Diesel engines and trainning costs

[TheNavigator]

Hello all,

Having read an article about diesel engines for general aviation aircraft, I would like to hear your views about the impact of this on the trainning costs.

Are flying trainning organisation going to invest on this to provide cheaper training and possible increased revenue due to the lower running costs and higher reliability of these engines or this just a dream for now.

I hope this is a good topic for a debate!

[Wee Weasley Welshman]

Well my back of a fag packet calcs show that it could reduce per hr costs by 23%.

Which would be most welcome.

Lets face it - the current GA and training fleets are getting long in the tooth and its well overdue that we see a step change in the technology department.

If someone has the backing to develop and get approved a new GA diesel engine coupled to a modern composite airframe and digital integrated electronics you could have one hell of a lot of performace with little maintenance and high reliability.

Here's hoping.

WWW

[TheNavigator]

I hope too...

In the said article they claim about 80% savings which means about £6 an hour just for the fuel.

Also it seems that the engines are quieter and there is only the throtle control to play with. No carb icing (well no carb.)

I guess that you got your figure considering the other costs as well - eg. the cost of the modification which involves a new engine, propeller and various other bits!

Nevertheless I still think it's a good idea.

[supertyke]

Rumour - watch out for the new Diamond Star DA40 with possibly a TAE diesel engine option early next year. Four seat modern composite, JAA and FAA IFR approved. The MTOW will be less than the IO-360 Lycoming version but cruise is reported to be good at approx. 17 litres Jet A1/hour.