diamondaviators.net

To my surprise I got a call from Diamond in Egelsbach/Germany earlier last week. They were asking me to ferry the plane to their Diamond Platinum Center in Germany, cores are available and they could almost immediately commence the work on my RH engine with AL concentration >24ppm. I did not expect somebody from DAI to contact me proactively! I own this plane now for more than 8 years and of course I had some difficulties here and there, but it was most of the time me to be on the heels of somebody. Now it was the other way around! Do they really change their customer support now? I hope yes!

Since the plane is currently in another Diamond Service Center in Slovenia for Prop overhaul (new MT CF190-69 blades) I had not been able to fly to Egelsbach. But nevertheless engine parts are confirmed to be shipped to Slovenia this week.

hifiaudio2 wrote: ↑Mon Nov 07, 2022 8:42 pm Diamond has said our planes could fly up to 15 hours from a certain date, while waiting on oil analysis. What is that date?

I received some clarification from Diamond on this:

From their Tech support:
In reviewing the MSB with my colleagues this morning we confirmed once the oil sample has been taken your aircraft will be grounded until the oil sample results are received.
With your engine being above 14Hrs TSN, the oil sample result must be received before releasing the aircraft. If TSN was less than 14 you would have the 15 hour grace period.
The verbiage in the "Required Actions" for group 3 engines, you have up to 15 hours to take the sample. (0-900FH) Once you take the sample, the aircraft will be grounded.
This is to allow for a bit of planning and convenience for owners and operators.
On the following recurrent 50 hour oil samples, the aircraft can be released for 50Hrs while waiting for results.
If Jetcare/Spectro is used for the oil samples you can expect aluminum content results within 12 hrs, full results within 36hrs.

FYI as expected, oil sample came back just fine. 94 hour oil had just 1.5PPM aluminum (~300 hour engine). Other NG at my school came back fine as well, and it is almost at the 900 hours. We are both group 3.

We could add a page to the Wiki that was tracking all those serial numbers and people could be letting us know their testing, numbers, and replacements. I feel like we've been hearing mostly good stories.

Aluminum 3 ppm in both oil samples today. 230 hours total, 57 hours on the oil. Group 4 so will still need new pistons but OK to fly for now.

Colin wrote: ↑Thu Nov 10, 2022 7:07 pm We could add a page to the Wiki that was tracking all those serial numbers and people could be letting us know their testing, numbers, and replacements. I feel like we've been hearing mostly good stories.

The trouble is that there are two different problems and the AL numbers only track one of them. The group 2/4 engines have a second problem with the wrist pins which cannot be detected by oil analysis but is believed to not fail before 1,100hrs.

I have a new DA62 (Group 4) with about 87hrs so far. I have flown about 65 of those (the rest were ferry from Austria to Canada to Florida).

Sample came in at 7ppm and 8ppm respectively. Will get a new oil fill and filter exchange in about 15 hours then have the annual in February (which will entail a new test and a new oil change).

The comment was made that they may be expecting a relatively high initial wear level so perhaps these initial results, given how new these engines are, will settle out into a lower wear rate as expressed in AL PPM. I hope so....

My 1st hundred hour numbers were 7 ppm then 3 at the 300 hour mark. My maintainer is trying to get the 200 hour numbers as that inspection was done at Diamond Canada.

I have had only one data point so far, at 97hr in service. Aluminum was 4ppm and 6ppm. But iron, chromium and nickel levels were flagged on both engines. We’ll see what the next 100hr analysis shows.

I've been a pilot since 1996. I've owned an airplane since 1997, first a Socata TB9, then a Bonanza A36 thereafter a Diamond DA42 and now a Diamond DA62.
I have performed several AD's more often and of course it did cost me a lot's of money.

What I don't understand is:
If a manufacturer produces rubbish, then I would expect him to clean up that rubbish or reimburse it.

Look at the car manufacturers: If they have fitted the wrong screw or the wrong seat belt or wrong brake discs, even if this is discovered after many years, all cars of that series will be provided with new parts free of charge.

I am an architect. If a customer comes to me with a complaint, even after 5 years after delivery, that a product does not meet the prescribed specifications, I must provide a guarantee for this.

In the aviation world it is completely different. Austro engines has produced junk. We paid for this product 100%. Now that something needs to be replaced (read a new engine) we have to pay for an engine that meets the specified requirements (as prescribed before) again, we can even pay for the installation again.

In other words, Austro or Diamond only make something and we get to pay ALL expenses twice.

Please explain.