Leaderboard

A bit of history. Extract from Facebook page - https://www.facebook.com/399877246768865/photos/a.783005898455996/866828416740410/?type=3 "In 1976, Fuerza Aérea Uruguaya (Fuerza Aerea Uruguaya - FAU) began to seek a replacement for its North American AT-6 trainers and to complement its fleet of Cessna T-41D primary trainers, which had been acquired in 1969. Once the Beechcraft T-34 was considered as a suitable substitute for the "tejanos", to be incorporated into the FAU inventory, these mentors were registered FAU-660 to 684. La Escuela de Aviación Militar (Escuela Militar de Aviación - EMA) I received four planes, these were registered FAU-669, 670, 676 and 677, while FAU kept two planes: FAU-650, 651, 660, 662, 663, 664, 665, 666, 668, 671, 672 and 678, all operating with Grupo de Aviación N° 1. On July 14, 1980, four mentors were acquired by Chilean Naval Aviation, namely a T-34A, serialized FAU-651, and three T -34Bs, which received serial FAU-685 to 687. In 1982, when the (Centro de Instrucción y Entrenamiento de Vuelo Avanzado - CIEVA) was created, Group No. 1 of Aviation was designated as an "attack" unit, being replaced from its T-34B by the IA-58 Pucará. In turn, the T-34s were transferred to CIEVA just created. With the passage of time, the wear and tear, the accidents and the presumed cuts passed the invoice and the number of operating aircraft decreased considerably, until the point of having only 10 planes available for training at CIEVA and EMA for mid-1989. Fortunately, the following year, through a subsidy from the Spanish Government, the FAU received one T-34A that had been withdrawn from the Air Force of that country between 1987 and 1988, and had been stored in very good conditions. These T-34A arrived by boat in Uruguay on March 8, 1991, joining FAU on April 24, with registration numbers FAU-630 to 646. In May 1992, two T-34As were transferred to Naval Aviation, these being FAU-630 and 639. After 20 years of service, it was considered necessary to modernize the EMA training fleet, so in 1999 FAU awarded a contract for 13 Aermacchi SF.260s to a company in the United States." ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- * In this pack, everything BUT plane´s numbers and skins are not 100% correct as the planes were used mainly as trainers. This should be pretty boring! * Anyone is allowed to use the blank skins for other skins without ask me any permission, but don´t forget to share it! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Credits: RussoUK - 3D work Wrench - inspiration, support and inside ReadMe text. Ideal for Gepard´s awesome terrain "Rio de La Plata". Skins and decals - Me, myself and I Have fun!!

First, my congratulations to russouk2004 for the bird! A special thanks to Wrench for the support. The Beechcraft Mentor in the Argentine Air Force By the mid-50s, the Air Force required a basic trainer capable of replacing the nationally manufactured I.Ae.22 DL and the Fiat G-46, then in service. The choice fell on the modern Beechcraft B-45 Mentor that just three years ago had entered service with the USAF. The contract signed with the North American company in 1956 contemplated the acquisition of 15 units manufactured at the Beechcraft plant located in Kansas and another 75 that would come in kit form to be assembled at the Military Aviation Factory. The 15 examples manufactured in the United States arrived in the country in flight on June 20, 1957, while the assembly of the other 75 began in 1959 and ended in 1962. The first example manufactured in Córdoba took flight on 11/1 /1959. Initially, the Mentors entered service with Training Group I of the I Morón Air Brigade, where they served between 1962 and 1970, later they would move to the VII Morón Air Brigade and finally they would form part of the Military Aviation School. Some copies were in service in the Reconquista Military Air Detachment, between 1962 and 1963, these copies would later go to the Directorate of Development, being re-registered as LQ-..., these devices would go to the EAM in 1969. In 1979, 50 new 260 hp Continental IO-470-N12B engines were purchased to re-engine the 41 Mentor in operation at that time, the works were carried out in the Material Area of Río IV. Mentor in action: Despite being a pure trainer, the T-34 served during the 70s as reconnaissance and aerial observation aircraft in search and attack of insurgent positions during Operation Independence, carried out on the soil of the province of Tucumán and in Operation Torrión. The last days of the Mentor:. Between 1996 and 1999, the former LMAASA proceeded to carry out structural reinforcement, avionics renewal and fine-tuning work on 30 still-operable Mentors, this served for a handful of copies to continue flying until the year 2011, at which time they are permanently discharged after almost 50 years of service. On September 18, 2001, a fatal accident occurred during the baptism flight of the first-year cadets of the Military Aviation School, when one of the aircraft crashed after brushing the control tower with its wing, killing its two occupants. . From that moment on, the fame of the Mentor was undermined, but its operation continued, until on October 8, 2010, the E-046 crashed after taking off, due to a planted engine. Finally, in August 2012, the Air Force decides to decommission the venerable T-34 Mentor. In 2002 and 2003, two second-hand units were acquired from the Uruguayan Air Force, which in turn had received them from the Spanish Air Force." extract from here https://amilarg.com.ar/beech-t-34.html (What a site!) I strongly recommend you to fly it over the fantastic Gepard´s new Rio de La Plata terrain. Thanks boss! Have fun!!!