Airtest – Aerospatiale Trinidad

Recently I spent a very pleasant afternoon flying the Aerospatiale Trinidad. This elegant aircraft is now available in Australia through its Bankstown Airport-based distributor, Flight Safety Products. For those who do not recognise the name, this is an affiliated company to the highly regarded Australian Flying Training School. Flight Safety Products took over the Aerospatiale light aircraft distributorship for Australia at the beginning of 1983. AFTS itself operates 10 Tobago aircraft for its private and professional pilot training courses, underlining the fact that the Company has a long-term commitment in seeing the aircraft sold and properly supported in Australia.

Seeing the aircraft for the first time one is pleasantly surprised by the very rakish lines and excellent general finish. The exterior is smooth and clean with extensive use of countersunk rivets. The wing, a non-tapered constant aerofoil section, contains 86 mg of usable fuel and is built around a one-piece spar milled from a solid block of metal. This method of construction, normally used on aircraft such as Concorde and modern jet fighters, ensures high strength and low weight.

The quick-acting electrically actuated flaps are of the slotted type and have 40 degrees of travel, with a pre-select function for the 10-degree takeoff/approach setting. The rest of the flap can be selected in required increments. Turning to the empennage, pitch control is affected by a simple slab stabilator which is positioned behind the very responsive rudder. An unusual but effective combination. The undercarriage is of the now well-accepted trailing link design, able to smooth out even the bumpiest landing a pilot can produce. The main wheels retract inwards whilst the nose wheel retracts rearward. The system is quite simple with no rigging of additional doors to worry about. Retraction time is about six seconds.

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