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Some info on the DA42

The former long-time CEO of Cessna, Jack Pelton, started a new company specializing in rebuilding old airframes like the C421 to bring them to modern standards, even resetting some timed parts.

Here's a report.

I guess he knows what he is doing. The real beauty is that it is still on the old Cessna TC which was obtained according to old certification standards which are much more relaxed than the current one.

Talking about great twins, at some point I was considering to purchase a Cessna T303 Crusader, the last piston twin to be certified before Diamond. Awesome airplane, rather modern but unfortunately quite rare and not easy to maintain.

The obvious options are a Jetprop, and then a used TBM which isn't much more but costs a lot more to run due to Socata's maintenance schedule.

Meridian or maybe Jetprop. Hard to beat their performance now without going to TBM and they are a lot more money.

EGTK Oxford

It's a thread drift, sorry, but Achimha mentions the Cessna 303. I have some experience with one, Here is the excerpt from my notes:

Bill and I were ferrying a Cessna 303 from Canada to England, for delivery to its new owner. With lots of Cessna 310 and 340 experience, I felt extremely comfortable flying the 303, and off we went. This particular aircraft was very well equipped, with full IFR equipment as one would expect, and full known icing equipment. So there we were, flying in IMC, though often with a view of the ground, but picking up ice. No problem, I just selected on all of the deicing equipment, and had a look around the aircraft to assure that is was functioning. The boots on the wings, and just the very tips of the horizontal stabilizer could be seen, and I was able to confirm that they were operating as expected. Obviously, the boot on the vertical fin could not bee seen, and this was an act of faith.

After a while, and while obviously picking up some ice, a slight twitch in the yaw axis developed. It was about what you’d feel if you were alternatively pushing the pedals a little. I looked over at Bill’s knees, and asked, “Are you playing on the pedals down there?” But as I asked, I observed that his knees were still, so this was not his doing. Next I scanned the engine instruments – they indicated that the engines were both purring. The twitching in yaw got a little worse, and was now noticeable in pitch as well. Whatever it was that causing the twitching was making be nervous. When I’m nervous, I like to be closer to maneuvering speed (Va), in case something unexpected happens. So, I pulled the power back, and began to slow down…

As the plane slowed, we were suddenly rodeo riders, the plane was yawing and pitching violently, though roll control was prefect the whole time. Yaw was ten degrees either side uncontrollably, and pitch, though harder to estimate, was enough to give us quite a variation in “G”. Whatever the problem, slowing down made it a lot worse, so I sped up, and it settled down. The only thing it could be was airframe ice, nothing else would seem to have changed since we took off. But this was a known icing certified aircraft! So I flew as fast as I could, knowing that whatever it was, was getting worse, and we were still in the ice. At the higher speed, anything bad which happened, would happen worse, and faster! I had to get out of the ice.

We were able to descend, flying up the valleys in the mountains, not far from Wabush, Labrador. We were lucky enough to find warmer air, and the ice slowly shed on its own. An hour or so later, I landed in Shefferville, Quebec for fuel. Of course, slowing down, was an exercise in extreme caution. But the plane handled perfectly. The after landing visual inspection revealed no ice, or other defects at all. Mystery… Our trip continued….

Bill was flying the leg from Iceland to Scotland. I was bored. Searching for some new stimulus, I found the previously unread flight manual for the aircraft, and browsed. Among the commonly found white pages, was an uncommon fluorescent red one. To its corner, stapled a tiny zip lock bag, which contained a placard. My interest was peaked now (better late than never). The information on the page instructed that flight into known icing conditions was prohibited, and at the first encounter, an immediate 180 degree turn was to be executed. The placard in the zip bag simply said “Flight in icing conditions prohibited”. Well that was clear! But, with the placard in the bag, and the bag in the book, and the book in the glovebox, the pilot (who had not bothered to read the book prior to flying) had no way of knowing! To read on, it turns out that because the Cessna 303 has a “crucifix” tail, meaning the horizontal stabilizer is mid way up the vertical stabilizer, their respective leading edges form a cross. The middle of this cross was not deiced, and thus a block of ice would form there, and disrupt the smooth airflow over the tail. The result was (in several cases) fatal inflight breakup of the aircraft, due to loss of pitch and yaw control. This, I could imagine! This flight manual page, and placard were required by airworthiness directive 86-01-01.

The final instruction on the page was to install the placard. I did.

I understand that soon an electric pad was developed for installation on the offending leading edges, to correct this design deficiency.

I learned from that to read the flight manual before flying. I don’t know how close we came to breaking that plane up in flight, but it was a lot closer than we should have come!

There is one which is resident in Bremerhaven, I see it fly from time to time, but know nothing of its operation.

Home runway, in central Ontario, Canada, Canada

A plane which cannot carry any ice is completely useless for going anywhere at all.

Even if one pretends that one can be totally 100% legit VFR 100% of the time, one day one will find oneself above a piece of overcast, below 0C, and then what?

But why did this C303 have the deice equipment fitted, yet could not be flown in icing conditions? I must have missed something...

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

Was obviously an AD that emerged after certification. Later corrected it sounds like.

EGTK Oxford

Regarding the "heating ducts", aren't these generally used in most GA pistons?

Here's an IO-550 in the turbo normalised SR22...

A plane which cannot carry any ice is completely useless for going anywhere at all. But why did this C303 have the deice equipment fitted, yet could not be flown in icing conditions? I must have missed something...

The T303 has a crossed tail and exactly where the rudder and elevator intersect, there was a very sensitive spot for icing. It both attracted ice and had very negative consequences (see Pilot DAR's report). This was apparently not discovered during flight testing but later on by customers.

Cessna fixed the problem through a SB where the shape was changed. Only without this SB, the icing restriction applies.

I think the T303 is a fantastic aircraft, it just didn't have enough time form release to Cessna's hiatus in 1986 to get sufficient numbers built. Most parts are still available from Cessna but not all!

Service Letter SNL85-60A and Service Bulletin 303-39 (free of charge!)

I thought long and hard before buying a DA42.

@Hodja: So you're going for a factory new one. If it's not a secret what's your total bill and how will it be equiped?

LDZA LDVA, Croatia

@Hodja: So you're going for a factory new one. If it's not a secret what's your total bill and how will it be equiped?

For God's sake man, don't mention the War! It'll have FIKI TKS, weather radar, TurtlePac hookup, WAAS/VNAV/SVT, citrus smell Air Wick etc. I didn't put in aircon, ADF or built-in oxygen. I prefer a portable MH oxy setup w/oxyarm attached to the headset. Btw, I wish we had more solid data on those electrically powered oxygen generator units; I'd buy one in a heartbeat if it would replace the cylinder setup.

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