PAC 750XL msn 111 was completed in October 2004 and registered ZK-JQF. In late November of 2004 it ferried from Hamilton to Pago Pago, Christmas Island and Hawaii and to the US. Its NZ registration was cancelled on 21-12-2004.
By February 2005, it had been delivered to Reid-Hillview Airport, San Jose, California, as N750SD (SD = SkyDive) for Utility Aircraft Corporation, PAC's distributor for the Americas.
The following month, UAC delivered N750SD to Mark Mark Air (Mark Pollack), of Taft, California. Subsequently, Pollack became a joint owner of Skydive Temple of Salado, Texas, which operated the aircraft.
A noteworthy operation took place on 8-9 September 2006, when N750SD (along with PAC 750 N820AB, c/n 116 and ex ZK-JQP, and Pilatus PC-6 B2-H2 Porter N19TX, c/n 684 and ex A14-684 with the Australian Army) carried skydiving instructor Willard Lee (Jay) Stokes aloft to gain him his fifth Guinness World Record of 640 jumps in 24 hours, at Greensburg. Indiana.
In 2007, N750SD moved west and was registered on 13 June 2007 to present owner Clear Sky Holdings of Zephyr Cove, Nevada, on the shores of Lake Tahoe.
After a season in the Sierra Nevada range, N750SD was ferried to Hawaii, arriving at Dillingham, on Oahu, in January 2008, for use by the Pacific Skydiving Center. There it enjoyed an incident-free career, apart from a collision on takeoff with a Red-vented Bulbul (Pycnonotus cafer) on 26 May 2009.
Photo below shows N750SD at Dillingham, Hawaii in 2008.
Photo below shows N750SD at Dillingham, Hawaii in 2008.
Since 2010, Skydive Milwaukee, based at East Troy Municipal Airport, Wisconsin, has leased the aircraft, which for the northern 2010/2011 winter season was sub-leased to Skydive East Tennessee, at Dandridge, near Knoxville.
There is an interesting item on the following blog - including a comparison between the PC-6 and the 750XL.
There is an interesting item on the following blog - including a comparison between the PC-6 and the 750XL.
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