These are the numbers from AFM (ISA, SL, MTOW 1785 kg):
- DA42 L360 ground roll 484 m, distance above 50 ft 747 m
- DA42 TDI with CD-155 ground roll 428 m, distance above 50 ft 595 m
Obviously CD-155 performs better in DA42 than Lycoming.
I wonder why that is? The only thing that comes to mind is that the vmca for the L360 is higher much higher than that of the CD-155.
This flight manual for the Lycoming powered DA42 variant shows an initial climb in the range of 2000 fpm. Is that performance actually only ~200 fpm better than the current Diesel version, or perhaps more significantly is the time only marginally improved for a climb from sea level to 8,000 ft when departing over terrain near the airport?
The latter would obviously be an important performance characteristic to better, for me and others in my area. It can save a fair amount of time if departure from an airport near mountains can be done with a direct routing over them and away. In that case there is usually no substitute for sea level power, but I wouldn’t speak for an aircraft type with which I have no experience.
