What comes after a DA40?

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Antoine
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Re: What comes after a DA40?

Post by Antoine »

Star57 wrote:I stalled it about 4 times, it’s noticeable and gives you prewarning, recovery is a slight nose down and voila!
Sound good. As an additional safety measure I would ask the instructor to try the same at altitude with an uncoordinated plane, so you know if it can bite you in the final turn...
Star57 wrote: The Lancair ES is not and should not be flown bellow 80 KIAS, that’s best glide speed.
We are re analyzing the weight and balance on it, it’s nose heavy as it is, and we have dual Gil batteries in the back.
Well at least nose heavy is a positive in terms of stability!
Star57 wrote: I’m also installing a Garmin G3X 7” Portrait in the middle of the G900’s LRU’s and a Garmin AOA mounted on the glare shield and also displaying on G3X.The G3X will give me back up Instruments with a a full AHRS and an Air Data computer, a full backup to the G900X plus full ADS-B IN.
My G900X came off a 2008 Cessna 182 that crashed, it’s a WAAS system, the AP is the latest TruTrak Sorcerer, I upgraded it to a latest revision including the auto trim for pitch and a straight and level button.
Excellent! The design looks very clean to me!
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Star57
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Re: What comes after a DA40?

Post by Star57 »

I’m really looking forward to it...
Tommy
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Re: What comes after a DA40?

Post by Tommy »

Be careful with the turbos, they are not a panacea and they do fail. Although turbos do provide a substantial increase in performance latitude, they do come at a price both in maintenance and reliability. The more stuff you add, the more points of failure you add, the more cost you add to help prevent failure. Just trying to add a dose of reality that often gets lost in translation. :)
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Re: What comes after a DA40?

Post by Antoine »

Tommy reading my mind... We have an 8 point temperature data logger installed under the cowling of the Extra 400. Such a logger is inexpensive and incredibly useful for understanding what is going on around a turbocharged engine (search for AT 4208 sourced from alibaba - you'll need an USB stick for data recording).
The temperatures are mind-boggling. Enough that Extra modified the cooling system on later serial numbers. One example: On a full power climb to FL200, on an ISA day,the temperature of the air exiting the "cold" side of the turbo into the intercooler is steadily creeping to reach 110 degrees C (230 F). Of course the intercooler will reduce that, but it gives you an idea of the scorching heat that causes the air to reach such temperatures , especially considering it was at MINUS 23 before entering the turbo! This cannot be good for anything that lives under the cowling. Enjoy your Experimental CofA and have fun! A
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gordsh
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Re: What comes after a DA40?

Post by gordsh »

I think after DA40 will come DA50. I started out drooling over the SR22 but as a student pilot my insurance company said "no way". The insurance company actually encouraged me to look at the SR20 or DA40 but absolutely not the SR22 as a student pilot. I love my DA40 and as I continue to train I am loving it every day. I am excited about the DA50-V. Assuming it will have the same benign handling and forgiving tendencies with more useful load I think DA50 will be a safe, post DA40 plane for most DA40 lovers.
Antoine
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Re: What comes after a DA40?

Post by Antoine »

A friend recently PIREPed me about the new SR20 with the 4 cylinder engine. Very capable plane.
Outgrowing the DA40 implies more useful load which the SR20 provides and (frequently) de-icing which it doesn't...
Antoine
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Re: What comes after a DA40?

Post by Antoine »

Happy new year everyone!
First flight of 2018!
Yesterday a friend and I took a ride in the Extra 400. He is a flight instructor and examiner and also flies with people in high performance aircraft as a safety pilot. He loved the plane.

The flight went very nicely. I am especially happy about the climb performance: in ISA and cooler conditions I have now adopted 1'000 fpm climbs at max climb power.
The Extra 400 will climb right to FL200 like this with airspeed slowly tapering from an initial 125 KIAS to something like 115 KIAS at FL200. Temps are all OK and the engine sounds happy.
True airspeed actually increases with altitude as we all know and I remember passing FL150 at 150 KTAS and 1000 fpm and thinking "this used to be my all-out cruise speed a year ago"!

On the way home we did an ILS approach in LSGG/ Geneva in IMC and very congested airspace, squeezed between two airliners. The cloud layer looked like a white blanket set on top of lake Geneva and there was this magic moment when you stick the nose in there and refocus on the G500 while shutting out the outside world. I love this feeling!
As I mentioned previously, since losing the GFC700 I always hand fly the approaches... What was initially a little stressful has become a positive safety factor and a great satisfaction: hand flying eliminates a critical transition in final when you have to kick out the AP and start messing with gear / flaps / engine etc. Plus as I get ready for the EASA CBIR (competency based instrument rating) - I feel relaxed about being able to pass the checkride.

Upon returning to the hangar, my friend showed me a spanking new turbine powered Piper Meridian. the airframe looked much nicer than a JetProp conversion thanks to the better engine integration, and the beautiful paint job successfully masked this "sheet metal and rivet" feel which we plastic plane pilots dislike...

Then we got inside...
The cabin on this specific aircraft was beautifully appointed. With only me inside it felt airier than in the Extra due to the larger windows, but as soon as a second person got in I realized it is much narrower with less legroom. Piper did a very good job at maximizing cabin feeling on the later model PA46s.

The bad part was trying to get to the front seats. You simply can't walk in there and must push your feet before you to slip between the seat and panel, above the centre console. I gave up... for fear of breaking something. Then I looked forward through the windscreen and was literally shocked : a narrow slot in the front and very little lateral view. I had not been in a PA46 for a long time and this confirmed my memory. I positively do not like the workplace. I'll keep my Extra 400 thank you very much! :D
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Re: What comes after a DA40?

Post by Tommy »

Antoine, interesting your comments regarding the transition from G1000/GFC 700 to G500/hand flying approaches. I too have recognized the same experiences in the transition. I always though it odd that I now prefer to hand fly approaches with the G500 vs. auto pilot approaches with the G1000/700. I too for some odd reason feel safer and in more control on the approach than I did before. Yes, the elimination of mentally transitioning from autopilot approach to hand flying is, in my book anyway, safer and so much less disconcerting. I always thought it was only me that felt this way. Good to here from you Antoine.
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Re: What comes after a DA40?

Post by Antoine »

Hi Tommy nice to hear from you too.
Every time I see something that looks like an Aerostar I go take a look !
Not many around in Europe... and none rebuilt the way you did.
How are yours flying?
This hand flying thing is a bit of a paradox: we used to fly autopilot in an "easy" plane and now that we have fire breathing monsters waiting to bite we get to enjoy hand flying... go figure.
Have you also completely forgotten how intimidating your first flight with this heavyweight was? To me the Extra has become "the airplane I fly" and it does not look or feel huge anymore...
I need to take it in for an oil change and general checkup.
This will be owner assisted as everything from now on and I am looking forward to it!
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Re: What comes after a DA40?

Post by Colin »

I recently got to fly jump seat in a Gulfstream 450. The pilot hand flew it from take off out of KMCO up into the flight levels. (We were RSVM, so he switched on the autopilot whenever regulations would have insisted he do so.) After the little bit of transition out of the Class B, IMC, turns on course, he was just in a steady climb and I couldn't tell that he wasn't on autopilot it as so smooth. Really, I was peering over and trying to see if there was an LED I was missing that showed he was on autopilot.

I mentioned it to a friend who flies G4s. He said the heavier plane made the pilot look good. (I'm sure the pilot being a Navy aviator with twenty-five years in fighter jets and years and years of carrier landings helped a little. And he was using the HUD.)
Colin Summers, PP Multi-Engine IFR, ~3,000hrs
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N971RD DA40 G1000 s/n 40.508 (traded)
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