Tecnam Twin coming

Tecnam Australia will celebrate the highly anticipated arrival of the first Tecnam P2006T light twin in Australia later this month.

Auckland-based regional Tecnam representative Tecnam Australasia will shortly fly a Tecnam Twin demonstrator across the Tasman for a month-long promotional tour that will kick off with an official launch at the Sunshine Coast Aero Club in Queensland at 1400 on Friday August 27 before crisscrossing the country.

The Italian-designed and manufactured four-place Tecnam Twin is powered by two lightweight Rotax 912 engines and features fully retracting landing gear and an all-glass cockpit as standard and is fully equipped for flight in IFR conditions.

Leveraging Tecnam’s experience with aluminium airframes and combining that with the ability to run on either automotive fuel or Avgas, the P2006T offers a number of operational benefits including reduced direct operating costs and improved power-to-weight ratio. The Tecnam Twin has a MTOW of 1180kg, a useful load of 420kg, a max speed of 155kts and a crusie of 145kts, and a range of 630nm.

Tecnam Limited imported the first P2006T (registration ZK-TZY) into the region earlier this year and delivered this first customer aircraft to Taupo-based Izard Pacific Aviation in June. Later that same month the Australia/New Zealand Tecnam Twin demonstrator (ZK-TTW) arrived in the Port of Auckland and underwent assembly and testing before gaining its NZ CAA certification in July.

To be based at Ardmore Airport south east of Auckland, ZK-TTW will remain a demonstrator aircraft for potential buyers for the foreseeable future. Bruce Stark, Queensland representative for Tecnam Australia, told Australian Flying the demonstrator will likely return to Australia for the 2011 Avalon Airshow next March.

Central Queensland cattleman and long-time Tecnam RG owner Steven Swan is the launch customer in Australia for the Tecnam Twin. Swan’s P2006T will feature a Garmin 950 glass cockpit with synthetic vision, S-TEC autopilot, ST-360 Flight Director and KCS55A HSI Slaved Compass System. Stark says the aircraft is expected to be delivered in the coming months.

Following its Queensland launch, which will include a star turn at the 19th annual Queensland Vintage Aeroplane Group’s Festival of Flight fly-in at Watts Bridge on August 28-29, the Tecnam Twin demonstrator will tour the country before returning to Ardmore. Below are the various dates for the demo tour and the names and numbers of the Tecnam representatives if you’re after further information:

- Queensland: Aug 27 – Sep 2 (Bruce Stark, ph. 0416 083 800)
- NSW and ACT: Sep 3-9 (Chris Cabot, ph. 0427 227 122)
- Victoria and South Australia: Sep 10-16 (Val Kennedy/Graeme Boatman, ph. 0428 501 600)
- Westeran Australia: Sep 18-23 (Geoffrey McDougall, ph. 0400 760 778)