Thirty hours of training are spent at between 2,000ft (609m) and 10,000ft (3,048m) over country terrain, with every second or third flight being solo.

A PC-9 firing 2.75in Folding Fin Aerial Rockets during a training mission. The aircraft also has two 0.5in FN machine guns on underwing hardpoints.

Flight 56 is an elementary handling test which includes circuits, forced landing, stall and spin recovery, emergency drills and aerobatics.

Irish Air Corps students’ course on the PC-9 culminates in a sortie involving navigation to a target, a land away and leading a formation to a new target within five seconds of the stipulated time.

The PC-9’s range is 1,220km (758 miles) at a maximum cruise speed or 1,540km (956 miles) at its long-range cruise speed of 210kts (390km/h).

Students use the fixed training device to not only familiarise themselves with the cockpit, but also to complete some elements of their course, including 40 hours of instrument flying.

The instructor's control panel on the FTD. An instructor can project any scenario onto a 210° viewing screen in front of a fully-working replica of a PC-9 cockpit.