Flying the Tecnam P2006T Twin

Easy flight with Italian style The wide runway fills the windscreen; potholes and grass growing in the surface, cracks coming into focus as we descend. Tim Orchard, owner of the aircraft I am flying for the first time, raises the pressure by saying: "The banks of earth you can see that look like the end of the runway - there's also a fence in front of them."

RAF Finmere, near Buckingham, is an old second world war airfield, one of the many scattered across England's Midlands. Of its two runways, less than half of the east-west one is still in use; trees and buildings cover the remainder of the former landing strips. Like many former wartime airfields, Finmere is privately owned, home to a few aircraft belonging to the owner and friends.

The aircraft we are flying is a Tecnam P2006T Twin - a four-seater with two piston engines that turn propellers. Being relatively low-tech and low on running costs, it fulfils most of the reasons why people buy twin-engined planes.

Those who buy for personal use want the safety of two engines, though the Rotax 912 S3 engines in the Tecnam are very reliable. Those who buy for a business such as a flight training school should welcome running costs that can be £150 an hour cheaper than many aircraft used for teaching, says Orchard. He is the UK importer for the Tecnam, which is built in Italy by a manufacturer better known for its smaller, single-engine aircraft that have a reputation for being easy to fly.Not counting the extra pressure for my first landing, the aircraft has proved exceptionally unstressful to fly. Controls are so light to operate, the aircraft could be flown in delicate Italian loafers.

Aircraft with two engines from US manufacturer Piper, however, such as the six-seat Seneca or four-seat Seminole, demand hobnailed boots. It was on such aircraft that I trained to fly multi-engine planes, and while their controls in general are not particularly subtle, flying on one engine requires huge force on the appropriate rudder pedal to keep the aircraft straight.

On the P2006T, though, with one engine not producing power, the pressure needed to cope with the asymmetric thrust is astonishingly small. Even newer aircraft, such as the four-seat Diamond DA42 Twin Star, which first flew in 2004, are not so benign.

With less effort needed for flying, I can take advantage of the high-wing design to look at the lush green fields 2,000 feet below. The grand estate of Orchard's neighbour, Lord Rothschild, passes under us. But it is a bright, calm day and Orchard is keen to drive off to indulge another aerial passion - hot-air ballooning. In fact, he tells me, his status as a pilot of both Concorde and hot-air balloons is likely to remain unique, as there is not exactly much demand for people to fly new supersonic airliners.

His time with British Airways was a springboard for a varied set of interests. Apart from being the Tecnam importer and ballooning as a hobby, he lectures on aviation and acts as one of the UK Civil Aviation Authority's elite crew of flight examiners. But for now he is keen to go flying with his daughter - also a qualified hot-air balloon pilot.

So we head back to Finmere. One delight of flying from an uncontrolled airfield is the lack of a radio or even a radio procedure - many of the other aircraft that use Finmere are microlights with no radio equipment. The big glass screens of the Tecnam's avionics system make it easy to keep track of where we are, and while we are both keeping a careful eye out for other aircraft, I am otherwise free to concentrate on the flying.

And so to the landing. The banks of earth - and the fence - are looking rather close now. But delicate touches on the controls yield proportionate responses by the aircraft. Speed and glide path look good. The landing roll, according to the book, is just 623 ft, so there should be plenty of room. The wheels kiss the uneven runway surface, and moderate braking brings us to a halt well short of the fence.

Being able to operate from short strips is not the only benefit of the P2006T. Its engines can operate on any sort of car petrol, even those blends that include ethanol. Many aircraft engines still need to use 100 low lead, which is not only fearsomely expensive but also becoming harder and harder to find. The Twin's engines sip fuel at less than 10 gallons an hour, combined, and with a cruising speed of 140 knots, even the modest tanks give a theoretical range of nearly 750 nautical miles.

The €395,000 starting price for the glass-cockpit version of the Tecnam - extras such as a €25,000 autopilot will add to that - also looks like a bargain. The four-seat Seminole, for example, starts at $697,100. With flight training rates usually based on the costs of expensive, thirsty American aircraft, the economics of the P2006T make setting up a school look attractive.

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