Representatives of Airline Training Solutions are celebrating the arrival of the first Tecnam P2006T light twin aircraft at their facility at Craig Airport (CRG), in Jacksonville, Fla.
It was the end of a long trip. After assembly and flight-testing, N594MA was disassembled, containerized and shipped from Tecnam’s factory in Italy to the company’s U.S. facility in Richmond, Va. After inspection, Hayden Malone, program director, Airline Training Solutions assisted the Tecnam technicians in the aircraft’s reassembly.
“I knew the Tecnam P2006T was a really good airplane, but now that I’ve had the chance to help in the reassembly, I’m even more impressed with the overall quality that Paolo Pascale, Tecnam’s managing director, and his team in Italy put into the airplane,” Malone said. “I’ve worked on the best and I can tell you this is an exceptionally well built light airplane.”
After receiving approvals from the FAA, Malone and his son, Scott Malone, chief pilot for Malone AirCharter and chief flight instructor, Airline Training Solutions, then flew the new P20006T from Tecnam North America’s facility in Virginia to Jacksonville.
“I know the term gets overused, but this is a real ‘pilot’s airplane.’ It has great control feel and balance, which, besides being a lot of fun to fly, will make it a tremendous training platform,” Scott Malone said. “Another benefit is the size of the cockpit and cabin. We will conduct all of our flights in the ‘two-pilot’ crew configuration just like the major airlines and the size and sophistication of the Tecnam’s panel really complements our program.”
“I firmly believe that students can get caught up in relying too much on the technology and as a result they fail to develop good basic flying skills. That’s why our P2006T’s has analog flight instruments,” Scott Malone said. “Once our students really know how to fly, we can transition them into glass.”
“It does have a Garmin 430 so we can get satellite weather and traffic information,” he added. “That’s not only important to the training, but it’s critical for the safety of our students and instructors.”
As part of their familiarization with advanced glass panels, Hayden Malone explained that after the students earn their commercial and instrument ratings, they will have the opportunity to take part in actual revenue flights with Malone AirCharter flying their Cessna Citations or a Beechcraft King Air B200.
Now that the Tecnam P2006T is in Jacksonville, the company will use it to finalize Airline Training Solutions’ training curriculum, including the ground school classes. “We have a lot of prospective students wanting to see and fly the airplane,” he said. “Once they do I think they’ll be really excited.”
“While the overall flying qualities of the P2006T are critical to the success of our program, from an operational perspective, the airplane’s incredible fuel efficiency is paramount in keeping the cost of our program comparable to other schools,” Hayden Malone said. “When Scott and I flew it down from Richmond, we were burning only 10 gph of avgas total. That’s close to what we’d burn in our 172 and a fraction of what we’d use in our Seneca.”
“We couldn’t offer this type of training program without the exceptional economy of the P2006T,” he said. “We have delivery positions for nine more Tecnams — I think this is the beginning of a long relationship.”
For more information: AirlineTrainingSolutions.com
