Story ID: 
Tecnam Provides Low-Cost Trainer to Argentina
By: Chris Pocock
Caption: The Italian company’s P2002JF very light aircraft (VLA) is graduating new pilots in a lease-purchase plus support deal.
Word Count: 220
Tecnam's P2002JF very light aircraft (VLA) for pilot training recently entered service with the Argentine Air Force. The 34 cadets in the first class to learn to fly on the Italian-designed aircraft have just soloed. Tecnam’s local agent Aerotec Argentina agreed last September to a lease-purchase deal for eight aircraft, with full support.

“Tecnam is a renowned manufacturer of civil aircraft. We are delighted that the quality and reliability of our products has captured the attention of many of the world’s armed forces too,” said Walter Da Costa, the company’s global sales and marketing director. “The Argentine Air Force chose the P2002JF as a flexible and efficient aircraft for the inexpensive instruction of its future military pilots,” added Diego Cardama, CEO of Aerotec.  

The P2002JF is a tricycle-gear monoplane powered by a 100-hp Rotax 912S2 engine. For the Argentinian contract, the aircraft’s standard Garmin avionics package was replaced by a "Glass Cockpit + Night VFR" fit that includes the Garmin G500 PFD digital instrument panel, and an integrated GTN 650 navigation and communications system. Aerotec assembled the aircraft in its facility at Mendoza “in record time,” according to Tecnam. The agent also trained the Argentine Air Force’s flight instructors and is providing continuous maintenance via another company, Air Andes.