A fishy story

LINCOLN, Nebraska — There’s something fishy about Duncan Aviation’s newest aircraft.

A one-of-a-kind design from world-renowned artist Derek DeYoung is featured on the Pilatus PC-12, reflecting the passion Duncan Aviation Board of Directors Chairman Todd Duncan has for fishing and the outdoors.

The 10-year-old PC-12, acquired in early 2023, had more than 4,000 hours total time, and needed avionics modifications/upgrades, heavy maintenance, new paint, and a new interior, according to Duncan officials.

According to Todd Duncan, the paint scheme is an interpretation of what fishing is.

“It’s not a literal fish, it’s the experience,” he said. “To me, it’s about the experience you get when you go fishing, whether it’s a pond here in Nebraska, or somewhere more exotic. You load up all your equipment, grab the fellas, and go. That’s what this thing was built for, and I’m just so excited to take this all over the world.”

Duncan added he’s always admired Derek DeYoung’s work.

“He’s a famous artist in the fishing world, and I noticed his work years ago,” he said. “We tracked him down and encouraged him to design a paint scheme for this aircraft.”

DeYoung was on board right away.

“I said ‘heck yeah, who wouldn’t want to design a paint scheme for an airplane?’ I’m excited to work with anyone who comes to me with a great attitude and realistic expectation of my time,” said DeYoung. “We were able to come up with a plan and make it happen. I’ve done a ton of crazy, weird projects over the years, but nothing like this. To work with an actual paint department was pretty cool.”

DeYoung said the first thing Duncan told him was that he loves going up to Canada, and that they take the plane on a lot of fishing trips. He also said he was looking forward to landing the aircraft up there and seeing people’s reactions.

Duncan had told DeYoung that he’s a freshwater lake kind of guy, and loves Northern Pike, Muskie, and Walleye. He wanted to look at the aircraft and be reminded of a freshwater fish.

DeYoung presented Duncan with four separate designs. The chosen design reflects the Northern Pike and matches Duncan’s initial vision of landing the plane in Canada, according to DeYoung.

“Northern Pike are moss green with ivory-colored oval spots,” he explained. “I don’t just glance at fish. I try to find nuances and colors that maybe not every Pike has. A fish’s colors and patterns change with the lighting. Things can happen like a hologram and different colors show up purely based on the way you look at them. I knew the plane was something that we couldn’t go way complex on, based on the limitations. But, I couldn’t just do a moss green plane with ivory oval spots; that was not an option.”

The final design has an iridescent purple nose that fades into green with ivory spots that turn warm yellow toward the belly of the aircraft.

“It’s a beautiful interpretation of a Northern Pike,” said DeYoung.

To come up with the design, Derek took a schematic of the plane on his iPad and digitally painted the plane. The 2D design suggested how it would look, and the paint department had to decipher how it would look in 3D. Derek said the final product was as close as you could get with the type of application they were doing.

“This was different from anything we’ve ever done,” said Paint Crew Leader Trevor Reinke. “A lot of the projects we work on are cut and dried. This was a little more than that, and we never had any doubts. My initial shock value when I got the portfolio of renderings was, ‘Oh, my!’ The hardest part was getting started, so from there, we got to work.”

After receiving the artist’s renderings, Paint Layout Technician Stacy Finch came up with his own version of the design with the shapes that would fit the aircraft to scale, and made stencils that he could cut out.

The challenge with this paint scheme, aside from the obvious, was getting the blends and fades the way they were intended while trying to keep the correct shapes and the artist’s concept true. When Finch and Reinke first looked at the artist renderings, they noticed there weren’t any hard edges.

“All of the shapes were faded on the edges, so we had to find a way to make the shapes and soften the edges as we went,” Finch said. “It was challenging and took a little more time, but we were able to pull it off.”

To get those soft edges, the team outlined the shapes with foam tubing.

“It was a simple solution, and worked exactly as we expected,” said Finch. “It was something we’ve never had to try before.”

The aircraft featured 16 formulated colors. All were pearls, three of which were tri-coats. There are also about six to eight more colors that were blended together to help create some of the transitions and high- and low-light areas.

Avionics Upgrades

In addition to the customized paint and interior, a team at Duncan Aviation’s Satellite Shop in Denver, Colorado, outfitted the Pilatus’ flight deck with all new Garmin systems. The flight deck also features a new instrument panel, fabricated by Nimbus Aviation.

The upgrade provided a significant weight savings over the old systems and wires, according to Duncan officials.

“We weighed everything, including the wires, and by adding the new equipment, the Pilatus is now 162.23 pounds lighter,” says Edduyn Pita, Manager of the Denver Satellite.

You can learn more about the story behind this aircraft, view photos, and watch a video of the entire refurbishment process here.