hoffmann prop

[krellis]

I loved our A1 Katana. It served it's purpose for us and is now training the next generation of pilots at a High School in Florida.

https://generalaviationnews.com/2020/05 ... of-flying/
https://www.firstcoastnews.com/article/ ... 3b6511973f

That being said, I would be really wary about spending many thousands of dollars/pounds/euros/bitcoin on an obsolete and orphaned airplane. My concern would be lack of available parts given that Diamond really doesn't support these planes (heck, they barely support some of the newer ones). You could be grounded (potentially permanently) if the part(s) you might need are no longer available. I suspect the 912iS powered DA20's currently available in Europe are based on the C1 airframe and not the A1. Don't really know for sure.

[JohnE]

Hi Keith. Surprisingly the new DV20e is based off the original version of the DA20-A1 ,they called the model the DV20 back then, so I can confirm that its not based on the C1 airframe. The original DV20 had an older style instrument cluster similar to their motor-gliders and used a different cowling. Parts wise, it is not that difficult finding most parts as the C1 and A1 share almost all airframe parts. Rotax is very well supported as well as they are the primary engine being used on most new smaller aircraft. Diamond custom engine parts are mainly the exhaust header pipes, but that is well covered outside of Diamond. For me at least, the Hoffmann prop issue is not a big deal given MT propeller is a much bigger company and has a solution available. It seems that Diamond still operates as 2 different companies (Europe and Canada). I don't understand that part of it. It would probably operate a lot better as one entity.

[krellis]

Hi Keith. Surprisingly the new DV20e is based off the original version of the DA20-A1 ,they called the model the DV20 back then, so I can confirm that its not based on the C1 airframe. The original DV20 had an older style instrument cluster similar to their motor-gliders and used a different cowling. Parts wise, it is not that difficult finding most parts as the C1 and A1 share almost all airframe parts. Rotax is very well supported as well as they are the primary engine being used on most new smaller aircraft. Diamond custom engine parts are mainly the exhaust header pipes, but that is well covered outside of Diamond. For me at least, the Hoffmann prop issue is not a big deal given MT propeller is a much bigger company and has a solution available. It seems that Diamond still operates as 2 different companies (Europe and Canada). I don't understand that part of it. It would probably operate a lot better as one entity.

That is interesting information. The old A1 had a gross weight of 1609 lbs. (K100 got a 44 lb increase) vs the gross weight of the C1 and new Rotax models of 1764 pounds. As to the A1 and C1 airframe parts being the same - I thought they had different flaps, different horizontal and different wing sweep. Clearly the canopy latching mechanism is quite different. And I would also be surprised if Diamond was really building two different airframes for the very limited DA20/DV20 market. I still say support for the A1 models is poor to non-existent for A1 specific parts.

[JohnE]

If you check out diamonds Austrian website and go to the DA20 models. They show the specifications and if you look at length of aircraft you can see that the DA20e is a different length than the C1. Same length as the original A1. Also, I think in Europe at least, the DV20e (Rotax 912iSC) is preferred over the C1 model. Fuel is very expensive over there and 100LL may be difficult to get in some of their markets. I wonder if there is any way to get sales numbers for the different Diamond models. Do you know if they still sell the C1 in the USA and if so how many units they sell per year?