Dormant for 30 days

[Zebedee]

Due to family emergency my plane has been in hangar for just over a month in Ohio.

Is there anything to look out for when I start it up next week.

Planning on plugging in DC power to update everything. What do I need to turn on to top up the battery while doing updates and checking tires etc. How long should I leave it plugged into DC power?

Going to run TKS on first taxi out.
Plenty of warmup time on engines and good brake check.

Anything else??

TIA

Jim

[Boatguy]

I don't believe you'll have any issues with the engine or airplane systems. There were times my 40NG sat for more than a month with no issues. My Mercedes diesel car sat for literally 9-10 months at a time across several years and started right up and ran fine.

I always use a GPU when updating my nav data, but I do not believe that will be charging the battery. A battery trickle charger would require a different connection than the external GPU connection. Once the engines are started, 1-2hrs of running time should top up the battery.

I don't know why it would need any more than the usual warm up (i.e., out of the yellow) before the ECU test and full operation.

[Zebedee]

I thought with electric master switch on, the gpu will top up battery to 28v.

[ememic99]

I thought with electric master switch on, the gpu will top up battery to 28v.

I don’t think so. Connecting GPU disconnects battery. Running on GPU, including GPU engine start doesn’t require master switch on.

[Rich]

I thought with electric master switch on, the gpu will top up battery to 28v.

I don’t think so. Connecting GPU disconnects battery. Running on GPU, including GPU engine start doesn’t require master switch on.

Wiring diagram for the DA40, anyway, shows that the GPU bypasses the master relay, but does not disable it. Moreover, there has been a discussion here on using the GPU (EPU) plug to connect a battery tender. It does require that the master "BAT" switch be turned on.

How wise it is to use a GPU unit to charge the battery is an open question. Be sure you know the voltage being supplied.

[FlyingPenguin]

A month, nothing to worry.

[Zebedee]

Thanks for all the advice

Jim

[Boatguy]

Have you checked the MSB on the main bearing cap screws? You may be on the ground for a few months.

[Zebedee]

Spoke to my mechanic last week when he gave me a heads up. He said that I'm in group 1 of 2 for the replacement bolts. Said Diamond switched vendors on the bolts with introduction of the DA50. Original Mercedes bolts were higher spec/quality and going they are going back to them. Wont have bolts for a week or 2. Takes about 20 hrs per engine and he will have plane for about a week. Trying to figure how to get plane down to the shop now. All this on the assumption we're talking about the same thing. More info to follow I'm sure.

[Chris]

Said Diamond switched vendors on the bolts with introduction of the DA50.

That seems odd since the DA50 doesn't even contain an Austro engine. But I suppose they may be trying to align suppliers for parts which are similar across the different models.

Original Mercedes bolts were higher spec/quality and going they are going back to them.

If this turns out to be caused by somebody relaxing the specs trying to save a few bucks (euros) per engine, I hope whoever made that decision is no longer working for Austro. It seems more plausible to me that the specs didn't change but that a prior supplier produced higher quality parts than a newer (possibly cheaper) supplier.

Back to the original topic... I've left my DA42NG for more than 30 days while traveling in Europe, and other than making sure the tires were fully inflated and that it wasn't too cold out, I just started up the engines and let them idle a bit longer than usual. I didn't have a GPU available, but the battery did fine.