Repairs

[Archer]

I have been told by the club mechanic to not consider the DA40 due to parts availability and cost. Is the something you agree with and what has been your experience?
Thanks

[Rich]

That has not been my experience with my Lycoming-powered plane. Everything that is routinely worked on/replaced is from the same sources as dozens of other similar models of aircraft. Powerplant components, brake components, fasteners are all readily available from alternative sources at the same price-points as other aircraft. The only significant down-times due to the design were introduced by problems knowing how to deal with the MT prop. Obviously you can duck that by using Hartzell if you want.

Edit: I realized there is one area of exception - older DA40's with the original factory exhaust. With Powerflow exhaust (standard now for many years) one can get replacement parts directly from Powerflow.

[Archer]

Thanks. The complaint was dealing with Diamond in Toronto with unresponsive ness. Thanks for your input. I love the plane
Joe

[Rich]

Thanks. The complaint was dealing with Diamond in Toronto with unresponsive ness. Thanks for your input. I love the plane
Joe

On the rare occasions I've needed a Diamond-specific part I usually go through my local Diamond Service Center. On a couple of occasions the part I needed wasn't shown in the IPC or AMM. For example, I needed to replace the jack point cone under the right side wing stub. (I'll bet you didn't even know it was there.) I called the SC and she got back to me with a price (10-ish dollars apiece IIRC) in like an hour. I ordered 2 and I received them (shipped directly to my home) in a few days. It wasn't urgent and shipping wasn't expensive. I will say that getting overnight shipping from Canada is something you want to avoid. The same goes for things that are "hazardous material".

For whatever reason, whenever I've communicated with Diamond directly (London, ON) whether email or phone I get prompt response. I know others feel otherwise. Maybe they love me as an early adopter On the other hand, none of these interactions were during this pandemic period.

[Archer]

Reassuring. Thanks again
Will be looking around soon, hopefully
I really dislike renting

[AndrewM]

Just as another data point, I am on my second DA40 and never had a big issue in this regard.

[Don]

Owning four factory new DA-40's over the past 18 years, I never have had an issue securing Diamond specific parts.

[dant]

Off topic but why have so many of you owned multiple da40s?

FWIW the place I rented from prior to owning seems to have had a huge problem securing parts. One plane had an inop gfc700 for well over a year, and another was down for a month waiting on a fuel pump. My suspicion is it has to do with the owners of the leasebacks (one was down due to missing the adsb mandate because of the owner).

[Rich]

Off topic but why have so many of you owned multiple da40s?

FWIW the place I rented from prior to owning seems to have had a huge problem securing parts. One plane had an inop gfc700 for well over a year, and another was down for a month waiting on a fuel pump. My suspicion is it has to do with the owners of the leasebacks (one was down due to missing the adsb mandate because of the owner).

Who were you renting from? I know of an operator at KPAE that had the KAP140’s in 2 C172’s INOP for a super-long time because he was too cheap to get the problems fixed. And the databases in the KLN’s were constantly out of date.

[dant]

Galvin. They had 4 da40s until recently and generally I feel like at least 1 was always down. Often this was because of 100 hr inspections from 141 operations, but still. Two were sold/moved, and they moved the remaining two to southeast parking which is a pain to get to. Hence, I now own a da40.

(fun fact, I was the person who squawked the a/p that was down for over a year. forced right banking independent of flight director.)