diamondaviators.net

Morning Guys,
I was at SouthTec yesterday (Thursday 2 Dec) for a Fuel transfer pump replacement.... talking with the good folks there (who are absolutely pulling their hair out btw!) 036 has indeed dropped.... which does supersede 034/035. The gist that I gleaned from hanging out in the office is that a rev number on the actual gear itself (replaced in either 034/035) needs to be checked.... It's not an automatic that you'll need replacement gears. Seems I dodged a bullet and am unaffected. (Sticker on it's way to state this also). One thing they were pretty sure of though that this too will almost certainly result in an AD that grounds all DA40NGs.....
Just my humble opinion backed by my pocket book, Diamond may be celebrating it's full order books right now but good luck 2-3 years out from this mess. As much as I love my 40NG this fiasco is just inexcusable on such a premium purchase. My next plane will likely not be a Diamond! There are brand spanking new planes at SouthTec that have been grounded for weeks!!

Unfortunate set of circumstances.

Hope someone at Diamond is pushing hard to build more Lycoming powered DA40's, at least for the North American market. The whole diesel push with both Thielert and now Austro has not been a positive in my opinion. I know many of you will disagree.

krellis wrote: ↑Fri Dec 03, 2021 1:49 pmHope someone at Diamond is pushing hard to build more Lycoming powered DA40's, at least for the North American market. The whole diesel push with both Thielert and now Austro has not been a positive in my opinion. I know many of you will disagree.

Avgas Lycoming DA40s (XLT model) have been back in production at Diamond Canada for more than a year, ever since Diamond got NXi certified for that DA40 variant. So customers do have a choice of engines when they order a new DA40.

CFIDave wrote: ↑Fri Dec 03, 2021 2:07 pm

krellis wrote: ↑Fri Dec 03, 2021 1:49 pmHope someone at Diamond is pushing hard to build more Lycoming powered DA40's, at least for the North American market. The whole diesel push with both Thielert and now Austro has not been a positive in my opinion. I know many of you will disagree.

Avgas Lycoming DA40s (XLT model) have been back in production at Diamond Canada for more than a year, ever since Diamond got NXi certified for that DA40 variant. So customers do have a choice of engines when they order a new DA40.

I am aware of that. However, seems like the NG is being marketed more heavily than the XLT. Diamond has a vested interest in pushing the Austros and the restart of the Lycoming version seemed to be more of an afterthought. And the diesel fans (like yourself) are always talking up the Austro.

I'm simply suggesting that Diamond ought to be rethinking their strategy around diesel vs avgas in North America. I know that will never happen. Pretty much like hoping they will support the orphaned versions of the G1000 or bring back the DJet.

The recent turbulence relates to a one-time event - the transition of manufacturing from Daimler to Austro. I would think that once the bugs are worked out, the future ownership experience with Austro will be superior. I do hope that once the fuel pump gear issued is fully resolved, the big obvious issues from the transition will be behind us.

Donkadillapig wrote: ↑Fri Dec 03, 2021 11:11 am Morning Guys,
I was at SouthTec yesterday (Thursday 2 Dec) for a Fuel transfer pump replacement.... talking with the good folks there (who are absolutely pulling their hair out btw!) 036 has indeed dropped.... which does supersede 034/035. The gist that I gleaned from hanging out in the office is that a rev number on the actual gear itself (replaced in either 034/035) needs to be checked.... It's not an automatic that you'll need replacement gears. Seems I dodged a bullet and am unaffected. (Sticker on it's way to state this also). One thing they were pretty sure of though that this too will almost certainly result in an AD that grounds all DA40NGs.....
Just my humble opinion backed by my pocket book, Diamond may be celebrating it's full order books right now but good luck 2-3 years out from this mess. As much as I love my 40NG this fiasco is just inexcusable on such a premium purchase. My next plane will likely not be a Diamond! There are brand spanking new planes at SouthTec that have been grounded for weeks!!

I sure hope you are referring to all DA40NGs with the new cylinder head. My 2019 DA40NG has - so far - avoided this. But I have a lot of sympathy for what you are going through.

When the Austro is working correctly, it's a wonderful engine. But Austro has badly mismanaged the transition to manufacturing the engines themselves. The entire HPP fiasco feels like they are just guessing and letting us be the test pilots. They, and we, have been very very lucky thus far.

I subscribe to the bulletins from Austro, but it's not something for which owners are automatically signed up. Austro also doesn't track changes in ownership. How many owners hear directly from Austro? And if not directly, I wonder how many owners have not heard about these ADs at all? I'm not aware of any comprehensive system for notifying owners that their plane is grounded.

And what is a grounded DA40 supposed to do? Very few of us have an Austro service center on our home field. Does Austro think mechanics are going to come to someone's hangar, or tie down, and open up their engine?

Boatguy wrote: ↑Fri Dec 03, 2021 9:52 pm
I subscribe to the bulletins from Austro, but it's not something for which owners are automatically signed up. Austro also doesn't track changes in ownership. How many owners hear directly from Austro?

A good point. I sold my 2019 40NG six months ago and I continue to receive the Austro engine communications. I wonder if the buyer of my former plane receives them.

I was in manufacturing for many years and have repeatedly shaken my head as this Mercedes-Diamond/Austro drama has unfolded. It seems like most of the fairly predictable outcomes of the Mercedes to Diamond/Austro engine shift are being realized real-time, unfortunately,
by the airplane owners.

It’s incredibly difficult to shift highly engineered component manufacturing from one process and set of tools to another, no matter how capable and ready the ‘receiver’ believes themselves to be. Add to that the end product being an airplane and it’s exponentially magnified.

Diamond has massively failed here and I really feel for the current owners who are essentially acting as the quality control step that should have been sorted in the factory long ago.

Update on my DA62. She is back! Fixed and flying

So it happened that the left engine was broken mid flight on Oct 24. The plane diverted to Rostock (Germany) and was left there. Full story what happened above on this thread.

I have to thank Diamond for being able to fix the plane rather quickly: left engine was replaced and right one fixed (HPP + camshaft changed etc). Total downtime was less than two months. Mr Luca Giaquinta handled the case well, so thanks to him for being on top of this issue. I know there are lots of planes needing repair & parts regarding the HPP gear issues out there, so I got my plane back rather fast. The diamond mechanics did an excellent job, finishing the whole repair in just three days.

I flew it back to Helsinki yesterday, all went well.

Hoping that these Austro issues will get eventually sorted and pilots get to enjoy their Diamond birds. I did miss flying the two months when my plane was out of service, now it feels like getting a new plane again! I know it gets a bit of time to get the confidence back to the AC itself - not worrying engines being broken mid flight ...

So I learned today that my plane has had the first bad HPP gear that SouthTec has seen so far. This is especially tragic as the plane with the next tail number in the series (just one off) was apparently fine. The ETA from end of this week is now pushed into uncertain territory again. Attached is a picture with my gear on the left versus a good one on the right. It's nice that this happened under warranty at least.