August 13, 2010
Italian light aircraft builder, Tecnam, was one of the first of the new breed of light sport aircraft into Australia. As Brian Bigg reports, the climate here must suit the Italians, because Tecnams are springing up all over the place, and one of the most popular models is the P 92 Eaglet.
Bruce Stark is just back from delivering his 25th Eaglet, this one to a farmer at Biloela inland from Gladstone. It is also the 115th Tecnam sold in Australia since Bruce first started importing them in 2000. That’s almost one a month on average, not a bad track record.
“The aircraft appears to have hit a sweet spot in Australia,” says Bruce who is the national distributor for the brand. “Farmers love them because they’re very rugged, can handle good crosswinds and have great visibility. “Flying schools are taking to them because they have few vices and very predictable performance and about a third of my sales are to individual pilots looking for a good all-round aeroplane, reliable and economical to operate.”
Tecnam was one of the first of the new breed of aircraft into Australia after CASA altered the rules governing the importation of factory built ultra lights in 2002. That change helped spark the seismic shift in general aviation which we have undergone in Australia in the past 9 years. It’s part of the reason why RA-Aus has gone from 500 members to 10,000. Cheaper flying, less government regulation, great new aeroplanes.
Europeans have been flying Tecnams for many years. The company was started in 1949 by a young Italian engineer Luigi Pascale, who had been working at the Naples University Aeronautical Construction Institute. The company now makes a mix of high and low wing aircraft, and has the GA market pretty much covered. A new twin, the P2006T, is due out here even as this magazine hits the stands. In Australia, the Echo Super model was an instant hit among pilots looking for GA style flying at a RA-Aus price. The Eaglet, which came out in 2006, is the beefed up successor to that model.
It has more of just about everything that made the Super Echo a hit. It has a solid and steady feel in the air, without the jumpiness you can get in some light sport aircraft in choppy air. The larger span ailerons means you can turn it 180° in a blink and those ailerons give it solid crosswind handling (up to 15kt). Its handling at slow speed is also solid, at 50kts it was very manoeuvrable yet very stable and with a cruising speed of 110kts you can cover a lot of ground if you have places to go.
I impressed myself with a perfect greased landing on my first attempt after a predictable and stable final approach. Any aircraft which makes my landings look good must be forgiving.
The Eaglet has terrific visibility. There are windows just about all the way round which allows you to keep your eyes on the traffic no matter where it is sneaking up on you. It has a bigger baggage area, too, with a deeper and longer dashboard and curved interior panels which increases cabin width to 1.18m (45”). There is tons of leg room, too, and Bruce says that feature alone has helped him sell the Eaglet to several tall pilots.
The instrument panel, like most new aircraft these days has a modular panel which allows you to use traditional analogue instruments or glass panels or any combination of the two. I quite liked the electric trim and the electric flap, too. They made me feel as if I was flying a much larger aeroplane. One of the keys to the success of the Eaglet is the ever popular 100 hp, Rotax 912 engine (80 hp is also an option but so far no one in Australia has chosen to have the smaller choice ). Is there anyone out there who doesn’t love that engine? Tecnam is also exploring a diesel engine option for the future.
If you want one of these aircraft, Bruce orders it from the factory in Italy. They put it together and test it there before taking the wings and tail off and sticking it in a container. Vintage Aeroplane Services at Redcliff in Queensland puts it back together, and tests it again before handing it to you.
Of course, by that stage you will have handed Bruce a cheque for $130,000 plus GST. Gulp. That’s a reasonably big mouthful and has the Eaglet soaring well above the cheaper end of the light sport aircraft market. “I describe it as the Mercedes-Benz end of the light sport aircraft market” says Bruce. “You get the sort of build quality, with all the same sort of bells and whistles, which makes a Mercedes-Benz more expensive than other cars and a better quality ride.”
The price is not putting off potential buyers either. Some of his customers are now on their third Tecnams, which says a lot for the wide variety of things this aeroplane can do. Students are thumping it around the circuit, farmers are driving it from a 140m dirt strip to the sale yards, and busy executives are getting where they want to be in a reasonable amount of time for a reasonable amount of money. Everyone is happy.
There is no way this Eaglet will ever be put on the endangered species list. It’s thriving in the Australian climate.
