Donkadillapig wrote: ↑Sun Jul 10, 2022 11:46 am
The long wait time is the only saving grace here really, placing a deposit would be a relatively lower risk way to "see what transpires"...
The deposit is non-refundable; it is a purchase commitment. You might be able to assign / sell your order to someone else if you don't like what "transpires". It is less risky to assume you've bought an airplane and will have no leverage with your distributor and DAI. Once you sign the contract, you are at the mercy of a capricious manufacturer. The stories here in DAN document a wide range of delivery periods (9mo to > 2yrs) and purchase experiences, based on the distributor and pre-purchase negotiations by the buyer.
I'm the OP and I do want to add that, in the end, I don't regret my decision to proceed with delivery. Given the problems I documented, I certainly could have rescinded the contract.
Glad I didn't. After about 9 years of A->B flying in the flight levels, I'm having a total blast "down low" again. I really like the DA62 (it really reminds me of my PC-12 in many ways). And, the other day, I got a routing out over the Gulf of Mexico, at about 3000 feet. In the past, in a single engine piston, I would have started getting anxious. Then, I realized that I was flying with two! (I did have a life jacket in the plane though...).
There seems to be no shortage of demand for these planes. They fill a special niche. Talking with the sales folks it seems like a lot of SR22 pilots are making the move to DA62 instead of going to a turboprop or VisionJet (which is basically a jet powered turboprop so far as I can tell).
