Looks like it’s flying a few times a day, seems busy to me.

Maybe that's considered busy for that model?

If you go to Flight Aware and type Cape Air in the search box then select Cape Air Flight Status, you see all currently airborne flights. As of 2 minutes ago, at least four of their airborne flights are P2012s.

That would be one call.

You would be dialing all day telling the short haul turboprop operators they are wrong.

Don't forget to include all the turboprop jump plane operators while you are at it.

If we are doing a head count, Cape Air is clearly on the minority side on this one.

Mike C.

That would be one call.

You would be dialing all day telling the short haul turboprop operators they are wrong.

Don't forget to include all the turboprop jump plane operators while you are at it.

If we are doing a head count, Cape Air is clearly on the minority side on this one.

Mike C.

Cost unsurprisingly is probably a large factor. For example, if we told all the Baron owners here on BT that they're doing it wrong and need to switch to Caravans or JetProps, most would probably say, "I'd love to, but can't afford it".

Tecnam just took orders from Southern Airways Express here in the US for a few P2012's. And they're selling quite a few to the smaller island hopper airlines. The potential for this aircraft, as they project, is over 11000 planes. There are a lot off clapped out old Islanders, Navajo's, 402's an Airvans out there that need replacement. And when diesels eventually get certified, they'll most likely hang those on.

As fara s piston go, it's a pretty modern plane. No mag checks, fully automated run-ups, electronic mixture control etc.

Look at steep approach at end. I like the thing.

[youtube]http://youtu.be/09-KkDgIdBs[/youtube]

11,000 airplanes is a pipe dream.


Those planes are flying those jobs precisely because they are old and cheap. They aren't going to be replaced with a $2.7M airplane.

There are also WAY less than 11,000 of those things flying today. Maybe 1000? Even that would be pushing it since I think the total 402, Islander, Navajo production run was less than 2000 planes new, and more than half have been retired.


Diesels have been certified, they just don't seem to work well for aviation.


That applies to the standard P2012 with the TEO-540 Lycoming engine with fancy electronics.

The STOL version uses a TCM GTSIO-520-S, which is basically what Cessna used in the 1970s for 421s (GTSIO-520-S is a GTSIO-520-L with minor adjustments for the airframe). In other words, 50 year old engine tech, which was old fashioned when it was introduced.

Mike C.

Took me a minute to figure out they are using different engines for the "Cape Air" version (they commissioned it) and the STOL version. Is it known they didn't put the magic in to the GTSIO-520 as well? I.e., pushbutton all weather autostart and mixture management?

Cape Air is still flying Cessna 402's in Montana - Yes, they fly in Montana. I was up in Havre, MT this week and spoke to the Cape Air gate agent. They are still doing 1-2 flights a day to outlining towns from Billings, MT.

She said they are expecting to switch to Tecnams this winter.

See this link: https://www.capeair.com/where_we_fly/Mo ... ntana.html to see where they fly in MT.

The 402's still fly regularly

https://flightaware.com/live/flight/KAP624

There is an interesting back story to the P2012 that I personally saw over 15 years ago.
Cape Air went to Cessna and asked if they would build them 50 brand new 402's. Cessna declined, and offered a Caravan for trials. Cape Air did evaluate the Caravan, and decided the economics didn't work. So Cape Air went to Piper and asked them to build 50 new Navajos. Piper said they couldn't, because they had lost much of the Navajo tooling. So this is where Tecnam came in. They built Cape Air a brand new, clean sheet design plane with the new electronic controlled Lycoming engine. It will have lower operating costs yet than the old 402's.

The sad part of the story is that neither Piper nor Cessna could deliver on the largest single order to ever be dropped into their laps.

Aside from some Lancairs, are there other aircraft applications with the TEO-540?

Could be that the TEO does not perform as expected, thus reverting to the old GTSIO-520-S that worked well in the 421s? And now calling the aircraft STOL for marketing purposes?

https://www.lycoming.com/engines/ie2

Some Partenavia/Tecnam history - Great aircraft designs:
https://disciplesofflight.com/remembering-tecnam-founder-luigi-pascale/
https://www.tecnam.com/legacy/
https://knisleyexhaust.com/blog/history-of-partenavia/

Mike, all of your arguments come from a 'let them eat cake' POV. Yes, I agree, turbines are superior. But they're also much costlier to maintain, service and feed. I'm happy that you don't have to turn every cent over in your flying operations, but many do. And for those this aircraft is an alternative.

Most of Cape Air's airframes fly FAR more than 4 flights a day. *Delta* flies 4 flights a day - some Cape Air planes fly 10-12.

The short-haul freight operators typically fly each leg once per day.