I'm an architect with an office in Salzburg and projects from Bavaria down to Apulia. Before the Blackshape I flew a DA40 and earlier an SR20. Solid machines both — but at some point I wanted a different seating position, a different kind of concentration.
Tandem seats, sliding canopy, glass cockpit — sitting in the Prime BK160 the first time felt more like a GT-car bucket than an aircraft. The IFR avionics with Garmin G3X Touch as standard sealed it, because I fly to client deadlines.
My main profile is Salzburg LOWS → Bolzano LIPB → Rome-Urbe LIRU. Three to three-and-a-half hours to Rome depending on wind, IFR through the Brenner route. Range, at over 1,500 km, is more than comfortable — I can make the standard trip without a fuel stop unless I want lunch in Bolzano, which I usually do.
Cruise at 295 km/h isn't top-of-class, but it's steady and IFR-friendly. The Rotax 915iS rewards clean power management — handled correctly, it runs unobtrusively for the whole leg, which is what my mission needs.
Rome-Urbe LIRU is a GA jewel: 1,170 m asphalt, English-speaking tower, customs by prior notice, fifteen minutes by taxi into the centre. I have three regular clients in Rome whom I visit quarterly — the aircraft earns its keep when I actually use those hours.
Salzburg LOWS is home — 2,750 m asphalt, ILS approach, IFR mixed with airline traffic. The GA apron is small but well organised. Every visit should include the walk over to Red Bull's Hangar-7 with the Flying Bulls collection — visitor apron, prior arrangement through Salzburg Airport.
Bolzano LIPB I use for breaks and southbound customs. Rome-Urbe LIRU is the destination: one of the few pure-GA fields in a European capital with tower and asphalt. Once you've flown it, you don't go back to Ciampino or Fiumicino.
On the factory tour in Apulia, the Prime sat next to the Blackshape Gabriel BS115 — same carbon hull, different DNA. The Gabriel is aerobatic-certified (+6/-3 g, EASA), with Lycoming IO-320-D1B or Rotax 916 ISC C24, designed for training and sport. I was briefly tempted.
For my work the Prime is the right answer: 750 kg MTOM, more than 1,500 km of range, IFR avionics as standard. I don't need aerobatic loads — I need stability on a three-hour IFR leg and a single-lever power control I can run with my right thumb while my left hand is on the chart.
“The Prime isn't a sport plane dressed up for travel. It's a travel machine that happens to look like a jet.”
If I ordered again: same avionics package, but I would spec the rear-seat heating properly from day one. Cold rear passengers at altitude is the one complaint I hear regularly.
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