Picture of Diamond Aircraft at NBAA

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HPNAviator
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Picture of Diamond Aircraft at NBAA

Post by HPNAviator »

From the front page of Flightglobal today.

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Colin
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Re: Picture of Diamond Aircraft at NBAA

Post by Colin »

A friend went and looked at the plane. He seemed to think you could go out and get a TBM 700 for that sort of money and then you would be pressurized. I've thought about that, but it's no fun to fly an airliner and the operating costs seem painfully high. He said, "But you could also get a $700k Meridian, which has all of the features of the $1.3 mil da62 (de ice, a/c). Even in a meridian it takes a while to burn through $600k operating!"

I admit that he's correct on paper, but I like a new, composite airplane burning 15gph with two engines. That seems so great from a technology, engineering, and environmental perspective (similar to why I have two electric cars in the garage).

My ideal will be to move up to a DA42 and then in five years move up to a used DA62 and put the DA42 on the line somewhere.
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Re: Picture of Diamond Aircraft at NBAA

Post by rwtucker »

I suppose when you get into a twin, even a DA42/62 or a turbine, you have moved into the area of serious Point A to B driving. I would love to have the speed and seats and it makes a lot of sense for many missions but it would take me away from what I love most about flying. If I see a cluster of Elk along the way, I drop in and look around. I fly a lot of short hops in the mountains where the DA42/62 might be Ok for some but a turbine would scare me.

For me, the original concept for the DA50 looked perfect. I guess that fell by the wayside. If you look at the DA50 on Diamond's website, the pictures and text aren't even consistent and the 5-seats disappeared. I still have a factory brochure for the 5-seat AVGAS turbocharged DA-50. It could have been a safer alternative to a C400 or SR22.
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Re: Picture of Diamond Aircraft at NBAA

Post by Colin »

I actually had a deposit down on the DA50 and I was hoping that it was a six cylinder Continental with light pressurization. Essentially a Cirrus-killer. I was sad it disappeared, but not surprised.

One of the features that I would like to duplicate on a DA42 is that the DA50 had a removable stick on the passenger side. That would be popular with my Angel Flight passengers (trouble getting in and out sometimes) and my wife (laptop open, writing constantly during most flights).
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Re: Picture of Diamond Aircraft at NBAA

Post by rwtucker »

Colin wrote:One of the features that I would like to duplicate on a DA42 is that the DA50 had a removable stick on the passenger side. That would be popular with my Angel Flight passengers (trouble getting in and out sometimes) and my wife (laptop open, writing constantly during most flights).
The CFI who sold me my DA40 said he was aware of one instance in Seattle where the co-pilot stick was removed. Said it was quite a job. Not sure about the approvals or the reason why but I guess it can be done. If we are setting approvals aside, it would seem that the simplest way would be to make the stick 2-piece with the joining sleeve just below the seat line.
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Re: Picture of Diamond Aircraft at NBAA

Post by Paul »

Yes it's true, you could buy a TBM 700 for about what a DA62 costs. But the TBM burns 60gph and you can expect to pay > $50k a year in maintenance. A $700k Meridian is going to be pretty beat up. A reasonable late model Meridian with a G1000 is $1.5mm. I fly one. 260 knots, pressurization, FL280 over most weather. It's by far the most affordable certified turboprop. All in, it still costs $600-$800 an hour to fly depending on how you calculate your cost of capital. So you can't compare either of these planes to the DA62 because they cost way more to operate. The DA62 has such good range that there is a flight right around 900nm where it would as fast as the Meridian since it would skip a fuel stop.

I saw the DA62 yesterday. It's beautiful. I really want one and can't wait to fly one. It won't replace my Meridian but someday when I leave the turbine world, I'm going to own one of these. Or I'm going to figure out a way to partner in one sooner.

- As is typical with Diamond, the seats don’t recline but I sat in the second row and it was very comfortable. The third row is great for kids but pretty tight for adults.
- I’d say the finish was on par with Cirrus.
- The trailing link landing gear looks really beefy. Even I could land it.
- Visibility is less than the other Diamonds. I was told this is because they’d like to make it pressurized at some point.
- Also was told Diamond is working on slinging 6 cylinder engines on it at some point.
- The two storage compartments in the nose each hold 60lbs and can hold a small set of clubs but whatever goes in there needs to be long and thin and not square.
- You must need to land this plane pretty flat because there wasn’t much clearance between the ground and the tail. I put my backpack in the pic below for scale.
- The front of the front seats fold making it really easy to get in and out the plane.
- Under the green O2 knob by the rudder pedals, you can see where they put water bottle cages.
- Just one 12v port up front. Who does this in a seven-seat plane with six+ hours of endurance? A USB port for every seat is essential.
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Re: Picture of Diamond Aircraft at NBAA

Post by Paul »

One more
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Colin
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Re: Picture of Diamond Aircraft at NBAA

Post by Colin »

Wow, great report, Paul, thanks.

I hope they sell a gazillion of these. I know that part of the secret is making it so close to the DA42 that there was little additional certification work, but I hope that they pressure Garmin into making an AP panel that fits where those switches are in the glare shield.
Colin Summers, PP Multi-Engine IFR, ~3,000hrs
colin@mightycheese.com * send email rather than PM
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N972RD DA42 G1000 2.0 s/n 42.AC100 (sold!)
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Re: Picture of Diamond Aircraft at NBAA

Post by Kai »

Thanks, Paul! I will have to install the thank you-button again :)
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Re: Picture of Diamond Aircraft at NBAA

Post by Gasser »

If I ever have the opportunity to upgrade to something better than what I have now it will be the DA62. Just love it. The big question is, can Diamond provide the service and customer service experience of Cirrus to compete. When you buy an airplane your buying the company and I've not seen an interest in treating the customer in a way that might generate the repeat customer like Cirrus has.
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168 KTAS 9,000' msl @ 13.6 gph LOP. 1005 pound useful load.
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