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LP: That’s great. Q2 revenues are up around 19%. Where are you seeing the most lift from Piper’s lineup?
RG: Q2 is an acceleration point for Piper. While some areas of our sup- ply base remain difficult, the labor challenges everyone in the industry has experienced are easing, and we see Q2 as the first acceleration point for production. Our aircraft are all retail sold. For Piper, comparing Q2 2022 to Q2 2023 shows:
• M-Class deliveries increased 50% from 8 to 12
• Trainer deliveries increased by around 20% from 34 to 41
There is continued demand in both of our primary markets, and we plan to deliver somewhere between 270 and 275 aircraft in 2023, all of which are already retail-sold.
LP: Piper recently announced MEL (minimum equipment list) approval for the M600. How does that apply to helping your customers?
RG: The MEL approval for the 260 M600s already operating worldwide allows those operators to put their aircraft on charter certificates, add- ing an extra revenue stream for those assets. We won’t see an influx of or- ders because of the MEL approval, but it will be an incremental benefit to ownership, which will ref lect in sales down the road.
LP: How about the unimproved field performance for the M600? Who benefits from this certification, and how did you get there?
RG: Piper began testing for unim- proved field performance for the M600 three years ago, mirroring our invest- ment in the Meridian and M500 pro- grams. We redesigned the nose gear fork to accommodate higher loads. That’s a significant investment in en- gineering resources, time and testing. The demand comes from Europe and Latin America, Brazil particularly. For these markets, we have seen a direct increase in orders because of the add- ed capability, and also, current cus- tomer satisfaction increases because the installed base is retrofittable.
LP: HALO was a significant accom- plishment for Piper in 2021. HALO seems to provide the best way to
overcome challenges from competi- tive parachutes. Can you pinpoint and attribute incremental sales di- rectly to HALO, especially as Piper was the first OEM to implement it on its aircraft?
RG: There is a direct correlation between M600 SLS sales increases and HALO. We have seen continuous over- all market improvement since HA- LO’s implementation, which provides overall lift, but HALO is undoubtedly attributable to the improvement as well. It’s more evident if you take a step back and look at M600 delivery improvements between 2021 and 2022. In 2021, we showed +3 M600s delivered; in 2022, we improved with another +3 deliveries. Now, this year, Piper will deliver +7 M600s over 2022. The overall economy combined with HALO and the Autoland sys- tem all have a direct positive impact on deliveries.
Piper was the first OEM to go all-in with Garmin on HALO and, subse- quently, the first to certify it on the M600. Piper also insisted that HALO be standard equipment as a testament to our dedication to customer safety.
The level of comfort the HALO system provides non-flying fam- ily members is tremendous. Having f lown many automated landings now, seeing how the system displays its position and communicates with the non-flying passengers is remarkable. It calmly and intuitively provides pas- sengers with distance and time-to-des- tination information while navigating around weather and terrain and com- municating with ATC via transponder and VHF radio.
LP: I love it. Let’s switch gears. You mentioned how labor markets are improving somewhat. Piper imple- mented the Ambassador Program re- cently. I see that program potentially going further and helping others in the industry, too. Do you see that?
RG: The Ambassador Program with our larger f light schools provides a connection to the Piper factory. Every year, we have three or four summer interns who have the opportunity after graduation to become Piper employees. The partnership provides
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October 2023 / TWIN & TURBINE • 9