Tuesday, August 21, 2012

Simon Hackett: Pilatus PC-12, VH-TCP ... Internode Boss Brags About His New Toys After iiNet Sale

By Simon Hackett
 Online blog

Learning to fly a PC-12:    

"I’m a pilot.  I really love flying."

"I started out in gliders in the mid 1980′s, and I’ve been flying them ever since. There are many stories in there, but this isn’t about them.

I bought a Cirrus SR22 GTS Turbo in 2009, and had a ball gaining a PPL(A) and flying that aircraft too. But this isn’t about that aircraft either.

Rather, its about an aircraft that has been pretty much #1 on my bucket list of ‘planes I would love to own one day’, for many years now."

 Internode Boss Brags About His New Toys After iiNet Sale

After banking the proceeds of iiNet's $105 million cash-and-shares takeover of his Internode ISP operation, Adelaide high-flier (in all senses of the term) Simon Hackett has bought himself a new Swiss toy.

He has acquired a brand-new $3 million Pilatus PC-12 turbo-prop aircraft to go with his electric-powered Tesla Roadster 2.5 Sport and his Stemme powered glider, and tomorrow begins flying the Pilatus back to Adelaide in an 11-day mission.

He's installed another toy in the cockpit: a $499 Datatoy video camera that uses technology to eliminate the twirling prop from its scenic HD recording of the trip.

The natty Pilatus PC-12s are a common sight in outback Australia: the Royal Flying Doctor Service has 31 of them, and the WA and NT cops also have several. But they're outfitted in rather more spartan furnishings than Hackett's six-seater executive model with its plush leather and mahogany trim.

The PC-12 can be flown by a single pilot, cruises at 500km/h and – being pressurized – has a ceiling of 30,000ft. It can take off in 450 metres and land in 228: handy in outback SA.

While it has a range of up to 4100km, Hackett is planning a leisurely trip home from Stans, Switzerland, with stopovers in Crete; Sharm el-Sheikh (Egypt); Muscat (Oman); Agra; Chiang Rai; Ho Chi Minh City; Bali; and Broome.

"This will be the first time I've ever been to any of these places. What a way to get there!" says the Internode chief in his online blog.

http://www.channelnews.com.au

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