Combined with Lockheed Martin’s
highly advanced FTDs, Tan says
student pilots have never had more
opportunities to succeed in the ADF.
‘The fundamental di erence between
what we’ve done in the past and now is
simulation. We’ve never used simulation
in basic training. That’s why I’m con dent
you can take a student at the beginning
of their aviation career, enabled by
simulation and other synthetic devices,
and you can get them up and running in
a very con dent way very early on. Then
at the advanced end of their training, the
PC-21’s got plenty to o er.’
The PC-21 will be used as a ‘day-one
trainer’ for the RAAF, replacing both the
PC-9 and CT-4B with one aircraft type.
Tan adds, ‘With one aircraft trainer, we
don’t now have to spend further time
training to convert onto a di erent type.
Currently, students spend about four
months or so on the CT-4 and then a
further 12 months on the PC-9, noting
that the rst three months of PC-9 ying
is converting them on to that aircraft.
That’s ine cient.’
When it comes to the aircraft itself,
the group captain is full of praise for
the capability it brings to RAAF training.
‘It’s jet-like in a lot of ways. Those
performance characteristics of the PC-21
are very important. This aircraft can
sustain low-level speeds of more than
300kt. We were never able to do that ina PC-9 and if you want to train someone
to think fast in those scenarios, 300kt is a
good speed to be able to do that.
‘It may not be as fast as a Hawk or
Hornet but it will certainly give student
pilots that time compression they
wouldn’t have got in a slower trainer.’
But it’s what’s inside the cockpit of
the PC-21 which he believes will give
students the ultimate advantage. ‘The
bene t for students is their exposure
to a very modern cockpit. Things like
automation, a ight managementsystem, mission computer, up-front
control panels and a head-up display
— those kinds of systems are what our
pilots are going to be using in modern
RAAF aircraft.
‘If we’re going to train students to
be e ective when they go out into
their proper roles in ADF aviation,
we’ve got to have that kind of stu .
Those systems will give us the edge in
training. Everyone agrees that it’s going
to produce the quality of pilot we’re
looking for into the future.’Above: A Republic
of Singapore Air
Force PC-21 with
an RAAF PC-9, a
type the newer
Pilatus aircraft
is replacing in
Australia. RAAF
Below: Including
Australia, eight
countries have
now either put the
PC-21 into service,
or have the type
on order. Pilatushttp://www.combataircraft.net // May 2018 71
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