish, it would be to be the first PC-24 operator in Alaska!”