DA42s Grounded
 

Word on the street is that Flight Training Adelaide fleet of DA42 Twinstars have been grounded.

Has anyone got any info........ why?

most likley because they have the 2,0 liter diesel engine and there has been one accident in Sweden and one in France where this engine was the direct cause. Fuel lines crack and the aircrafts suffered a fuel leak...

Bad construction is the cause...

Here's a good explaination.

Bloody censoring of good links.

blog spot dot com is the ******

No grounding, but AD.

Within next 10 h...

Do your homework first, Gentlemen....
(Googling helps) :)

http://www.diamond-air.at/fileadmin/...05-P1-Rev1.pdf

and original

http://www.tae-service.de/doc-downlo...%20Rev%201.pdf

Buckets of Puss
 

a bit more serious, i'm afraid. a mate of mine told me they had 2 uncommanded engine shutdowns (fadec) as well as uncommanded loss of thrust due to pressure variations in the engine propeller hub as well as engine driven gear box. could be due to engine design. if so, it will take a while for diamond to fix.

All flying is now in BE76 duchess.

mate i am laughing at the FTA managers who went to Avalon last year boasting on how great their diamonds were. bwawahahaa!

We had a problem in Jordan when one of our DA-40 suddenly suffered total engine failure. A crack in the high pressure fuel line caused the ECU (engine control unit) to shut down the engine, probably to prevent fuel leak to be ignited by the high temperature of the turbocharger that is located underneath the fuel lines.

The engine failure occurred during night circuits and airplane was uneventfully landed on the runway.

This was in November 2007 and might have been the origin for this AD

I heard this aswell today out at PF.

Apparently a FTA Diamond lost an engine out in the training area / LOE - then had further power issues from the remaining engine. They took a priority clearance back through Edinburgh to make it back.

Hope they are all grounded, so were not delayed out of AD while ones doing an ILS at 90kts.

So Troopy, where else would you like them to do ILS training when EDN is busy?

Why so slow?

I normally bring the Bo down the ILS at 120 kts and still turn off at the first taxiway.

Last Monday, after a "maintain best speed" request, I flew a near new C172 down the YBTL ILS at 110 kts - I think ATC had a big red 737 climbing up my arse.

It would certainly be a pain having something that slow on the ILS among jet traffic.

I have never had a problem getting an ILS for currency at TL, and I suspect that at least part of the reason is that ATC know I will fit in with the jet traffic.

Dr :8

PS: So what is the max speed of the ugliest, funniest soundling aeroplane in Oz, with gear down and approach flap?

That's due to the inherently draggy airframe of the Bonza :}

Yes Mic, it's a burden that Bo pilots learn to grin and bear!

Dr :8

Nah, Bonanza pilots ego that causes the drag!

If you want a plastic aeroplane go buy an Airfix model kit.

Bring back the mighty PA-30 as a IFR trainer.

OK, OK - I got sick of waiting!

DA42
VFE (Appr) = 137 kts
VNO = 194/156 kts

Troopy, with those numbers its hard to imagine the DA42 is on the ILS at 90 kts IAS!

So what is a typical target IAS for a B737 on an ILS Appr?

Dr :8

Ball park speeds of 210kts at 10nm/3000' reducing to about 180kts at 2000' and Vapp of about 150kts at 1000' is pretty conservative and works nicely without wasting too much fuel by configuring too early.

Ohhhh! Similar speeds to the V-tail huh!

Dr :8

Not quite as quick Doc... or classy:ok:

reckon the Dr sleeps with his "Bo", he always refers everything to the Bo. me thinks he has lay back seats in that thing !:)
Dr on a diff subject but still about the Bo ever noticed the + AofA of the Tailplane? Even the safer option the 'baz' has the same incident, quite noticeable, just curious that's all. Probably a design fault when they first flew the Bonanza series & found that it was tail heavy big time !:)


CW

AdelaideNow... Flight school planes' mid-air failures over Adelaide

wonder if theyre grounding the one at BHFS?
also any DA40D's in aus having problems with their thielert's?

Sounds like their Ill conceived comments to the press has pushed certain individuals to ask for the airport to be closed or moved. These things need to be discussed in context and not just released to the press as a free for all.

The company I work for flies 20,000+ hrs a year almost all on DA40 and 42 aircraft. Although in the early days we had a number of these issues they rarely cause an engine shutdown and a good understanding of the systems and good maintenance practices reduces them to occassional events.