diamondaviators.net

When I bought my "mature" DA40 last year I had a prebuy done at a Diamond Service Center and it was the best $1,000 I ever spent as they discovered many squawks that resulted in a lower price (although I spent those dollars having the service center repair the squawks). I didn't expect this as the owner (original) had it in leaseback to a school since new and it had routine 50/100/annual inspections as well as the others. Going through the annual checklist it appears that you are supposed to pull the rudder off each and every annual. In practice is this being done in the field? It would seem removing and replacing a major flight control every annual (or 100 hours if was the case with my plane) could potentially do more harm than good?

Hi Dave,

I never have any flight control remove and changed at any annual visit. Of course there are visal inspection, but not removed for control.

Just as a curiosity, what kind of squawk were discovered during your prebuy? How "mature" is your bird?

Thank you.

Arnaud.

Mine is a 2004 180 and there were several but the major ones were a cracked rudder and hardware; cracked engine truss (I've seen these sent out for repair on other aircraft but the center required a new one to be installed), granular corrosion in the nose wheel fork (replaced) and other items in the nose strut mounting hardware; brakes/tires (the airplane has all the fairings); the muffler had no baffles in it and a few other exhaust squawks but for the price of the Diamond parts I just had a new power flow system installed (thankfully the plane had a Top Prop installed some time back so the power flow was compatible) and various other sundry things. I actually made an offer on the plane after a through review of the logs without seeing it as it was the other side of the country from me. The through prebuy was essential as I bought it before I ever saw it. I did get to see it when it was being worked on as I had a layover in the vicinity. Interestingly, the shop had 3 or 4 DA40's they were replacing rudders on, apparently they see it fairly often.

Thanks for the answer on the rudder.

Hi Dave -

Which service center did you use and how many hours on the airframe?

My rudder gets pulled at the annual.

Same here - I pull the rudder at each annual. My IA says he can't fully inspect the elevator control rods and other stuff behind it with it in place, so I pull it. The rudder is only held on by two nyloc nuts at the bottom (which always amazes me!) and I feel better replacing them each year anyhow. I believe re-greasing the pin at the top is on the list of 100-hour maintenance items, too, which requires removing the rudder. It literally takes 5 minutes to remove it, and another 5 minutes to put it back. I do agree with the point of not disturbing flight control connections if not needed, though - I hate to remove anything that isn't required. But in the case of the rudder, you don't need to disconnect the control cables or remove any hinges or anything - the bottom of the rudder bolts to a plate that attaches to the cables and the hinge, so I find very little risk in removing the rudder and feel better verifying the attachment to the control plate. Just my $0.02

I just had my first annual and I visited during the process and the rudder was off. Based on the various things the IA was showing me, it seemed to be pretty necessary in order to do a complete annual. My IA is the type who liked to avoid introducing wear and tear from disassembling, so it was the only major thing that was removed.

I believe the other things removed were the inspection panel under the front seats, and the cover to the avionics rack in the back. And the cowl, obviously.

My rudder comes off every Annual. Three reasons:

- To lubricate the pivot pin
- To inspect the interior of the vertical stabilizer and elevator control rods
- Because the Inspection checklist calls for it

Diamond_Dan wrote: ↑Mon Jan 10, 2022 4:42 pm Hi Dave -

Which service center did you use and how many hours on the airframe?

Aero City Maintenance at Long Beach. Approximately 4,300 hours.

But you are in Florida? (Or at least, your Airport in your member info shows up as Florida.) That's a long way to go for an annual.