The RAF Tutor will also be taking to the sky of Swansea Bay over both days of the Wales Airshow.
The Grob 115E, is known by the RAF as the Tutor and is used for Elementary Flying Training by the 14 University Air Squadrons and 12 Air Experience Flights in the UK. It is also used by the Central Flying School and for elementary WSO training at the RAF College Cranwell. All of the Tutors in RAF service are entered on the UK Civil Aircraft Register and are provided by VT Group.
The Tutor, constructed mainly from carbon fibre reinforced plastic, combines high strength with light weight. Like its predecessor, the Bulldog, the Tutor has side-by-side seating but, unlike the Bulldog, the primary flight instruments are on the right-hand side of the cockpit. This allows the student to fly the aircraft from the right-hand seat with a right-hand stick and a left-hand throttle thus making the transition to fast-jet aircraft much easier.
The aircraft has a very clean air frame and has a three-minute inverted- flight time limit, making it ideal for aerobatics where, unlike previous RAF light aircraft, it loses little or no height during a full aerobatic sequence. The Tutor is a very cost-effective, modern elementary training aircraft. The combination of docile handling characteristics and good performance make it very suitable for its training role.
