DA62 or DA42
Posted: Sun May 08, 2022 7:22 am
Have been reading this forum with great interest, so much really useful/practical content would almost allow you to buy a plane without actually seeing one! I currently fly a 2008 Cirrus SR22 G3 Perspective which has been brilliant and was about the best bang for buck to do proper distance flying. I have retrofitted Beringer Brakes (brilliant), Flightsteam, CIES senders, LED position and strobe so it is about as good as it is possible to get I am in the process of retiring and my intention is to get an IR over the next 12 months and spend more time flying. I am based in the UK and would hope to fly around Europe. I do have a few people that use the Cirrus and expect annual hours of about 150.
The easy decision is to go for a Diamond (thinking man's Cirrus). I am totally sold on jetA1 having just spent €900 on AVGAS to fly the 22 to Rome. So now to the dilemma, 62 or 42? The limitation of the 22 is load, to go any distance it's 3 people or 1/2 tanks. The 42 strikes me as pretty similar to the Cirrus with the advantage Jet A1 and two engines which means 3 decent sized chaps plus luggage?
So the 62 is probably more than I need but being early 60's I am very aware that you can't take your money with you and health can step in at any time. I am probably less concerned about capital cost as opposed to running costs. I do like the idea of a new aircraft (giving me time to get IR and Multi-Engine) and it seems the a new 62 with all the latest updates and properly equipped is without equal in GA. Putting aside the JetA1 advantage can anyone provide some maintenance costs post warranty as there do seem to be some big differences in the posts. The Cirrus is about €10-12k p.a. (with some engine/parachute funds set aside from that) which is fine. Clearly warranty is great in the short term but I did read about gearbox inspections/replacements which sounded painful, I assume the 42 and 62 will be quite similar in terms of running costs (same engines). In terms of specification it would be all the options except for Sat Com as I would probably use Golze ADL solution.
Going to see Gemstone (UK distributor) next week to see them both in the flesh!
Look forward to your thoughts.
The easy decision is to go for a Diamond (thinking man's Cirrus). I am totally sold on jetA1 having just spent €900 on AVGAS to fly the 22 to Rome. So now to the dilemma, 62 or 42? The limitation of the 22 is load, to go any distance it's 3 people or 1/2 tanks. The 42 strikes me as pretty similar to the Cirrus with the advantage Jet A1 and two engines which means 3 decent sized chaps plus luggage?
So the 62 is probably more than I need but being early 60's I am very aware that you can't take your money with you and health can step in at any time. I am probably less concerned about capital cost as opposed to running costs. I do like the idea of a new aircraft (giving me time to get IR and Multi-Engine) and it seems the a new 62 with all the latest updates and properly equipped is without equal in GA. Putting aside the JetA1 advantage can anyone provide some maintenance costs post warranty as there do seem to be some big differences in the posts. The Cirrus is about €10-12k p.a. (with some engine/parachute funds set aside from that) which is fine. Clearly warranty is great in the short term but I did read about gearbox inspections/replacements which sounded painful, I assume the 42 and 62 will be quite similar in terms of running costs (same engines). In terms of specification it would be all the options except for Sat Com as I would probably use Golze ADL solution.
Going to see Gemstone (UK distributor) next week to see them both in the flesh!
Look forward to your thoughts.