Lethbridge Employees Bring Personal Touch to Tour of the PT6 Engines Centre of Excellence

Having P&WC employees meet face-to-face with customers to demonstrate how our engines are made and maintained has long been a hallmark of the company’s customer relations activities.

About a dozen members of the Canadian Aerial Applicators Association (CAAA) slipped away from their annual conference in Calgary on February 23 of this year for a tour of Pratt & Whitney Canada’s Centre of Excellence for the PT6 engine located in Lethbridge, Alberta.

The plant tour, arranged by Lisa Martin, Continuous Improvement Leader along with Marie Couillard, General Manager, started with a presentation on P&WC, followed by a walk-through of the assembly facility. The tour was led by plant employees Miguel Bedard, Production Technical Support, Lori Ryan, Quality Manager, and Ryan Cecchini, Production Technician. The operators who attended were keen engine enthusiasts who enjoyed seeing the PT6 engine at various stages of assembly. They also got to witness a live test of a PT6A-60A engine.

Ryan Densham, Marketing Account Manager, General Aviation, based in Longueuil, Quebec, also attended the tour.

“The agricultural market continues to be very important for us,” says Ryan. “Almost one in every four PT6A engines made for new production aircraft was for an agriculture model aircraft in 2012. More and more agricultural customers are moving away from piston engines towards turbine engines.”

Ryan said the PT6A is ideal for the agricultural market due to its better power-to-weight ratio over piston engines, its unmatched reliability and the global customer service network that keeps the engine flying on a dependable basis. An aircraft down for just one day can mean thousands of dollars in lost revenues for these operators.

The CAAA’s primary objective is to promote safety and professionalism among its participating members.