ECU 'gotcha' in my DA62

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michael.g.miller
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Re: ECU 'gotcha' in my DA62

Post by michael.g.miller »

CFIDave wrote: Thu May 20, 2021 11:29 pm
michael.g.miller wrote: Thu May 20, 2021 10:23 pm In the process of buying a DA42NG now. One of the trips I am excited about is going to Mexico City. The GA airport, MMJC is at 8120 MSL with a 4265 foot runway. The high temperatures max out around 80F. Do y’all anticipate this issue occurring at MMJC?
Go back and look at the Austro engine diagram that Russ posted near the beginning of this thread. 8120 feet MSL is roughly 750 mbar pressure altitude, which according to the Austro diagram would result in a minimum idle speed of about 10% power/load. (Normal idle load on Austros at sea level is about 2-3% power.)

I'm guessing that would require more braking than normal, but not as much as Lake County in CO at 10,000 feet (700 mbar). I don't know if 750 mbar would cause props to feather when shut down.
What kind of landing distance would you expect at 8120MSL if it was 80F outside? Would having the props feathered on shutdown have any adverse effects?
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Re: ECU 'gotcha' in my DA62

Post by UTMark »

We had a similar experience landing at Telluride, Colorado. After touching down, power was still showing 6% and my instructor I was flying with commanded, "Power IDLE"... I said they were, and he confirmed... stopping required a lot of extra breaking, and once shutdown the engines feathered.

After landing and taxing and the feathered shutdown... we busted out the POH and saw some small disclaimers about landing at fields over 7,500... start up required us to turn on masters to unfeather the props, and then do the modified ECU run up because the automatic test woudln't run with the engines at 6+%....

https://www.dropbox.com/s/clk85nb9d3cxj ... M.png?dl=0

Most pilots get surprised by this... while the warnings of landing above 7500 ft are in the POH, I don't believe their in the official checklists. We have discussed wanting to go back to Telluride and confirm if the landing distances in the POH account for this fully... also discussed going to Leadville, but haven't yet.
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Re: ECU 'gotcha' in my DA62

Post by ultraturtle »

UTMark wrote: Mon Aug 30, 2021 4:29 pmMost pilots get surprised by this... while the warnings of landing above 7500 ft are in the POH, I don't believe their in the official checklists.
The "official" checklist isn't really all that official - its second paragraph states:
This checklist is a Recommended Operator Checklist and for reference only. It is not a substitute for and does not supersede the current approved Airplane Flight Manual or any of its supplements or parts thereof, or any training or procedures required by any regulatory or advisory bodies. This checklist may not contain all procedures shown in the Airplane Flight Manual. For a comprehensive listing of all procedures consult the Airplane Flight Manual. Use of the checklist is at the user's sole risk and discretion.
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