By David Meisels, Manager – PT6A Customer Engineering
Not only is Pratt & Whitney Canada’s David Meisels proudly PT6; he’s also quite the globetrotter. As manager of PT6A Customer Engineering, David is often on the road connecting with P&WC’s ever-expanding global network of PT6 engine owners and operators. He checked in with us during his recent tour of PT6 Customer Days in East Asia.
Greetings, PT6 Nation!
Pratt & Whitney Canada’s (P&WC) international network extends to every corner of this planet, and over the past few years I’ve been fortunate enough to represent P&WC’s PT6 engine family at Customer Days across Asia.
Part of the strength of P&WC’s global reach is our ability to work for our customers around the clock, regardless of their geographic location. While much of this can be done remotely, we embrace these Customer Days because they’re great opportunities to work closely with both our customers and our field support representatives (FSRs) from the various regions.
It’s a chance for me to provide product and business updates. In return, I receive feedback that is crucial to understanding how we can better serve our customers, and what better place for me to fully appreciate this feedback than in their very own backyard?
My tour of beautiful East Asia started in Osaka, Japan, where 30 operators and maintainers of PT6A engines came together for a fun and engaging conference on all things PT6A.
A definite highlight was Kazuyoshi Nitta’s presentation on engine wash. Nitta-san works at Nakanihon Air Service, a charter company that pioneered an inventive way of optimizing engine wash. Nakanihon operates helicopter and fixed-wing aircraft, including the Cessna Caravan (PT6A-114A), Beechcraft King Air 200 (PT6A-42), AW139 (PT6C-67C) and Bell 412 (PT6T-3D). To put things in perspective, 86% of the King Air’s flying hours is dedicated to low-altitude maritime patrol, which means extensive salt ingestion.
Next up: Xian, China. We had a great turnout, with more than 40 customers visiting over two days. One of the highlights was the focus on our beloved PT6 Nation. We put the PT6 Nation home page live on a projector screen in the conference room and invited people to sign up. They showed a great deal of enthusiasm for the online platform where they could connect with fellow PT6 fans around the world. One new community member, Li Ning, posted a photo of some of the new recruits almost immediately and has been contributing ever since!
You’ll notice that I’m sitting in the background of the photo, smiling from ear to ear. What can I say? I was pretty happy to see PT6 Nation’s global neighbourhood expand before my very eyes!
With the PT6 engine’s reliability, flexibility and durability, it’s no wonder that its reach encompasses every corner of the globe.
