VRF AVIATION

VFR AVIATION HAS RECENTLY WROTE AN ARTICLE ABOUT US. TOPIC? OF COURSE OF OUR TUCANO-R AND THE UPCOMING CERTIFICATIONS.

Please find below the translation of the article:

Tucano Replica

The certifications are arriving

Flying Legend will not be present at AERO 2017 for a well-defined choice which is currently endorsing the certification procedures to enter in full the LSA and Experimental market, especially in the North American area after Flying Legend USA INC was established in Archer City, Texas; the company will be the benchmark for the sale of ready-made kits and equipment (together with Flyinglegend US Northeast) and also for kit assemblage  with the direct support of the company’s staff. The airplane, a replica of Brazilian military trainer Embraer Tucano, has had a big success already in 2014 with the participation in the Oshkosh Air Venture with a Tucano Replica flight arriving directly from Brazil (55 hours of total flight), and since then, its presence in the USA was a constant, while adjusting the aircraft to the standards of the new markets. The first version of Tucano Replica that we experienced in flight with the Rotax 100 hp and also with the 130 hp engine with a maximum take-off weight of 600 kg and a load factor of +4.4 -2.2 G  has now been completely revisited to enter the Experimental category and, subsequently, CS-VLA at 750 MTOW.

The certification and the standards

The maximum takeoff weight  has risen up to 650 kg, but above all the load factor is now + 6-3g, with a safety factor of 1.5 which allows  to perform the Sportman basic stunt program. Static loading tests were  performed in positive up to 9 g (but 9.5 g was achieved). The LSA version with a maximum take-off weight of 600 kg (1320 lb) also maintains the same load factors. Much of the effort was therefore required to obtain certifications or compliance with the required standard, and at the moment the Tucano Replica has the Brazilian Experimental Certification (ANAC)  and complies with the ASTM standards for S-LSA as well as LSA in Taiwan, which allows marketing on the Chinese market. Undoubtedly the big wait is for FAA’s Experimental USA certification, which is already evaluating a kit, and it should make its point while you are reading these lines. Finally, the starting procedures have also been done for the English LAA and the Australian CASA authority.

Engines

An airplane of this size and structure with no doubts needs a decent installed power, although it has proven to be running well with the Rotax 912 ULS 100hp, available for the LSA market with fixed undercarriage and fixed pitch, and also for the the VDS; and the LSA USA market, in particular for the last one, there is also available a Light Lycoming which requires a slight change of the cowling to accommodate the cylinder side footprint. But the choice of the company is oriented to the centrifugal compressor solution applied to the Rotax 912 100 hp, capable of delivering up to 140 hp with excellent reliability and a fairly simple installation which does not involve any internal modifications to the engine and even the exhaust system, being the compressor operated by a pulley and provided with independent lubrication. In this configuration we conducted a flight test two years ago (August 214) with excellent performance results. Also available is the 115 hp Rotax 914 turbo, and recently with this engine a Tucano R LSA was delivered (with fixed landing gear and fixed pitch propeller) to Taiwan. Today Flying Legend has dealers in Brazil, Australia, Cambogia, Taiwan, USA and South Africa, while the official entry in the European market (where they have already dealers in France and England, as well as in Italy) will take place after the English certification. Shortly VFR Aviation will be in Sicily to test the aircraft in its final setup.