The Tecnam P2002 JF is a two seater light aircraft powered by a Rotax engine. It’s an all aluminium low-wing monoplane with a sliding canopy. My last visit to my previous flying-club in Geneva was the opportunity to take a test-flight in one. The club operates two of them as basic trainers and I needed one hour with an instructor to renew my Single Engine Piston rating.

At first contact, the P2002 JF looks small. The wings and nose are short, the engine compartment is low. It also seems fragile. The cowlings, the leading edges, the flaps, everything seems fragile, and not so well assembled. The hinges’ pins are apparent, and my instructor had trouble opening the fuel caps. Getting in the cockpit was not exactly easy. One must climb on the wing from the front side, and then slid in the pilot seat, but without grabbing the canopy, the back of the seat, the side, nor the dashboard.

I could not close the canopy without before lowering my head. Once closed, I had more room. The next challenge was to fasten my seat belt. The belt is made of two parts which cross themselves behind pilot’s shoulders and then click together. Getting it fastened within the tiny cockpit was kind of a contortion exercise.

The cockpit itself is well organized. The stick and rudder pedals are fixed and the seat can be adjusted. There are two throttles: one left of the dashboard for pilots flying with their right hand on the stick and one in the center for those preferring to fly with their left hand. The instructor can also use the central throttle from the right seat. The flaps are electrically controlled by a switch located beside the central throttle. It’s easy to extend them while keeping the hand on the throttle. I don’t know if it comes from the mechanical coupling of both throttles, but the plungers are not operating smoothly. One must pull hard to reach the idle position and the force required often results in abrupt changes.

The pitch trim is controlled electrically via two switches on the stick. Not the usual two-parts up / down switch, but one button for nose-up and one for nose-down. There is no trim wheel so if the electrical system fails the pilot must fly with the present trim position, whatever it is. If the system fails and continuously trim in one direction, a disconnect switch makes possible to deactivate it.

The Rotax engine starts almost instantly, just like a car engine. The engine is sipping mogas and has two carburetors. There is no need for mixture control, so all what’s left for engine control is the throttle, carburetor heat, and the fuel selector. As all low-wing aircraft, there is an extra electrical pump used during take-off and landing to prevent problems if the mechanical pump fails.

The directional nose wheel makes taxiing easy. There is no toe brakes but a central brake lever which activate brakes on both sides. It’s a much better solution than the free-wheel and finger brakes combination found on the Liberty XL2. The ground roll is smooth on both asphalt and grass taxiways. The nose wheel is effective and I the braking system does not induce directional problems.

The line-up and take-off roll are easy as well. The right foot pressure required to compensate for the left turn tendency is reasonable. We took-off from the grass runway which is sometimes bumpy but the dampers were doing good and the roll was smooth. The initial climb was quite shallow but after gaining a bit of extra speed, the performance was good.

The first good surprise I had was during the first turn. The required control forces are really light. One can easily take the stick between two fingers and fly accurately. The Tecnam P2002 is well balanced – the same amount of force is required for elevator and ailerons action, making it really pleasant to fly. The second good surprise was how good the visibility is, both forward and sideways. I learned to fly in an AS-202 Bravo, which also has a canopy. The visibility from the Tecnam cockpit seems even better.

The Tecnam cruises at speeds slightly above 100 knots making it a quite fast basic trainer. Thanks to the good responsiveness and the excellent visibility, steep turns are easy to fly. Keeping altitude does not requires excessive back-pressure on the stick. Compared to other modern aircraft, stalls are very aggressive. We stalled it with full flaps and the nose dropped abruptly. This has nothing to do with a Piper or Diamond stall.

Once back in the pattern, reducing speed is not easy. The white arc starts at a rather low speed. Power must be reduced massively and well in advance to let enough speed bleed off before flaps can be extended. As all light aircraft, the Tecnam P2002 is largely affected by thermal turbulence. Fly low on a summer day and you’ll feel all the bumps.

Landing is so easy that there’s not a lot to say about it. I flew two touch and go and one full stop. One of the touch and go was a simulated engine failure. I came in a bit high and tried a side-slip, but this was not really effective. The flare height and attitude is very natural and the ground roll is easy to control.

All in all, the Tecnam P2002 JF is a nice little aircraft, but its construction is less than perfect. Many details could be improved. As a result, it looks like the cheap version of a nice aircraft, which is a bit of a shame.