NickBudd wrote: ↑Sat May 11, 2019 12:40 pm
Scott, most of the TDI fleet is 2008 and earlier. This means that by 2020 the engines will have reached the 12 yr TBR, so while they may be “perfectly fine engines” mechanically, owners will have to make a decision as to replacement. From a cost and performance standpoint the CD155 engine is very competitive with the Austro, so Diamond is forced to play hard ball with the avionics upgrades, which are entirely in Diamond’s control.
Think how many planes were sold, and spreading the cost over the fleet. The more variations they support, the more there are costs.
Therefore, do not be surprised if they look to reduce options to reduce costs; which would be playing "hardball". However this may be the only practical way to solve the problems.
My Thielert engine reached TBR last year and I decided to replace it with a CD155, rather than an Austro, because I didn't want to to be flying a single-engined plane with the landing speed of an SR22, without the getout of CAPS. Playing "hardball" like that would be playing with people's lives.
Keith M wrote: ↑Sat May 11, 2019 1:20 pm
My Thielert engine reached TBR last year and I decided to replace it with a CD155, rather than an Austro, because I didn't want to to be flying a single-engined plane with the landing speed of an SR22, without the getout of CAPS. Playing "hardball" like that would be playing with people's lives.
Good point made by Kieth. Because you can't just swap an Austro in place of a CD. Presumably you'd need to convert the airframe into an NG.
These points, and more, show why conversion to Austros is a hard sell for Diamond. But for the avionics issue there would be no contest.But the avionics issue won’t go away and will just become more severe in the passage of time.
Having committed itself to Centurion engines for the DA50,I suppose they could play hardball with Diamond, if Diamond try to use the avionics issue to force DA4x customers to switch to Austro engines. As both Centurion and Diamond are now Chinese owned, the ball may not have to be that hard!
This is a good point by Keith; Centurion definitely has some skin in this game and it would be good to see them more involved. But as the CD300 is an EASA certified V6 300hp beast for which there is no Austro equivalent, we probably shouldn’t take its use on the DA50 as a softening of Diamond’s determination to push Austro engines on the rest of the fleet. Diamond really must remain firm on this if they want to sell any Austro engines to DA42TDI owners.
NickBudd wrote: ↑Sun May 12, 2019 6:05 am
Diamond really must remain firm on this if they want to sell any Austro engines to DA42TDI owners.
The problem is that I don’t see why would Diamond insist on pushing AE engines to CD owners. With order books full (at least for DA42 and DA62) and current capacity of factories, limited ability to perform TDI to NG/-VI conversion in reasonable timeframe due to capacity issues at service facilities and Mercedes stopping production of engines which are basis for AE, I really don’t see the reason for pushing TDI owners to do the conversion.
The explanation may have something to do with the commercial arrangement between Diamond and Austro, which are now under independent ownership. Austro must have a commitment from Diamond that its preferential supply arrangement will be protected, and the tie-in with the avionics certification achieves this. Austro would have passed on the DA50 as they don’t have the appropriate product.
First off, thanks to Jean Mardaga (N446DC) for sigining up his DA40.
The explanation may have something to do with the commercial arrangement between Diamond and Austro
What is your source for this arrangement Nick? As this is the first I’ve heard of it, along with the NXi major strings attached theory.
Also, regarding your earlier post about the 2020 TBR TDI date, the remaining life of the 2.0 Liter, CD-135 engines on my DA42 could quite possibly outlast the legacy G1000 replacement parts availability / inventory. Many other TDI owners are presumably in a similar situation.
Last edited by TwinStarScott on Sun May 12, 2019 10:34 am, edited 1 time in total.