Diamond Pilots Association 2023 Survey

[chili4way]

The Diamond Pilots Association has started its first survey of Diamond Aircraft owners. The survey is open to all Diamond Aircraft owners.

“This is our first survey,” notes Ed McDonald, DPA president. “It covers a broad range of topics. You don’t have to be a DPA member to participate, and we invite and encourage all owners of Diamond Aircraft to complete the survey. We are seeking broad, worldwide participation. Completing the survey should take only 15-20 minutes.”

The aggregated results will be published on the DPA Website in February 2024 and shared with Diamond Aircraft.

The survey consists of five sections:

• Purchase & Delivery Experience (new or used)
• After Sales Experience (not Maintenance / Repairs)
• Maintenance and Repair Experience
• Avionics & Upgrades
• About This Airplane

“Answering any of the questions is optional; it’s opt-in. Toward the end of the survey, we invite survey participants to volunteer specific information about their airplanes. This is to help us understand the context of the answers and identify multiple responses for the same airplane,” Ed explained. “We will keep individual answers confidential and secure. We are looking for common themes suggesting areas for improvement and opportunities for DPA to help achieve these.”

In addition to English, the survey is available in French and German.

• English Version
• German Version
• French Version

The survey will remain open through January 14, 2024.

[ememic99]

Any feedback after the survey? The number of participants?

[chili4way]

We are on track per plan: The aggregated results will be published on the DPA Website in February 2024 and shared with Diamond Aircraft.

Appreciate the responses we received from around the world! Stay tuned. I'm about halfway finished with the analysis.

[chili4way]

The 2023 Diamond Aircraft Owner Survey results have been posted on the Diamond Pilot Association website. DPA members can review the 72-page survey results package.

We received over 200 responses from owners in 22 countries around the globe, providing insights into our experiences and priorities as Diamond Aircraft owners.

Key findings

Biggest owner challenges:
Many respondents cited parts lead times as a major frustration, particularly during scheduled maintenance and Aircraft-on-Ground (AOG) situations. Additionally, service center distance and scheduling lead times were significant concerns.

Opportunities to improve the customer experience:
Training and delivery were identified as areas for improvement, focusing on ownership readiness beyond piloting skills. Increased owner communication and more accessible avionics upgrade options for legacy systems were also highlighted as important opportunities.

Shared with Diamond

The survey results package has been shared with Diamond Aircraft, with Diamond Austria and Diamond Canada participating in the meeting with DPA.

[Boatguy]

Thank you Paul and the entire team that worked on the survey including:

Dick Bulterman, Rich Doyle, Chris Jones, David Loftus, Ed McDonald, Emir Memic, and Dan Thompson!

[NDCDA62]

Having also completed the survey, access should not be limited to just DPA members. This was never made clear at the time and anyone who participated should have access to the findings.

[Ed McDonald]

DPA wanted to get as many responses as possible rather than limiting it to DPA members only . This provides not only a larger survey size but also avoids the accusation of a DPA only survey.

This survey cost money to produce as DPA mailed over 1,000 post cards to Diamond aircraft owners around the world (I don’t recall the exact number). That cost hundreds of dollars and the survey organizers, all unpaid volunteers, cannot be expected to foot the bill for that personally so DPA members are paying for it. That cost, in addition to creating and maintaining the website, all takes money.

Participating in the survey, DPA member or not, has given DAI more information on their product and product support than anything else in years. All Diamond aircraft owners will ultimately benefit from that.

Ed McDonald
President
Diamond Pilots Association

[NDCDA62]

Ed -

The point is that this was not advised at the time. Anyone spending his or her time to complete the survey has a right to see the final survey result. This was always my assumption and, I am in no doubt, many others also, regardless of whether one is a DPA member or not.

I am also surprised that, in this day and age, with email and social media, there was a need to mail out post cards.

Please advise whether non-DPA members will be given access to the survey results or not.

Thank you.

[ememic99]

Anyone spending his or her time to complete the survey has a right to see the final survey result.

Why? People participate in different surveys and never see the results - political pools, media research, customer satisfaction, scientific data collection...

This was always my assumption and, I am in no doubt, many others also, regardless of whether one is a DPA member or not.

Based on what?

I am also surprised that, in this day and age, with email and social media, there was a need to mail out post cards.

Can you provide reliable email addresses or any other form of digital contact of owners? Just a reminder, physical address is something that every owner has to have, however we think communicating this way is inefficient.

Please advise whether non-DPA members will be given access to the survey results or not.

Personally, I’m against it but if DPA decides to release it partially or fully, I won’t object. I appreciate everyone’s time but 20 min time spent on survey can’t be compared to effort and money DPA invested into it. I don’t see here equal right to access it for members and non-members.

[Boatguy]

I am also surprised that, in this day and age, with email and social media, there was a need to mail out post cards.

Can you provide reliable email addresses or any other form of digital contact of owners? Just a reminder, physical address is something that every owner has to have, however we think communicating this way is inefficient.

Keep in mind that Diamond and its distributors declined to assist in reaching out to owners or providing any contact information in support of the survey.

Fortunately a few DSCs were helpful.