JournΛl · The Epic
Why we fly a turboprop instead of a jet
People ask, politely, why a charter company in Atlanta bought an Epic E1000 GX and not a Citation. The short version is runways and arithmetic.
Park Air · From the ramp at PDK · September 10, 2026 · updated September 17, 2026 · 5 min read
The question comes up every week, so here is the answer. It starts with where jets land. Not where the trip is going. Where the runway is long enough.
Sea Island, Hilton Head, Highlands, Ocean Reef, half the Florida Panhandle: the right airport is a small one. A light jet with a full cabin wants three to four thousand feet of pavement and lands at the regional airport forty minutes away. The Epic wants about two thousand and lands where you are actually going.
The numbers that matter
The Epic cruises at 333 knots and flies at 34,000 feet, so it is up with the jets and above the weather. A light jet is faster, roughly 400 to 460 knots. On a 250-mile leg that difference is a few minutes once you include the climb and the descent. On a 600-mile leg to South Florida it is about twenty minutes, and you give most of it back in the car if the jet had to land at the big airport.
Then there is the fuel. A single PT6 turboprop burns a fraction of what a pair of jet engines burns, and that is the main reason our hourly rate sits well below the light jets. Same speed class on the trips people actually fly, far less airplane to pay for.
Where the jet wins
Seven or more passengers. Legs beyond about a thousand miles. A lavatory with a door, a stand-up cabin, anything international. On those trips we arrange the right jet from another certificated carrier, tell you exactly which airplane and who operates it, and stay your one point of contact. Anchor Card funds work on those flights too.
We put the manufacturer figures for the Epic, the TBM, the PC-12, the King Air and three light jets side by side here so you can see it for yourself.
The cabin
Four club seats with 31 inches of legroom and one more seat up front, a 55-inch-wide cabin, Starlink Wi-Fi, and an aft baggage bay that takes golf bags without complaint. It is quiet enough to take a call. Dogs ride with you.
If you want to see it, it lives at PDK. Come by and sit in it before you book anything. That is usually what settles the question.
Flights on the Epic are operated by ParkAir, LLC under FAA Part 135 certificate PRKA774T. Other aircraft are operated by other certificated carriers and arranged by ParkAir, LLC as an air charter broker. Times are typical and depend on weather, winds and availability.