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Diamond factory visit

Hi all,

I’m in Austria atm and will visit the Diamond factory tomorrow, I’m going for a test flight in the DA62. I will of course report back with details and photos, in the meantime let me know if there’s any specific information any of you would like, happy to ask questions on your behalf!

EGTR

Hi,
I would like to know if Diamond plans to retrofit their G1000 equiped aircrafts with new G1000 Nxi (DA40 as far as I am concerned ).

Jean
EBST, Belgium

Why on hell cant the fuel units (on engine monitor) be changed to L on the DA42NG (and maybe other versions

Do you mean user-programmable and then also part of a user-profile setting in the G1000? Or factory settings depending on whether the aircraft ends up in North America or in the ROW?

Assuming you mean user-programmable I guess it could be handy, but it also introduces a risk, especially when the aircraft is flown by various people using various user profiles. So Pilot A takes off with the profile of pilot B still in the system and he looks at fuel remaining ‘25’ and makes the mistake not to look at the units and thinks it is gallons and it is actually litres. Don’t tell me such mistakes would not be made.

I suppose more user-programmability also has its drawbacks..

Personally I don’t have an issue with taking out my phone and convert the fuelled amount into gallons (if I refuel less than to full tanks), part of my standard routine.

Private field, Mallorca, Spain

I can only see inconvénients hanving a different fuel unit on the plane than the one you fill in having to do all the conversions is just a (tiny) hazard but bigger inconvenience. WB in litres too.

If the unit displayed (for everyone) was litres than no sane (or having a lot of appetite for mental math) would use gallons. There would be zero issue with conversion problems. Why would anyone want to use a USG profile?

Noe wrote:

Why would anyone want to use a USG profile?

I do all the time because POH figures are in gallons. So it is easier. OTOH I can choose between gallons and liters on the Avidyne, and from memory I could choose the unit per user profile on the DA40-180 G1000. I chose USG.

LFPT, LFPN

The DA42 and 40 I fly have POH figures in both, and also meters for runway distances.

If you POH had both (which should be super easy for the manufacturer, would you still pick USG?


Last Edited by Noe at 16 Feb 05:55

I guess my actual question of diamond would be:
Is it possible to change?
Yes – how?
No – why, and what would need to happen for it to be possible?

Hi everyone!

The Diamond factory visit was really fantastic. We learnt some interesting things:

- The D-Jet is totally dead.
- Diamond Austria are getting very close to finishing the DA50, in fact we saw one having avionics installed. This is going to be a great plane and will use the larger SMA engine to get close to DA62 speeds. The turboprop DA50 is dead too.

Flying the DA62

This is a super comfortable aircraft, definitely the most comfortable piston aircraft I’ve been in (it feels more spacious than a cirrus). Loads of headroom and a very wide cabin, plus huge windows. The interior is extremely well done, the finish is fantastic. The back row seats (seats 6 + 7) are really tiny are only really suitable for 2 children or one short adult. I would say that it is comfortable for 5 adults / 4 adults + 2 children / 2 adults + 5 children, it would be very uncomfortable to have 3 adults in the middle row or 2 adults in the back row. The middle row is very very comfortable for two adults, not 3.

The engines are noticeably quiet and as everyone will know, super simple to operate. There’s really nothing to do at all. Turn on the master, hit start and that’s it… the power is single level per engine, you’re controlling the ECU, there’s no mechanical link from the throttle to the engine.

It handles very nicely, a little heavy but responsive. The only thing that I didn’t immediately like were the rudder peddles, both on the ground and in the air. They’re heavy and the pressure you need to apply doesn’t seem consistent, it might be easy for the first 1/2 inch of travel and then suddenly become much harder. I’m not sure why this is, perhaps something to do with the yaw damper servo or rudder trim? Speaking of the rudder trim, it’s conveniently placed just above the throttles and has very clear markings, this is a huge improvement over the Pipers I’ve flown which have the rudder trim near the floor.

The avionics are as you’d expect from an G1000 installation… We flow with the standard G1000 though all G1000 aircraft that Diamond are now delivering will come with the G1000 NXI, the cost is the same. Diamond have just added the option of having a keypad, this folds out from the central armrest. I’d be interest to hear thoughts about how necessary a keypad is.

One of the things that we were really interested in was the speeds and fuel burn.. We’ve heard conflicting things about the numbers one can expect to achieve. Diamond were more than happy to take us to 12,0000 ft and show us. Here’s what we got:

190 kts TAS @ ~ 19 GPH – 95% power, which you can use continuously.
170 kts TAS @ ~ 12 GPH – 70% power

With Jet A1 being so much cheaper and more available than Avgas in Europe (and much of the world) these speeds / fuel burns are a big deal.

EGTR

Jean wrote:

I would like to know if Diamond plans to retrofit their G1000 equiped aircrafts with new G1000 Nxi (DA40 as far as I am concerned ).

Yes they do, they are working on their first retrofit of the NXI right now, when they’ve done this they’ll know how much work / cost is involved.

EGTR
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