John Absolon flies the Tecnam P2006T at Watts Bridge and finds reason to believe that this flexible, economical light twin would be great for personal transport or as an IFR twin trainer.
A fine sunny Friday afternoon at Maroochydore’s Sunshine Coast Aero Club saw the launch of the Tecnam P2006T demonstration tour of Australia. Bruce Stark from Tecnam Australia introduced the assembled guests to the latest aircraft from Italian manufacturer Tecnam. Developed by Italian manufacturer Tecnam Construzioni Aeronautiche, who are based in Capua near Naples, the P2006T is the latest development of their line of light aircraft.
At the gathering, Giovanni Nustrini, Managing Director Tecnam New Zealand, the regional Tecnam representative, described how one night he had had a conversation with Tecnam CEO Paolo Pascale about where the company should head next in the marketplace. Giovanni’s opinion was that, instead of designing a four-seat aircraft to replace existing types in an already competitive sector of the marketplace, Tecnam should focus on developing a small twin, as there currently aren’t any available from the major manufacturers.
Tecnam has extensive experience with mainly manufacturing small single-engine light aircraft, and currently a range of predominantly two-seat aircraft are built using the lightweight power of the Rotax engine.
A number of these aircraft are flown in Australia, either on the Recreational Aircraft register with RA-Aus or the VH register with CASA. These Tecnam’s are used in training and light touring and are both economical and simple to operate. A small twin could not only be more economical than a single-engine four-seater, but could be used in a variety of roles. With the development of new Rotax engines that could be operated on automotive fuels and with minimal weight, a small twin was definitely possible.
Not just a small twin, but a twin with spacious seating for four and performance to match. Tecnam decided that the market had enough four-seat single-engine aircraft available but there was a shortage of twin aircraft at the bottom end of the market that could be used for training, touring or other utility or even surveillance roles.
As Piper and Cessna have abandoned this end of the market in favour of larger aircraft, a lot of operators were left either flying older generation aircraft such as Beech Duchesses and Piper Senecas, or having to use far larger aircraft in roles that they weren’t designed for. Cessna don’t even build a twin piston anymore. For a lot of operators, this created quite an uneconomical operation, let alone the maintenance requirements as aircraft aged.
Enter Tecnam
Tecnam’s expertise in the design and production of light economical aircraft was just what the market needed. Using the latest Rotax 912S engine that has a significantly lighter weight than comparable existing engines, Tecnam was able to use this power to weight ratio to its advantage to design an aircraft that has the same power as a comparable single-engine aircraft, but with the safety of two engines. The 100hp Rotax 912S, weighing in at 64kgs, also offers a smaller cross section of 0.1m2 that can be accommodated in lower drag cowlings. In comparison, the 180hp Lycoming IO-360 is closer to 0.4m2 and weighs in at 146kgs.
Twin installations of Rotax 912Ss (200hp) are lighter than a single engine of equivalent horsepower and still have a lower cross section.
The use of the Rotax in the P2006T design is instrumental in the success of the concept, with the engine delivering low fuel flow, reduced handling problems as the cylinder heads are liquid cooled, and the ability of operating on automotive unleaded fuel. This is a great advantage for the future if AVGAS prices continue to rise and become more scarce. You only have to read the recent September/October issue of Australian Flying for an in depth discussion about the future of an AVGAS replacement.
The P2006T may have a striking resemblance to the P68 Partenavia, most likely because the same engineer designed it. Professor Luigi Pascale, whose nephew Paolo is the current CEO of Tecnam, designed the Partenavia and the P2006T. The P2006T is slightly smaller than the original P68, having only four seats versus the P68’s six seats.
Tecnam added retractable landing gear to the design to replace the P68’s fixed sprung steel design that was renowned for a waddling style on the ground, and they also added winglets. The inclusion of the winglets is not just an addition to make the design look up to date – it actually adds to the performance by increasing the engine out climb performance by 150’/min as well improving the take-off performance.
The P2006T is constructed from modern aircraft-grade aluminium with some composite parts that include the nose cone, the rear fuselage wing fairing, aft engine cowl fairings and winglets. Slotted trailing edge flaps are simply hinged from the aft of the aluminium wing structure along with aluminium ailerons. The starboard aileron is fitted with an electrical adjustable trim tab and both surfaces are fitted with static discharge wicks. Two fuel tanks, that between them can accommodate a total of 194 litres, are incorporated in the wing, mounted behind the spars and outboard of the engines.
With the wing being high mounted, the use of the lighter Rotax engines makes for a simple unstrutted structure. This aids in the excellent access to the cabin as well as ample prop clearance when operating on rough surfaces. There is no climbing up onto a wing and then climbing down into a cabin below the wing surface. If you can get into the average 4WD these days, you can get into the P2006T just as easily.
Access to the cabin is via two forward hinged cabin doors. The forward door on the left side of the fuselage allows easy step up into the front seats for both pilot and co-pilot. The co-pilot seat is entered via this door and then you slide over to the right seat. The aft cabin is entered via a large door under the right wing. Hinging forward, the door opens against a small stop on the inboard side of the right engine cowl, preventing further damage. This allows the maximum size door opening that can be accommodated. Just approach from the rear of the wing, open the door and step in.
Stepping up into the rear seating is very easy, just like stepping up into an SUV. Once seated inside, there is more than ample legroom when the front seats are slid forward to a flying position. In the overhead of the rear cabin is an emergency escape hatch that was a European certification requirement because there are only two entry doors. Behind the cabin is a netted luggage compartment. This area is virtually right over the landing gear and situated under the wing trailing edge and has little effect on the centre of gravity.
The front seats are fully adjustable fore and aft, allowing a great deal of adjustment for pilots of any size. My 189cm frame was easily accommodated with ample leg room and elbowroom between the two pilots. I felt there was slightly more elbowroom than in a C172 I flew in recently. Tail surfaces incorporate an all-flying horizontal tailplane with an electrically adjusted trim tab mounted in the centre of the tailplane trailing edge. The large rudder is also fitted with a trim tab.
The use of the liquid/air cooled Rotax 912S allowed Tecnam to use quite closely cowled nacelles. Each cowling has intakes for the carburettor, oil cooler and coolant radiator along with the traditional air intakes for cooling of the cylinder barrels, but these drag producing intakes are quite small as the need for lots of cooling air is not required. There is no requirement for adjustable cowl flaps. Outlets from these various intakes exhaust at the rear of the underside of the engine cowls along with various engine drains.
Electro-hydraulic actuation operates the tricycle landing gear and is backed up by a one-shot nitrogen charged system that injects gas into the hydraulic system to lower the gear in the event of a hydraulic failure.
A pressure gauge for the nitrogen system is checked as part of the external pre-flight on the aft left fuselage. The main gear legs are mounted to small pylons on either side of the fuselage behind the cabin, which allows the gear to retract inwards lying flat inside the lower fuselage with only the tyres exposed. Fairing doors cover the struts.
The wheel track is similar to most high-wing light aircraft and is quite stable when taxiing on rough ground. After all, there aren’t the usual heavy engines high mounted like in the original Partenavia design.
The whole centre of gravity is lower, making for stable ground handling on a narrower track undercarriage compared to conventional light twins.
The P2006T is built to full-certified GA standards and should stand up to regular use well, especially when used in a training operation.
In the cockpit
Entry into the front seats is as easy as stepping into a high set motor vehicle. The forward door easily opens in front of the prop of the left engine. In the unlikely event of the door being opened while an engine is running, there is ample clearance. The door, however, is locked closed while an engine is running.
Seated in the left seat, I could easily slide the seat forward until I had comfortable seating with reference to the rudder pedals. The control yoke was quite low compared to a lot of other yoke controlled light aircraft.
For my build, the bottom corners of the yoke sometimes touched the top of legs when deflecting full control, however when airborne it wasn’t a problem.
The view over the nose through the two piece windscreen was excellent. The view to the sides was a little limited by the low top of the side entry door.
I flew with Tecnam NZ P2006T demonstration pilot Mary Patterson, whose smaller stature allowed her to easily look out the side window. By leaning slightly forward, I was able to more easily view to the side and above.
The instrument panel is quite deep and the demonstrator was equipped with a Garmin 950 EFIS system. This system is almost identical to the Garmin 1000 system that I have written about here before in recent flight tests of both the Diamond DA40 and the Cirrus SR22, differing only in the way it is installed.
The right-hand side of the instrument panel accommodated the engine instruments. The number of round engine instruments seemed to be a little cluttered in its arrangement and I was curious as to why in such a modern aircraft some sort of electronic engine data monitoring system couldn’t be used. This would better organise the clutter and also save weight.
Giovanni tells me that something like the JP Instruments Electronic Engine Management system (evaluated in the Super Decathlon test in the September/October issue of Australian Flying) could be fitted, but the Garmin system will have this capability in the future once Garmin program their EFIS system for the Rotax engines.
Across the lower part of the instrument panel are the standby instruments, comprising a digital clock, airspeed indicator, attitude indicator, altimeter and dual fuel pressure gauges. Lighting controls are located in the lower left corner of the panel along with LED trim indicators and a louvered air outlet. Throttle levers are mounted in the centre pedestal along with the prop control and carburettor heat. At the front of the centre pedestal are the generator field switches and left and right avionic masters. Mounted in the small overhead panel are the start buttons, fuel pump and ignition switches for each engine. On the top of the left control column are dual electric trim switches, autopilot disconnect switch and press to transmit button.
Up and away from Watts Bridge
For this flight test I flew the P2006T with Mary at Watts Bridge airfield (S 27 05.9, E152 27.6) in the northern part of the Brisbane valley not far from Toogoolawah and Somerset Dam. The weekend was the site for the Queensland Vintage Aeroplane Group’s Festival of Flight weekend.
Watts Bridge has two grass runways and a large parking area. The lightly clumpy grass surface was an ideal test for the Tecnam’s trailing link landing gear. The day dawned with clear and very cold conditions and as final preparations were made for the festival, aircraft of various types - homebuilt, vintage, historic, modern and warbirds - began arriving, including the Tecnam P2006T which had been at the Maroochydore launch the day before. It immediately attracted a lot of interest. Compared to the rest of the gathering, the P2006T, with its characteristic winglets, stood out like the proverbial and quickly attracted a crowd.
Starting the twin Rotax’s was as simple as pressurising the fuel system, turning on both ignition systems and pressing the start button. Each engine fired into life with quite a quiet buzz. The ambient noise is very low considering the close proximity of the props to the cabin sides, unlike most conventional twins in this class. This is mainly because of the smaller prop diameters and rpm associated with the Rotax. After selecting the generator fields ON, the avionics masters ON, the Garmin 950 fired into life. After the displays finished their boot up cycle and all warning messages checked, we were ready to taxi.
Taxiing forward was simple and only needed a little power because of the clumpy grass surface. Taxiing over this surface or any other type that may have debris, the potential for damage to the props is reduced because of the high clearance. Steering is accomplished through nose wheel steering connected directly to the rudder pedals, with brakes activated via toe brakes on each pedal. With the engines and props mounted behind the cockpit area, the P2006T had almost a small jet feel to it when taxiing out to depart from Watts Bridge’s Runway 30.
After the obligatory CTAF radio calls and waiting for some of the numerous aircraft in the area to approach, we lined up and as there were other aircraft close on approach we rolled without delay with flaps set to half. Acceleration was instant, with minimal noise increase in the cabin. Again, the smaller diameter props and lower prop rpm of 2300 helped to attribute to the low noise levels.
Directional control was easy with only small deflections of the rudder pedals required in almost calm conditions with just a hint of crosswind from the left.
Rotation was initiated at 65 knots and after a smooth transition to the climb attitude lift occurred around 70-75 knots. At safe height and with positive climb rate assured, the landing gear was retracted.
The three greens lights extinguished, the transiting light illuminated and then the gear was up. The retraction cycle seemed a little longer than some other types but was accomplished without any trim change. However, when the take-off flaps were selected up there was a significant, but not uncontrollable, trim change.
Transition into the best rate of climb of 80 knots produced close to 1100’/min. This is not bad considering that it is two 100hp engines out there and we had about one third fuel as well as the two of us. And I am not the lightest of pilots. Considering the slow landing gear retraction cycle, care should be exercised to avoid exceeding the landing gear limit speed of 93 knots. Climb was accomplished with 25 inches of manifold pressure and 2300rpm to 3000 feet, avoiding the local parachute operations in a Cessna Caravan at Toogoolawah where we levelled off to assess the handling.
The Autopilot Master was selected ON and we explored the operation and integration of the system with the Garmin 950. The SITEC autopilot performed perfectly with modes being easily selected from the pushbuttons below the LCD control display situated in the centre of the glareshield. Both altitude select and hold modes and vertical speed modes worked as good as any big jet system these days.
Turn reversals from 45° to 45° took approximately 5.5 seconds with only minor rudder inputs required to maintain balance. Control forces are quite light and nicely harmonised. The rudder is very light, considering the power of it. This was very obvious when I had a look at the asymmetric capabilities.
Unfeathering an engine
Bringing the left engine back to idle, the yaw was easily controlled with quite light pressures. With the speed bleeding back to explore VMCA, there was plenty of feedback that we were approaching a limit. This is quite desirable for an aircraft that is going to be flown a lot by either students or low-time twin pilots. VMCA was reached at 65 knots with a little bank towards the active engine and full power on the live engine. Climb rate was 250’/min. The left engine is the critical engine as that is the engine that, following its failure, would give the most yaw.
Unfeathering the engine was a simple matter of placing the prop control to full fine, turning the ignition ON and pressing the start button. The left engine immediately sprung into life and after a short time of checking that all engine indications were in the green, the throttle was advanced. The beauty of the liquid cooling of the cylinder heads is that there is no shock-cooling tendency when conducting this sort of training.
It was now time to return and do battle with the growing traffic pattern at Watts Bridge. Descent towards Watts Bridge was flown at around 145 knots and reduced to 100 knots as we leveled off in the circuit pattern for left base to Runway 30. With speed established below the limit speed of 119 knots, half flap was selected and as the speed decelerated further, the landing gear was selected down when below the limit speed of 93 knots. A slight increase in power to hold the speed at around 80 knots in the quite bumpy thermal turbulence was easily controlled. Full flap was selected turning final and speed reduced to a final approach speed of 70 knots.
With this approach speed there is ample margin to the VMCA, considering that finals has quite a low power setting compared to VMCA being a full power handling limit. This can be a problem for some other small twins like the Piper PA30/39 Twin Commanche where Piper’s recommended approach speed is below the VMCA.
My initial aim point on approach was considered by Mary to be a bit close to the fence line at the approach end, so the threshold was crossed a little high and touchdown was about 500-700 feet in at 65 knots with a slight quartering tailwind from the left. Directional control was again easy, and with a little braking pressure reduction to taxi speed to return to the parking area amongst the many onlookers was easy. Again, the visibility all around, particularly over the cockpit sides, is excellent to avoid taxiing into that hole in a country airstrip. Again, this is the advantage of the high-wing configuration.
Giovanni marshalled us back through the crowd to our parking position and the engines were shut down just like turning off a car. Just turn the ignition OFF, fuel pumps OFF and Master switch.
A flexible, economic option
Overall, I was impressed with the P2006T, particularly as a small twin considering the performance that it generates from such small horsepower.
My initial thought was that the only limitation I could see was the small margin available between the empty and maximum take-off weights to accommodate payload and fuel compared to twins from Piper or Diamond. But these two twins use a minimum of twin 180hp engines and up to twin 220hp engines in the Seneca and with fuel flows to match. The P2006T therefore is comparable to most conventional four-seat single aircraft like those offerings from Piper, Cessna, Diamond and Cirrus.
For a twin aircraft that can be operated on Avgas or 98 octane unleaded, it exhibits great flexibility and economy to be used for personal transport or as an IFR twin trainer.
The P2006T can be equipped with either VFR-only instrumentation, night VFR, or all the way to the Garmin EFIS. The price of a VFR-equipped P2006T is in the order of AUD$500,000 including GST, and with options ranging up to just over AUD$600,000 for the Garmin and autopilot-equipped model. This is very close in price to, say, a new C182, which has similar seat capacity and cruise performance but with significantly higher fuel usage.
Talking with independent testing officer, Bruce McManagle, who has recently flown the P2006T, I questioned the use of such a great instrument system in the Garmin 950 for IFR training and how practical it might be for someone who would not be going straight to an airline but instead flying around in GA in an older twin or even single-engine aircraft with old fashioned instrumentation. However, in the future, the fitting of modern EFIS style systems will start to increase as their use, reliability and maintainability expands.
For the private owner, the Garmin takes the effort out of situational awareness and navigation management. One of those private owners and the first customer for the P2006T in Australia is Steve Swan, a cattleman from Central Queensland who is moving up from a Tecnam P92 2000 RG.
Steve was looking for a four-seat aircraft to travel around Queensland to his various business interests. He was looking for an aircraft with room in the cabin, safety and economy of operation and the ability to operate in and out of small country airfields and use unleaded instead of having to rely on the supply of Avgas.
The flexibility of the aircraft’s design is also highlighted by the fact that one German aerospace company has already modified a P2006T with various observation and night vision systems and an infrared dome that can be lowered through the lower fuselage for use in surveillance operations.
In all, I was impressed with the P2006T as a viable four-seat aircraft that easily replaces that aging single-engined four-seater with its associated uneconomical use of Avgas and increasing maintenance requirements. The P2006T is economical to purchase and operate.
Tecnam is represented in Australia and New Zealand by a network of dealers around the country headed by Bruce Stark in Queensland. The P2006T demonstrator was flown to Australia after being assembled in Ardmore, New Zealand after being shipped there in a container from Naples. The aircraft arrives in a container with the wing and fuselage sections already assembled and ready for final assembly and test flying.
Specifications
DESIGN WEIGHT and LOADING
Maximum Take-Off Weight 2601 lb 1180 kg
Maximum Ramp Weight 2601 lb 1180 kg
Standard Equipped Weight 1723 lb 780 kg
Standard Useful Load 1014 lb 460 kg
Baggage Allowance 132 lb 60 kg
DIMENSIONS
Wing Span 34.8 ft 10.6 m
Wing Area 155.0 sq ft 14.4 sq m
Fuselage Length 28.4 ft 8.66 m
Fuselage Height 9.4 ft 2.85 m
Cabin Width 47.2 ft 1.20 m
Cabin Length 8.2 ft 2.5 m
PERFORMANCE
Max speed at sea level 153.0 kts 283.0 km/h
Cruise speed(75%, 7000ft) 147.0 kts 272.0 km/h
Cruise speed (65%, 9000ft) 141.0 kts 261.0 km/h
Stall speed flap up 53.5 kts 99.0 km/h
Stall speed flap down 48.0 kts 89.0 km/h
Climb rate, s.l. 1360.0 ft/min 6.9 m/s
Range to 75%, 30’ reserve 610.0 nm 1130.0 km
Service ceiling (twin engine) 16,007.0 ft 4880.0 m
Takeoff roll 738.0 ft 225.0 m
Takeoff (50’ obstacle) 1378.0 ft 420.0 m
Landing roll 591.0 ft 180.0 m
Landing (50’ obstacle) 1115.0 ft 340.0 m
My thanks to Bruce Stark from Tecnam Australia, Giovanni Nustrini, Managing Director of Tecnam Australasia, Mary Patterson, Tony Pratt, and Nikon for the equipment and services used in producing this evaluation.