Pratt & Whitney Canada (P&WC) of Longueuil, Quebec (Booth No. 3317) is not only highlighting its customer support programs here at Heli-Expo 2012, it’s delivering them. Today the company hosts Technical Briefing sessions in room C140 at the Dallas Convention Center for operators and maintenance personnel of PT6 (11 a.m.), PW200 (12 p.m.) and PT6C-67C (1 p.m.) engines.

Raffaele Virgili, vice president, customer service, termed the briefings “part of our global ‘Customer Reach Out’ initiative.” Briefings will include information on maintenance recommendations and updates on support programs.

For customers who want to expand their communication links with the company, for the second consecutive year P&WC’s booth will have a kiosk for PT6Nation, the company’s social network microsite, designed to facilitate customer feedback. Attendees can tour the microsite and sign up for membership at the kiosk.

Since launch, the site has logged more than 56,000 unique visitors and has more than 1,375 “citizens,” in addition to thousands of Facebook fans and Twitter followers. “PT6Nation complements our global customer service vision, which is predicated on delivering performance, speed and simplicity to our customers,” Virgili said.

P&WC is also introducing an engine exchange program for its PW206B2 model, aimed at operators with high utilization missions or severe operating environments. The program gives customers the option of buying a zero-time, overhauled engine to replace in-service engines coming due for overhaul.

“The major benefit to the operator is not having to deploy a rental engine while the overhaul is completed,” Virgili said. “It also means that the price will be established up front to allow for improved financial planning.” Additional PW200 models will be added to the program based on market demand.

Additionally, the company announced the expansion of service offerings at its Long Beach, Calif. service center, adding component repairs and hot section inspections (HSI) for a variety of PW206 and PW207 turboshaft engines to its capabilities. The facility currently services CT and PT discs, performs segment grinding, and provides clutch inspections and HSIs for PT6T engines.

P&WC is also highlighting a pair of significant milestones. First, more than 500 of its turboshaft engines are now enrolled in its pay-per-hour Eagle Service Plan (ESP Program).

And second, the PW200 family of engines recently surpassed 5 million flying hours. “This remarkable milestone demonstrates the tremendous success of the PW200 engine family over the past two decades,” said Richard Dussault, vice president, marketing at P&WC. “It has become a reference in the light-twin helicopter market, capturing a majority of new deliveries in this segment, especially in law enforcement, emergency medical services and corporate markets.”