Vulcanair P68Vr – A trainer for the future

Already enjoying a notable share of the burgeoning light training twin market with its glass-cockpit P68C, Italian manufacturer Vulcanair has now intensified its focus on growing that share with the retractable undercarriage variant, the Vulcanair P68 Vr (P68R).

To do that Vulcanair set itself the triple goals of “building the world’s most effective multi-engined trainer, providing the most authentic possible training experience to the airline industry, and using the most-proven technologies consistent with reliability and ongoing maintenance.”

The first two Vr units to leave the factory arrived in Broome on December 8, with one going to a Perth/Singapore businessman and the other to Vulcanair’s distributor AirItalia in Melbourne. Significantly a third aircraft has now left the factory for trialling at the Oxford Academy in the UK.

AviationAdvertiser was invited to flight-evaluate VH-VRI when it passed through Wagga on the last leg of its 90-hour delivery flight, and despite that demanding operation it still managed to look factory-new.

Over 450 P68s are now in operation worldwide, and at least one (in WA) has passed 21,000 hours of operation, a powerful credential for customers seeking design level longevity. To that, Vulcanair adds the enticements of corrosion-treated metal construction in a simple design, modern and professional grade avionics consistent with new air transport technologies, and well-proven training-resistant “bullet-proof” Textron Lycoming four cylinder IO-360-A1 B6 power plants that are direct drive, normally aspirated, and Bendix-type fuel injected with tuned induction.

The commonest gripes about the P68 series had usually been access to the front seats which unduly favoured small and supple young pilots, cabin ventilation, a finite spar life, and the fact that the flaps used to inflict big dings on the rear baggage door if it was opened with flaps extended.

Introduced in the P68C, front-row cabin door entry on the right hand side means no more undignified crawling up the extremely narrow aisle, which was very inconvenient in a training environment and also may have complicated emergency egress. The door’s fitted with a safety switch so you can’t climb out and walk straight into a rotating propeller.

And the forced-draught fresh air circulation system is now brilliant, with a high-capacity blower, which although not refrigerated is surprisingly effective (air conditioning is optional). The hand-stitched Italian leather seating gives an Italian sports car touch.

Wing spar life limits have been eliminated in a redesigned main spar which was part of Vulcanair’s extensive airframe upgrade of the original Partenavia P68 into the C model. This piece of engineering also lifts MTOW from 1,960 to a generous 2,063 kg, and now there’s no zero fuel weight.

Lastly the rear baggage door now has a safety switch so that if it’s open the flap won’t extend or retract. However there’s an override switch in the cockpit so if you have flap extended and for some reason the rear door pops open you can override the system and still retract the flap.

Fuel capacity is now lifted to 670 litres useable (as an option) so you have over nine hours endurance for low-payload functions like surveillance. Customers can still order the aircraft with 520 litre capacity, but AirItalia’s Michael Hall says most are going for the higher capacity even though they’d rarely need it. For normal operations sensible fuel management will still provide very useful payload/range figures, especially with that extra 103 kg of disposable load. The original Partenavia fuel system was a little complex but it’s since been mercifully simplified and now has just three positions – on, off and crossfeed. However Vulcanair advise it’s a good idea to leave the selectors in tho ON position when parking, to avoid cross-feeding between the tanks. There are two tanks and two fuelling caps in each wing, both outboard of the engines, but tanks on either side can be filled using the outboard fillers only.

The clincher

But the biggest difference of all is the retractable gear. The undercarriage is electrohydraulic and the wheels retract inwards with dampers in the side of the fuselage, and a pivoting arrangement that has the same mechanism as a conventional trailing link undercarriage but it works laterally, and the outcome is similarly soft landings. The retractable gear adds about 15 kt to normal cruise speed and only 44 kg to the aircraft’s empty weight.

A relatively large cabin capacity will also be popular with cargo operators, as well as providing generous foot room for all six occupants. Stabilator and rudder trims now have duplicated actuators, and a no-slip stabilator trim has been achieved simply by pinning the cable to the drum.

The digital primary flight display (PFD) and multifunction display (MFD) are both 8 inch (20.3 cm) units which Sagem calls its integrated cockpit display system (ICDS). It was originally designed for IFR helicopters, so it’s proven for operation in a high-vibration environment, and enjoys a mean time between failure of 48,000 hours. The two displays come as standard equipment. Avionics in this aircraft are twin TSO 146 Garmin GNS 430 units with GPS/NAV/ILS/COM/Terrain, S-TEC 55X Autopilot with GPS roll-steering, altitude select & capture; a GTX330 Mode S Transponder, and a 406 MhZ Artex ELT. Active Traffic Awareness is provided by an Avidyne TAS600.

Boarding is now 100 times easier. You just sit in the right seat, swing your legs in, and slide over to the left seat. The aircraft is provided with normal lapstrap plus a sash shoulder harness. The seats move fore and aft on a rail, and there’s also a vertical adjustment but I think that’s better done before climbing in. There are also some emergency clips that allow the front-row seat backs to fold forward for better access to the main emergency exit in case the front door is jammed. The starboard exit on the fixed gear models has been removed to accommodate the RH oleo leg embedded in the fuselage side, and in an emergency passengers access the front exit over the front seats.

Demo pilot Stuart Caling gives me an extensive briefing on the architecture:

“Page 1 of the MFD displays digital dial and window RPM and manifold pressures, and vertical digital displays of amps and volts, oil temps and pressures, fuel pressures, and EGT plus CHT for each cylinder. The PFD will automatically display the highest EGT and CHTs on each side and all other engine parameters if the MFD is switched away from the engine page, although this may be selected by the pilot to remain on at all times. The MFD also provides a map window that shows airports, navaids, obstacle data, geographical information and the maximum elevation figure centred on the aircraft current position, flight planned route and proximate traffic if they’re transponding.”

The individual engine indicators are small and in front of the instructor, so students may take some time to acclimatise to their use until they memorise the location of each. RPM and manifold pressure are in the lower left corner of the PFD and are also small, but I remind myself that most students will be at least 50 years younger and have more flexible eyesight.

The PFD is pretty conventional, with good definition and an airline-like layout, and primary electrical system information displayed on its left side. Main electrical switches are on the wall to the pilot’s left while mag and fuel pump switches are on the overhead panel to keep them close to the engines.

Standby flight instruments are 2½ inch airspeed, A/H and altimeter in the upper central panel above the Garmin units, and a magnetic compass. Gear selector is wheel-shaped and located just above the throttle quadrant with the gear situation lights above it. There are two flap selection devices. One is a vertical stack of pushbutton switches covered by small guards, that allows you to select 15°, 25° or 35° of flap and a green light in the button tells you which one you’ve selected. Alternatively you can put the flaps wherever you want them with a conventional flap switch, and also if you’ve selected 30° you can use the switch to add the last 5°. This is an optional feature that’s offered with the P68R’s airline training roles in mind. Flaps 15° can be up to 157 KIAS, 30°  below 143 KIAS, and once below 101 KIAS (white arc) the final 5° can be selected using the manual switch.

Let’s fly it

After start, the ICDS verifies that all components are operational, then displays the flight instruments window on the PFD in the primary view of the pilot, and the map window and aircraft position are displayed on the MFD.

Stuart Caling briefs me on EFATO: “If the engine fails below 92 KIAS Blue Line, the take off will be rejected; close both throttle and land straight ahead. After 92 KIAS we will continue, contolling the aircraft, mixture up, pitch up, power up, gear up, flap up, maintain Blue Line, identify by “Dead Leg Dead Engine”, confirm selection with throttle and feather the selected engine.”

The Lycoming IO-360 engines are rated at 200 hp for takeoff and continuous operation. We’re  well under gross weight, and a cruise climb at 110 KIAS averages 750 fpm to 4,000’ with the autopilot managing moderate gusty turbulence. I find the glass cockpit systems easy to follow, and the autopilot captures altitude at 4,000’ then trims for the cruise. We leave climb power on until we’ve accelerated to 155 KTAS, which then remains on the clock as we lean the mixtures and settle back to cruise at 75% power. The engine management system (EMS) aids the mixture leaning process with its bar graph very precisely identifying the EGT on each of the eight cylinders.

It’s a clear but gusty day under an 8,000’ inversion, with Wagga and environs looking like the Lakes District because there’s a current flood, and there’s not much to do but admire the view and further explore the system. A very handy feature is Sagem’s Terrain Obstruction Proximity System (TOPS, of course!), which looks in plan view at surrounding terrain from the database within the TOPS protection area which is marked by a bounding box up to 34 nm ahead of the aircraft. At the bottom of this display are a “look-around” window which identifies the highest obstruction within 3 nm of the aircraft, and a “look-ahead side view” which provides a visual of the elevated man-made or geographical obstructions on either side of the aircraft. If you’re lower than the obstruction, the box associated with it goes red, alerting you either to climb or manoeuver away from it. Although this system can’t be used for calculating night VFR lowest safe altitudes, it can provide reassuring information that confirms (or otherwise) that you’ve got it right.

Airline cockpit environment

I reflect that learning to manage this system to maximum advantage is exactly the sort of airline-specific training that AerItalia has set out to incorporate in the training aircraft’s qualities, and they’ve done it very well.

The PFD incorporates three subsystems. The ICDS-8 display offers line-select-keys, the PFD35 digital air data system provides the interface to air data source and navigation equipment, and the attitude heading reference system (AHRS) delivers attitude display, air and groundspeed, vertical speed, altitude and navigation data, wind vector, selected reference IAS, cleared level and altimeter settings. It also computes and displays trend indications of vertical speed that predict the altitude one minute ahead, the rate of turn indicator, and the airspeed trend, which provides a four-second prediction of airspeed changes.

The EMS provides data from all engine sensors – RPM, MaP, CHT, EGT, oil pressure and temp and fuel flow/pressure on the same MFD screen. On the nav page the GPS provides data for mapping, groundspeed and flight plan information. If the PFD fails, the pilot simply flips a “fail over mode switch” which squeezes the engine data onto the MFD alongside the flight instruments.

Other MFD pages that are selectable with the line-select keys include cruise performance tables, crosswind limit (25 kt) graphic, and weather radar if installed. However if you have any page other than the main page active and any engine-sensed data goes into the yellow or red ranges, the system automatically reverts to main screen.

While I’ve been familiarising, we’ve accelerated to 155 kt, which verifies the wisdom of leaving precision tracking and altitude holding to the autopilot. The new generation S-TEC unit is streets ahead of earlier model GA autopilots – another important attribute for airline pilot training because it takes time for GA-inured pilots to learn to trust an autopilot at all.

Outside vision is very good, even in steep turns, because you’re well ahead of the engines. The aircraft responds well to the light, choppy turbulence, and the moderate cabin noise is comfortably neutralised by our headsets.

Fuel flow is now 75 lit/hr, so the flight manual figures are spot on. On the control yoke are press-to-talk, elevator trim and autopilot disconnect, so we give the autopilot a spell and explore general handling. I’ve already noted that the aircraft is quite trim-sensitive to flap, undercarriage, power and airspeed changes – yet another training asset – and that the electric trim is very quick-acting and responsive. Primary controls are also positive, responsive and well-harmonised through the range of airspeeds, and from memory I’d say they resemble those of the Cessna 400 series, which most pilots remember with appreciation. Lower speed flight remains stable and controllable right down to a simulated final approach configuration and speeds, where it’s easy to set up and trim for a stable approach.

An engine-out event induced by suddenly throttling back the left engine, provides a very positive and un-confusing yaw to the left, and an opportunity to run through the engine failure procedures. Again the under-worked Lycoming is appreciated as its virtues include a tolerance for sudden power reductions that isn’t always featured in training aircraft. The asymmetric thrust is fully neutralised with rudder trim, and with zero thrust set up at 92 KIAS blue line speed we achieve well over 250 fpm ROC.

A landing-configuration stall occurs at 60 KIAS results in moderate wings-level sink which would lower you gently onto a runway if one was there, and power recovers the sink immediately with minimal power loss. Stalls in all configurations are quite manageable but still provide enough symptoms to ensure a good training environment without frightening anybody.

On the way back to Wagga airport Stuart sets up max continuous power with the autopilot on, and after a short time points out that we’re now making just under 170 KTAS – but perhaps the fuel burn that would cost a lot of endurance for minimal speed gain.

Arriving back at Wagga we set up for a touch-and-go and find a stabilised approach easy to fly while also keeping aligned with the centreline. Control right down the approach and through the flare remains responsive and as power is reduced it takes only modest back pressure to hold the aircraft in the flare attitude until touchdown. We try the “TOGA flap” button which reconfigures the flaps to 15° and there’s no need to re-trim for the touch-and-go. Another good landing to prove the first wasn’t a fluke, and as we taxy back to the ramp I feel Vulcanair has achieved its project goals.

The talented manufacturer has taken a popular, likeable, reliable and well-proven aeroplane, added a mix of significant and intelligent airframe and avionics enhancements, and delivered an outstanding light twin that offers credible training credentials to the high-pressure commercial pilot training sector, while also retaining its capabilities in GA roles such as general charter, freight operations and surveillance.

And for such a versatile machine, the asking price is also competitive. The price of the aircraft we flew was around $950k + GST.

P68 Vr specifications