LET410 Rating and a new job !

As you have come to expect, things have been a little slow on the blog and I apologize for that but when life takes over you have to get the priority's out of the way first.

Moving on, I GOT A NEW JOB! I really had got tired of the C208B and the Chieftain/Navajo:) The 208 I had simply flown for ever and the Chieftain was a lot of fun but it was a risky aircraft to fly and I am glad I have around 200 safe hours on it.

After some running around between flights for the previous company to get interviews and sim checks done, Air-Tec Global gave me a shot on the Mighty LET410. An amazing opportunity and after 6 months it has changed my life for the better in a variety of ways.

Onto the rating then. The Aircraft Industries LET410 is a Czech built commuter category aircraft that has been around for quite some time, originally designed as a replacement for the Russian Airforce Antonov 2/AN2 .

Aircraft Industries was commissioned to replace this indestructible cold war biplane with an aircraft capable of various configurations such as cargo,mail, medivac, paraops, commuter airline and general Air-force requirements. So as you can imagine and quite predictably, they built this aircraft as tough as a Russian tank.

The L410 is a high wing, twin turbo prop, multi-role Aircraft that has been around since 1971 and has evolved into a design synonymous with extreme operations in the most remote area's of the planet. From the highest airport in the world, Lukla in Nepal to the extremely hot and harsh Sahara desert. Equally at home landing on a snow covered Siberian bush strip or touching down on a big tarmac runway in between the Airliners. She really is capable of any and all operations.

The first power plant to be used on the Let and which is still in use today(being phased out) is the Walther M601 turbo prop engine, variants of these seen on the aircraft are the M601E'S and M601F'S with very slight changes between the variants with some capable of water injection. Water injection is quite simply , atomized H2o injected directly into the combustion chamber at a calculated rate, reducing Inter-turbine temperature and improving overall thermo-dynamic efficiency. This was a design addition after a large market for the let opened up in the hot and high environment of Africa, when operators realized that the M601 was not such a performer in these area's.

Airtec Global has been operating in Africa since the early 1990's and within the last decade have upgraded and overhauled their fleet of Let's as their operation expanded dramatically. The main upgrade's which have taken place on 90% of the fleet have been a complete overhaul of exterior,interior,avionics and most importantly the upgrade to new General Electric H75-200 engines.
These engines have made an incredible difference to performance and efficiency. The difference between old and new makes one think how they used to operate on the previous generation of engines. It is a scary difference let me tell you. All new let's are now fitted with the GE engine type which is a vastly improved and new design based on the M601.

On to the rating. The cockpit of the Let is manly to say the least, every item is over designed and strong. The overhead panel and it's array of circuit breakers and switches are wonderful to operate as they have a lovely industrial style action. It makes you feel like you are flying a real aeroplane and much more involved in the process of flying, not pushing a soft , American-friendly button where something is done automatically for you, it is a very manual experience which is rewarding and fun. In the cockpit of the Let it is very rare to find an autopilot. It is a completely hands on and testing experience which makes it even better if you really love to fly, which I do.

I did my rating in Bethlehem,South Africa with the simulator training completed in Johannesburg. It was an incredible learning experience with the ground school/theory and actual flying completed for us by 2 Ex-SAAF instructors with an immense amount of experience. For 2 weeks I became an absolute sponge and just soaked in every bit of information. Flying the aircraft itself was very different to what I am used to, firstly because I have mostly flown from the left my whole life, flying from the right all of sudden took some getting used to. The aircraft is incredibly well balanced, the engines are smooth and quiet . Colossal trailing link gear on the main undercarriage and nose make landing the machine a pleasurable affair. The Let has some nuances that a flight crew member has to be cautious of which is drilled into you from the beginning of training. The main one for the rating was not to flare the aircraft with too high of a nose attitude. The reason for this is because it has a low tail and if your speed gets too low and you try to arrest the hard landing that you are about to have by increasing angle of attack(fairly normal practice on GA aircraft), it is almost guaranteed to strike the tail on touch down. This has happened at Airtec once or twice and involves a substantial amount of paperwork and a tense management team. After a couple landings this becomes a small issue as you learn to land the machine in a certain style and gradually master it over time. After some upper air work with simulated one engine out operations and some stalls which were beautifully docile, we headed back to the field for a couple circuits and then all was signed out.

It was by far the most enjoyable flight training that I have ever completed and it was such a privilege to have a company look after our every need during this process. I came out of it having learnt an incredible amount and really feeling like a new man and new pilot.

Ready for tour!!!