I’ve always noticed many PC12’s at BLM over the years and noticed so many of them look the same and have a registration NxxxAF. Ever since I started using FlightAware, I noticed there was always a different owner, but it is always in Portsmouth, NH. Of course, this peaked my interest. So I googled “portsmouth nh pilatus” (yes, that is what I looked up. You have a better suggestion??) I found this website: planesense.aero/ Now one thing I want to know is why is this not listed as an airline on FlightAware?
Aircraft are registered to RIGI INC and Rigi, Inc is a private company categorized under Flying Charter Service and located in Portsmouth, NH.
Oh, ok. That makes “PlaneSense.” Wow, that was horrible. I’ve noticed some seem to be registered to what look like odd names such as “RIPPE SUDREAU LAURE.” One I noticed is registered to “ISRAEL THOMAS C.” Yet another is registered to “HEISS GROUP LLC.” I guess it seems odd that they don’t have all of their planes registered to one place, but then again I know nothing about charter services.
The operator (Riggi) doesn’t own ALL of the aircraft outright. Most of them are fractionally owned and registered in the name of other majority owners, even though they operate under the PlaneSense banner.
The “AF” in the N numbers is derived from “Alpha Flying” IIRC. My son flew for them for several years before moving up to the Avantis.
Ok, that makes sense. I’m surprised how easy it was to find their website by searching nothing more than “portsmouth nh pilatus”. Google is amazing.
EDIT: spelling correction.
As with every other fractional company, when you searched the registration through the FAA database you only get the FIRST name on the registration. The “Fractional Owner” field will say “YES” and the rest of the names are listed at the bottom of the page under “Other Owner Names.”
Try it with any NetJets, Flexjet, Flight Options, Citationair, Avantair, or Planesense airplane.
But to really answer your question, the reason it doesn’t come up on FlightAware as an airline because they don’t file via a callsign. They just use the N-Number. There was talk years back about getting an FAA telephony callsign but for some reason it was disapproved. (suggestions included “Granite” (NH=granite state) and my personal favorite “Blue Canoe”)
Rigi isn’t the actual operator. It’s a holding company that manages the unsold shares of new airplanes and the “core” airplanes that make up the rest of the fleet.
Bring back on old thread but the company is RIGI INC,but callsign is “CHRONOS” and listed as Cobalt Air.
