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Tecnam P2006T v1.3
For FSX and P3D Published by Wilco
Reviewed by Joe Lawford
November 2014
Introduction
The Tecnam P2006T is a twin-engine, four-seat aircraft with fully
retractable landing gear. The high-wing configuration offers
stability, superior cabin visibility, and easy access for passengers
and luggage. Tecnam has used its extensive experience with aluminium
airframes to create a robust yet very light airframe, resulting in
an outstanding payload-to-total weight ratio in the Tecnam P2006T.
It is powered by two Rotax 912S engines. This engine is FAR 33
certified (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Aviation_Regulations
)
and is currently the only aircraft engine approved to operate on
automotive fuel, giving it a significant edge over standard GA
engines. The engines have automatic mixture adjustment, so there is
no mixture control required on the panel.
History
This is a very young aircraft whose first flight was on the 13th
of September 2007. It was designed by Professor Luigi Pascale who, at 91
this year (14/11/2014), still heads up the Research and Design team!
The aircraft was consequently introduced in 2010 with certification
in the USA following in 2011. The P2006T is still in production
today with the basic version, as modelled by Wilco, on sale in Florida for $479,500, or $559,900 for the glass
cockpit version
with twin Garmin G950 MFDs.
Availability & Installation
The Tecnam
P2006T is available for as a 450MB download from most of the usual
online shops for £15.99 and requires activation after installation.
As with most commercial products nowadays the installation is quite
straight forward when following the default prompts. The only input
required from the user is to choose one of three simulator choices,
and confirm or browse to an installation directory.
All the documentation and a handy uninstaller is available from the
Windows Start menu as well as the aircraft directory within FSX.
Model Features
Wilco describe this model
as "One of their most detailed and highly finished productions" and
goes on to say "We believe that once you have tried it, nothing else
will do!
Ok so what should we expect, here is Wilco's list:
• built over the best plans available;
• all doors open and there is fully detailed engine bay (port) under removable cover;
• amazing high resolution reflective and chrome textures bring the aircraft to life;
• the little details like welded (spot welds as well as butt welds) areas and red ink check marks on suspension parts that add to realism
are present;
• innovative system to stop you from taking the engine cover off while engine is started and opening the passenger door while the engines
are running,
safety is our middle name!;
• fully animated, realistic pilot movements;
• security and "remove before flight”
display features;
• a choice of female or male left seat pilots is provided;
• high quality digital stereo sounds recorded directly from the real aircraft;
• optimised modelling techniques used to ensure high frame rates while maintaining beautiful visuals;
and
• the emergency oil pressure gauge is mounted externally in the Tecnam. It is not only accurate in its readings but can be read in external views.
V1.3 Additions:
• GNC255 radio gauge to enable full
NAV2 based use with simulated database update;
• dimming ability to panel gauges;
• panel gauge lighting separated from
the lighting bus. This allows gauge only lighting;
• added the function of turning on
and off the 2D popup via the emergency horizon switch;
• three new liveries; and
• bug fixes.
General Visual Appearance
Exterior. The
Technam P2006T has been designed to look sporty. The fuselage
section is a slightly rounded rectangle, higher than it is wide. Its
profile is reminiscent of a marine animal, such as a dolphin, with a
rounded nose and smooth flowing lines. Access to the cockpit and
cabin is provided by the cockpit door on the port side and the cabin
door on the starboard side. In addition, an escape hatch is provided
above the two forward seats, to be used if fuselage deformation in a
crash prevents those doors from being operable.
Side View
Overall, the look of the simulated aircraft looks to be very close
to the real thing.
Interior. The yoke and throttles are well placed, as is the neat overhead panel for the mags, starter buttons, fuel valves, and pumps. A centre console extends down from the base of the panel, protruding aft between the control yokes. It carries the throttles, prop levers and carb heat selectors, a rocker switch for the rudder trim, plungers for the parking brake and canopy de-mist, and the pitch trim wheel. The elevator and rudder trim indicators are in front of the pilot. Curiously, a big analogue gauge shows elevator trim, while an LED strip shows the rudder trim.
Cockpit
The CBs are located in identical positions on the left and right
hand side of the cockpit and are just for eye candy, they are not
modelled. Along the base of the panel are chunky rocker switches for
the electrical services. Just to the right of the pilot’s knee is the
wheel-shaped undercarriage selector. Finally, the flap selector is a
simple three-position switch with the flap position indicator gauge
located to the left of the co-pilots knee.
Paint Schemes
The V1.3 model reviewed here is supplied with 8 stock textures
including an all white version and 3 bonus liveries painted by
Thomas Roehl. Here is a selection:
Bartolini
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Demonstrator
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D-GCWM
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D-GLGN
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Special Stripe 1
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ZK-TZY
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Exterior
Generally, the exterior textures are good but very bright on the top
edges of the fuselage and wings, so much so, I had to check I didn’t
have extra bloom switched on. The 3D objects, such as door handles and
hinges, are very well done. The exterior .dds textures are 2048 x 2048
so a fsx.cfg edit will be required to realise the highest detail.
Exterior shine on the windows and cockpit glass is very subtle and not
as transparent as I have seen mentioned elsewhere. (They are glass
after all!)
There is an option panel, selectable using 'Shift + 1'. It offers a
'security' option which, when activated, ties down the wings, chocks
the wheels, and removes the pilot and copilot from the cockpit.
However, the system will allow you to start the engine whilst tied
down and chocked. The picture below shows this happening with no
pilots installed. According to the features, we should be able to
choose a male (default) or female pilot. How? There is no mention in
the documentation.
"Bloomin 'ell!"
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Tied Down
& Engine Running - How Do I Get In?
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Once the engines had stopped, my first action was to open the doors.
This immediately uncovered a major flaw in its design. When opening
the passenger door, it passes through the starboard engine. This lack
of basic accuracy is worrying considering I haven’t started flying
yet. I would certainly be dropping the keys back off at the office if
this was the real world.
The wings are of a high wing, mono spar configuration with the engines
partly buried within the leading edge. The engines turn two bladed,
constant-speed, fully-feathering props. The prop feather is animated
and can be seen with the engine off. The cover of the port engine can
be removed using the 'Door 3' command to reveal a highly detailed and
well-drawn engine. This is very pretty but not of any practical use
after the first inspection and screen shot.
Spot the Error?
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Now You Know What a Rotax Engine Looks Like!
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There are landing and taxi lights incorporated into the port wing’s
leading edge, and small, barely perceptible, stall strips outboard of
each engine. The up-turned, swept-back winglets give the Tecnam P2006T
a very stylish look, typically reflecting its Italian ancestry.
The nose wheel is a forward-retracting unit, whilst the main wheels
retract inward. The trailing-link main undercarriage units are carried
by sponsons either side of the fuselage. The detailing here is very
well done, pneumatic cables feed the disc brakes, whilst the
suspension damper is smoothly animated with quite a wide travel over
rough ground.
Detailed Landing Gear
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Tail & Stabilator
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Apart from the bloom problem, from mid-distance and inflight, the Tecnam P2006T looks very good
and stands up well to close scrutiny.
Interior
Cockpit General View
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When entering the cockpit for the first time, it will be
in a semi-cold and dark state. 'Shift + 1' calls the option
panel to the screen.
Here we can see all the options disabled. When switching on
the avionics, the LH & RH Avionic and LH & RH Cross bus switches
will animate and turn on. The battery master and generators will
already be on.
The belts and yoke option is handy to gain clear access to the lower
buttons and for simmers using a hardware yoke it is more realistic
to turn this option off.
We also have a control for VC glass which introduces some
reflections to the windshield, the default is off (No indicator
light), however the reflections are on, switching the option on
removes the reflections. The VC reflections option will also dim all
the glass on the gauges and avionics making them more difficult to
read.
Finally, the security option, which has already been described above. |
Looking at the internal views, we get six views: pilot, right seat,
radio stack, engine controls, switches, and overhead. There is no
passenger view, as illustrated in the documentation, but you get the
switches view, which was not mentioned. The switches view is far
better, giving you clear access to the lighting switches beneath the
copilots yoke.
Unlike all other aircraft design of this type, the prop levers are
not in the centre of the quadrant, they are on the right hand side as
there are no mixture levers because the engines have automatic mixture
adjustment. Between the throttle and props are the carb heat selectors
and below the quadrant are left and right engine chokes (remember
them?)
Pilot View
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Preset Switches View
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Throttle Quadrant
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Preset Overhead View
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Escape Hatch
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Tombstone View
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Unfortunately, another design flaw means you cannot control the
choke levers, when you hover your mouse and try to move the lever, it
just quivers as though something else is overriding your actions. I
reported this along with the problem above to Wilco. After 14 days I
was advised to watch 'the tutorial' videos on their product/extras
page, but alas, there is no mention of throttle operation and the
second video even illustrated the OBI bug (mentioned below). They seem
to be disinterested now, so it looks as though they are working on it
or I have to live with it. Who knows?
So, the layout is good, but the texture quality is not so good, it
just lacks the polish that you get with other GA developers, but is
good enough not to ruin your experience. I will let you draw your own
conclusions from my screenshots.
Instrument Panel Layout
All of the various engine parameters, such as manifold pressure and
RPM, fuel quantity and flow, plus oil and coolant temperatures and
pressures are indicated by analogue gauges. A large, dual-pointer
manifold pressure gauge and two smaller tachometers show power. The
tachometers show propeller speed rather than engine rpm (which would
appear unfamiliarly high to those not used to Rotax's).
Panel Without Yokes
The gauges are clear and easy to read
in the daylight, they don’t have reflections
but do slightly change their appearance when the VC glass is changed
via the option panel.
The quality of the annunciator panel is awful. Flat, low
quality textures with a bit of Photoshop highlighting to emulate
shine or reflection. Each indicator has a test light activated by a
mouse click or roll of the mouse wheel. The indicator will briefly
flash, such a feeble effort of recreating this panel seems typical
of this development.
Annunciator Panel
Nav & Coms
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In the centre of the panel we have a fine selection of radio and
navigation instruments, these are very well modelled and provide
full IFR operations. From the top to the bottom we have:
• S-TEC Fifty Five X -
autopilot;
• Garmin GNS-430 - GPS;
• Garmin SL-30 - nav/com transceiver;
• Bendix King KR-87 - ADF receiver;
• Garmin GTX-328 - transponder;
• Garmin GNC-255 - nav/com receiver;
• Garmin GMA-340 - audio panel;
and
• Davtron M800 - chronometer.
I can’t see anyone complaining with this selection, in the real
world you would be able to upgrade to a couple of huge Garmin G950s,
but I prefer the steam cockpit layout we have here.
Unfortunately I have to report another quirk/bug. When
operating the autopilot VSI, I found the VSI knob operation
and animation confusing, if you left click the mouse, the
value decreases as expected, when you right click it
increases, also correct. However, when you use the wheel,
scrolling up decreases the value and scrolling down
increases the value, this is totally opposite to how all the
other instruments work
Overall, the graphic quality of the gauges were below par
when compared with Wilco's competitors, more detail would
encourage me to fly her more.
I was very pleased with the accuracy of these instruments,
they were well able to cope with an ILS approach and VOR and
NDB navigation. They have gained my trust when operating in
very low visibility. |
Animations
Animations of the prime control surfaces are good, as are the
animations of the doors and undercarriage operation. Internally, the
gauges were smooth, as was the operation of the quadrant levers. As
mentioned earlier, I did have problems with the passenger door and the
choke levers.
Lighting
When you are flying at night, the panel lights and dome light work
well, there is a 3 position dimmer for the instruments and the
avionics and you should be able to achieve the light level you
require.
Dome Light Off
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Dome Light On
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Panel Lights Dimmed
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Overall Lighting Effect
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However, there is another bug connected to the panel light switch,
when switched on, the CDI needles on the OBI gauge, and the selected
pressure on the co-pilots altimeter disappear, so you have to choose
instruments or lights? Another problem happens in daylight hours in
that the dome light and panel lights do not work. Recently, I was
flying online with some of the Mutley Crew along the north coast of
Norway, so although it's officially daylight, the light levels are
very low (as in autumn the sun barely makes it over the horizon) and
on approach, without the panel lights, I could not easily read those
vital instruments unless I zoomed right into the gauge. (Oh, and to
top it off the dome light switches are incorrectly labelled, when it
says off, it really means on, and vice versa).
External Lights
The exterior lighting was acceptable, all the nav lights worked ok
with the strobes, beacon, taxi and landing lights all operating
correctly. The taxi and landing lights illuminate the ground in
various intensities depending on the selection, for once, faultless.
Sounds
"High quality digital stereo sounds recorded directly from the real aircraft.".
The sounds which have been modified, are quite good, the engine start up
and shutdown sequence is quite realistic as are the different engine
notes. I took
time to manually play other wave files independently of the sim to get the pure
sound, and I was happy with the results.
Sadly, there were no clicks when operating the switches. The door,
flaps, and fuel pump sound were pretty similar to other stock aircraft
sound effects, so acceptable.
General Characteristics and Performance Specifications
The general characteristics and performance specifications for the
Tecnam P2006T are provided in the table below. This is based on data from the official
Tecnam P2006T Pilot Operating Handbook, data provided by Wilco, and general research sources. Some of this data varies between sources and also may be an approximation due to variances in data and the specific aircraft modelled by
Wilco.
Flight Performance
I have flight tested the Tecnam P2006T in many situations for
over 20 hours now. Flights have ranged from short hops to cross country
and multi-player flights.
It was difficult to measure fuel flow and range as they are not
exactly quoted. The specifications above quote a range of 742 nm with
full fuel load. I worked out an endurance of around 4.75 hours at a
flow rate of 40 l/hour and tallied that against a real world flight crew
training manual. Actual flying time would be around 2.5 hours allowing
for taxi, contingency, alternate airfield, hold, etc., so I wouldn't
plan a journey of more than 420 nm.
Reference speeds, such as the stall speed (dirty), were spot on the
48 kts quoted by Tecnam. Rotation and climb were possible at 64 and 80 kts respectively, so no problems there. Cruise at 140 kts and a max of
155 kts were easily achievable with favourable weather conditions.
Very Manoeverable
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Cloud Dancing
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Taxiing and ground manoeuvres are very easy, the visibility from the
cockpit is excellent and she moves with ease. Turning using the diff
brakes and/or engine thrust gave me all the control I needed. The
take-off roll seems uneventful until the ASI reaches 40 kts then speed
increases to 80 kts in no time, almost before you realise, you can
rotate. When you look back you will realise the take-off run was less
than 1,000 ft, so short field performance is very good.
In the climb, 1,500 fpm was maintained all the way up to 8,000 ft,
where, even with heat, the VSI decreased to 500 fpm as we pushed up to
the ceiling of 14,500 ft. She was happy to cruise at 140 kts for
hours. Despite her appearance, she is not a speedy bird compared with
other twin GA aircraft, such as the Beech Baron, quoted at 180 kts.
This should be taken into consideration when flying long distances or
multiplayer. In a recent session, my fellow pilots had to wait for me
to catch up several times.
Low Level Cruising
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Over Robben Island
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The trim works well and the stabilator is very responsive to
elevator inputs. Turns can be quite aggressive, thanks to the Fraise
ailerons, allowing the aircraft to turn and roll with less than
maximum input, they also lessen the tendency of adverse yaw. Stalling,
though, is a quite an uneventful affair, the nose will drop very
slowly and is reticent to dive until well into the stall. Strangely,
the stall horn sounds after the stall happens and soon stops after
forward speed and momentum is achieved.
There were no surprises with landings, even with quite high cross
winds. An approach at about 90 kts gave plenty of control and touch
down around 80 kts gave the best results. She stops very quickly, so
is ideal for short fields.
Underbelly
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Landing Configuration
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Overall, the the flight performance was very close to the published
specifications from Wilco and the aircraft manufacturer. From taxi to
landing, I found the P2006T’s handling straightforward, albeit
uneventful. Other than the annoyances of the problems listed above,
the actual flying experience was good fun.
Documentation
On the face of it, with 10 documents and a check list, you would say
the Wilco Tecnam P2600 is well documented. Eight of the documents are
for the individual avionic components that you can see listed above.
Their content is mostly a nomenclature of switches and buttons and
would rely on your knowledge to use the device effectively.
The checklist document is very useful, with an easy to follow flow of
checks to follow. Guidance on speeds required at various stages of the
flight is also included and encourages you to check those gauges.
The Pilots Operating Handbook is a rather sorry affair. Once you take
away two full page adverts for other Wilco products and the glossy
cover page, you are left with nine pages of fairly superficial
information.
There are two pages dedicated to views, which, as I pointed out above,
are not 100% accurate. Also, a page of background history, which, for
me, whetted my appetite to search out more information from the
internet, as did the lack of some of the technical information
provided.
The cockpit guide section was another picture pointer guide with 59
labels, useful for inexperienced pilots but self explanatory for
seasoned aviators.
Value for Money
I ended up paying £15.99 for my copy from Just Flight. This price is
about 20% less than the Carenado Baron, so it would be a reasonable
price if it was a fully working and finished product. So VFM for a
faulty product should end up at zero.
Simulator Performance
Great simulator performance helps to lessen the blow of the problems
of this aircraft. I have my sim capped at 30 FPS and never noticed a
dip in performance over default and bespoke scenery. If you do get a
performance drop it will not be this aircraft causing it.
Technical Requirements
• Windows XP 32 with SP3 installed,
Vista 32, Windows 7 32/64, Windows 8 32/64;
• Microsoft Flight Simulator FSX with
SP1 and SP2 (or Acceleration Pack);
• Lockheed Martin Prepar3D Flight
Simulator v1.4 and 2.x;
• Pentium V/2GHz or similar;
• Minimum 4GB RAM (Recommended 8GB
RAM);
• 512MB graphic card;
• 143Mb download file; and
• 11Mb free hard disk space required.
Review Computer Specifications
• Intel i7 4770K o/c to 4.2GHz);
• GTX 690 4096MB GDDR5 graphics;
• 16GB Corsair Vengeance DDR3
1866MHz;
• Windows 7 Pro, (64bit);
• Microsoft FSX + Acceleration Pack;
and
• Additional major add-on seen in
screenshots include REX4 Texture Direct.
Conclusion
Wilco have missed an opportunity to rid itself of its bad
reputation. With the Tecnam P2006T they promised heaven and
delivered hell.
I think you may well feel aggrieved having parted with money for
this unfinished product. As we, the flight sim public have had to bear
before, we have taken the place of the beta tester. I would rather pay
more for a quality product and would not recommend this aircraft to my
friends.
Verdict & Rating
The Wilco Tecnam P2006T is a mediocre product that falls well short
of its promises. It is worth mentioning that Wilco technical support
is far worse than their products.
Pros:
Good value for money.
Great sim performance.
Good flight model.
Good exterior textures.
Cons:
Full of bugs.
Unbelievable mistake with door dimension / engine placement.
Poor internal textures.
Poor documentation.
Scores: |
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● External Model: |
2.0/10 |
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Internal Model: |
4.0/10
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●
Sounds: |
7.0/10 |
● Flight Characteristics (does it fly by the numbers): |
7.5/10 |
● Flight Dynamics (does it feel like what it looks like): |
7.5/10 |
● Documentation: |
3.0/10 |
● Value for Money: |
2.0/10 |
The Wilco Tecnam P2006T is awarded a Mutley's Hangar score of
4.7/10, and Mutley's Hangar Advice of "Buyer Beware".
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