The electrical team of the Patrulla Águila shows little-known details of their C-101

@DefAviation ES 8·22·2024 · 20:25 0

The Spanish CASA C-101 Aviojet training aircraft made its first flight in 1977 and entered service in 1980, 44 years ago.

The hydraulic team that maintains the C-101 Aviojet airplanes of the Patrulla Águila
The work of the important support team of the Patrulla Águila of the Spanish Air Force

This aircraft, known in the Spanish Air Force as the E.25 Mirlo (Blackbird) and nicknamed "Culopollo" by its pilots, continues to serve in the Patrulla Águila (Eagle Patrol), the Spanish Air Force's aerobatic team, which operates seven C-101 Aviojets. This unit has demonstrated how capable this aircraft is of performing surprising maneuvers, but its flights would not be possible without a significant maintenance team.

In April we already saw here the work of the hydraulics team of the Patrulla Águila. Today the Spanish Air Force has published a new video showing the work of the electrical team, which is in charge of the maintenance and control of all the electrical systems of the C-101s of the Patrulla Águila. The team is made up of three men, who are in charge of explaining their work, including some little-known details of these aircraft for the general public, such as the procedure to activate the white and colored smoke trails (the video is in Spanish, you can activate automatic English subtitles in the bottom bar of the player):

Below we will see some screenshots from the video that caught my attention. Here we see the two batteries that supply electricity to the C-101 in flight.

The navigation light on the port wingtip. It is red and has a small fin whose reason for being I explained it to you here in December 2023: it serves to avoid distracting pilots with the glare of the navigation lights during night flights.

A curiosity that I had never seen is the deployment of the landing lights of the C-101. The video shows the deployment of the landing light on the port wing, located next to the landing gear on that side.

Another striking part of the video is when one of the members of the electrical team explains the process to activate the white smoke and the colored smoke that the Patrulla Águila planes emit during their displays.

Congratulations to the Patrulla Águila and the Spanisg Air Force for this video, it is of very good quality and I found it very interesting.