Anyone training/instructing in DA42?

[fly4food84]

I'm curious if anyone else has been flying the Twinstar?

My school has two DA42's that are meticulously maintained and they can't seem to stay in the air. Both have had multiple engine failures and serious down time. About a week ago, one of them had an engine failure, so it was fixed, then the next flight the other engine died.

I meet all my Commercial requirements, but whenever I get close to be being proficient enough to take my check ride a plane goes down and my flights get canceled and I don't fly for a week or two or three (busy school).

If you have any experience with this aircraft how often is it down for maintenance? Ever have any emergency situations?

[SpiraMirabilis]

Diamonds are apparently designed to fly around 30 hours a year. Anything more than that and you're going to run into this problem regardless of what type of airplane it is -- but especially in the DA42.

[turbomax97]

I flew one when I was freelancing with a group of fellow free-lancers that had pooled to buy one.

I didn't like the plane - i prefer the seminole by far.

Engine Failures are docile for the most part, but VMC is a bit high, relatively speaking. The trailing gear don't take abuse very well, and do we really need glider wings for training? These da42's, like the diamond stars are not built to take the nose gear slamming abuse of a student pilot... at least not to what the outstanding 172's and seminoles are.

It's a GREAT a/c for owning and flying xc once in a while, great fuel economy, comfort, and performance.

As far as engine reliability goes - I haven't realy heard anything bad about them. I really haven't looked into stats though....

[surreal1221]

Multiple Engine failures?

What the hell. . .

I have 100'ish hours in 5 different DA42s, and never once had a real engine failure. Did have a Low Fuel temp sensor issue, but that turned out to be a G1000 wire issue.

In my overall experience the DA42 was a flawless aircraft to fly, both as a student and as an instructor. Handles exceptionally well for it's ugly looks.

Is the maintenance facility an approved Diamond Maintenance center? If they're having this large amount of downtime, especially with engine issues. . .red flags would be going off in my head after the second failure.

PS: Please do not just fly for food. Demand some sort of compensation, please? For the rest of us who want to make a living.

[fly4food84]

Thanks for the replies. I guess we're the only ones with major problems.

Originally Posted by surreal1221

I have 100'ish hours in 5 different DA42s, and never once had a real engine failure. Did have a Low Fuel temp sensor issue, but that turned out to be a G1000 wire issue.

I've never personally had an issue flying the Twinstar, but on 4 separate occasions in 6 months time engine failures have occurred. I can't count the number of times G1000 issues have popped up, but that is Garmin's problems.

Originally Posted by surreal1221

Is the maintenance facility an approved Diamond Maintenance center? If they're having this large amount of downtime, especially with engine issues. . .red flags would be going off in my head after the second failure.

They have been to an approved Diamond facility a few states away, but the person who maintains them is just an A&P based at the small airport which we are based.

Don't worry I don't literally fly for food. It would be hard to live without some sort of monetary compensation. : )

[surreal1221]

Gotcha.

After each engine failure, is the local A&P fixing the issue? Or is the plane somehow getting to the Diamond Maintenance facility?

[PilotBeckfizzle]

I have about 50+ hrs in DA42s and haven't had any major issues with them. I think its a fantastic, fun plane to fly.

Is it great for training? No, I think if you're going to learn to fly a multi learn in one that actually has more than one lever for each engine (i.e. not FADEC).

The two issues that I have had have been elevator backstop failure (got the caution light on final) and loss of pump prime in one of the aux fuel tanks.

The DA42 at my flight school does about 100hrs a month and we have yet to have any major issues with it. Granted there have been some minor issues here and there...like with every plane.

[bdhill1979]

Nothing but problems with the 42.

I have yet to see one make it past 25 hours without going down.

[OldTownPilot]

Diamonds suck!

crazy Canadians.








(it's fun being a fly on a wall at a Diamond dealer and service center)

[surreal1221]

I'll agree with the overall sentiment that the DA42 is an extremely high maintenance aircraft.

Which, is a significant disappointment to not only those of us who fly it, but to the owners who - when the warrenty runs out - will be left with huge maintenance bills every 50-100 hours.

[bdhill1979]

Originally Posted by surreal1221

Which, is a significant disappointment to not only those of us who fly it, but to the owners who - when the warrenty runs out - will be left with huge maintenance bills every 50-100 hours.

I think it is doubly significant because this airplane has been marketed as a low operating cost airplane.

Yes it burns less fuel, which I think is a big step in the right direction. But the cost of maintaining one (outside of warranty) is enormous. I have seen the bills from the Mechanics just for their time and it is staggering.

On one bill I saw more than we have spent on our T210 (other than upgrades) in the whole year that we have owned it. That includes what we spent on the annual.

Even if the repairs are covered under warranty the owner/operator is losing money because a plane on the ground makes no cash. At the place I used to work the payment on the 42 was $7000 dollars a month. The plane paid for itself in one month out of the nine that I was there.

[whichwayisup]

The DA 42's with the thielert 1.7's have lots of problems. The 2.0 are pretty good. Garmin is issuing a software patch later this month to fix alot of the problems. We are a Diamond Authorized service center and our 1.7 goes down about every 25-50 hours. This software patch should solve most of the issues we are having though.

[bdhill1979]

Originally Posted by whichwayisup

The DA 42's with the thielert 1.7's have lots of problems. The 2.0 are pretty good. Garmin is issuing a software patch later this month to fix alot of the problems. We are a Diamond Authorized service center and our 1.7 goes down about every 25-50 hours. This software patch should solve most of the issues we are having though.

How is a software patch from Garmin going to solve problems with a Thielert engine?

I have seen cracked cylinder heads, cracked exhaust manifolds, cracked intakes, gearbox issues, blown turbos.........

All hardware.

And that doesn't even touch on the landing gear separation that I have witnessed.

[fly4food84]

Originally Posted by bdhill1979

I have seen cracked cylinder heads, cracked exhaust manifolds, cracked intakes, gearbox issues, blown turbos.........

That list sounds familiar.

[whichwayisup]

Most of our problems have been software issues. We had a bad nose gear pump(actuator) on the hardware side, but thats about it (So far).

[JA Yawd Bwoy]

I don't know why, but I think Diamond aircraft look preety weird!

expecially the peice that connects the tail and the main body.

[bdhill1979]

Originally Posted by JA Yawd Bwoy

I don't know why, but I think Diamond aircraft look preety weird!

expecially the peice that connects the tail and the main body.

Its called the Flagellum

[bartman]

Originally Posted by bdhill1979

Its called the Flagellum

Gesundheit

[moxiepilot]

for you guys flying this, can you check out tech talk about a question there on the da 40 / 42