There are several DA42s on an AOC out of Gamston, don’t know how much is ad hoc passenger charter, I suspect not much, but they seem quite busy on various contracts.
Did the market ever dissapear or was it a case that the piston twins became just too expensive and too unreliable to serve the market.
Most schools used to have a twin so could use that for AOC work. Of course the ATO approval to teach for the MEP rating gravy train put a stop to that. They 12 year engine TBO for instructing didn’t help either. Finally the revalidation requirements haven’t helped either.
Bathman wrote:
… or was it a case that the piston twins became just too expensive and too unreliable to serve the market.
This is what I think. Too much ground time, too many technical problems which required external companies to be hired for getting the passengers back home.
The AVGAS problem in many parts of Europe didn’t help either. And many of the costs involved (especially crew, office, licensing costs from the authorities, airway, handling, database subscription, hangar, …) are almost the same for a C421, a KingAir or a CJ. Only that the KingAir is 50% faster than the C421 and the CJ is 150% faster which evens out the cost per distance – which is what the clients have to pay. 90% of executive travel customers will rather pay 50% extra to be taken from Stuttgart to London in a little bit more than an hour in a 5 year old jet than in 2 1/2 hours in a 35 year old piston Cessna. And a Da42 is nothing but a toy aircraft. Myself I would refuse to fly in one as a passenger.
