DA40 TDI Crashes in Sweden north of Gothenburg
Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: Sweden
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Yes, probably, but from what I've heard they're busy delivering what's on order so they can start building the new version. Order one now and you get it next year... There are three coming to Sweden this year but they're already ordered and probably sold before long.
The DA40 that went down had just been retrofitted with the 2.0. It's a very early bird serial no 7 or so and the first one in Sweden w the Thielert. I flew it in 2004 in my first ever diesel powered flight.
For more cats you may be interested to know they'll be putting out a 350-diesel and 170-diesel DA50 in the coming two years. 350 will be loaded and the 170 stripped to bare essentials, but don't quote me on that.
Interesting evolution of a relatively new company, from motorglider to DA20, DA40, DA40D, DA42, DA50 and the D-jet. Pretty impressive me thinks.
The DA40 that went down had just been retrofitted with the 2.0. It's a very early bird serial no 7 or so and the first one in Sweden w the Thielert. I flew it in 2004 in my first ever diesel powered flight.
For more cats you may be interested to know they'll be putting out a 350-diesel and 170-diesel DA50 in the coming two years. 350 will be loaded and the 170 stripped to bare essentials, but don't quote me on that.
Interesting evolution of a relatively new company, from motorglider to DA20, DA40, DA40D, DA42, DA50 and the D-jet. Pretty impressive me thinks.
Join Date: Feb 2005
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Originally Posted by deice
Order one now and you get it next year
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To be fair guys, data collection will be hard. I know some people (multi hull owners) with pretty comprehensive knowledge of the Thielert/Diamond scene, and to me it appears there are two kinds of Diamond owners:
1) Those that have problems but are getting them sorted out in a manner which they find acceptable
2) Those that have problems and are not getting them sorted in a manner they find acceptable.
In general, group 1) is not going to be washing their dirty laundry in public, because the way aviation dealerships (and warranties specifically) work is that if you start doing that, you get cut right out of any support.
And most of group 2) will not be washing their dirty laundry in public either because they know their situation will be even worse if they do.
The only people who go public are those who have tried everything and failed.
I am not suggesting that everybody has major problems. There are Diamond owners who have been OK, but on a quick count of owners who I know and meet face to face, these people are in a very definite minority. Most of the problems seem to be engine related; the rest of the plane is getting sorted out. There are very complicated politics between Diamond and Thielert right now, which don't help.
This in turn means that any attempt to deliver figures is going to fail.
I know virtually nothing about Mooneys but in general Lyco/Conti engines don't have consistent and catastrophic failure modes. They have problems with requiring careful engine management which many pilots don't do. Most instructors know nothing about engine management so this isn't trained, and as pilots become owners they often know very little about how to make the engine make TBO. But with careful management, the engines DO make TBO in most cases.
Now, one could argue that the need for careful engine management is crap and I would agree - we are in the 21st century and should all be flying with FADEC etc. But working on the basis that with technical knowledge you can make a Lyco last reliably yet with technical knowledge you cannot make a Thielert last reliably, there is a big difference.
As for Mooneys, I don't like them myself - single door, so like all similar single door designs they are hard to get in and out of. Their performance figures are (nowadays) based on silly TAS gain figures obtained at silly altitudes with silly oxygen flow rates and silly fuel flow rates into turbocharged engines. Plus they look very 1950s
But there is nothing particularly unreliable about them. I just don't see the rationale in buying a Mooney at the new price tag when one could have something more modern and "civilised". But that is just an opinion, and somebody might think a Mooney is fantastic - they are welcome to that view.
I've flown the DA42 a couple of times and really like it, but there is absolutely no pretending the detail build quality is anywhere near the TB20. The key difference is that Diamond "will take over the world" while everybody else making IFR tourers is still trying to flog 1950s airframes fitted with GPS. Even the TB20 is a 30 year old design...
1) Those that have problems but are getting them sorted out in a manner which they find acceptable
2) Those that have problems and are not getting them sorted in a manner they find acceptable.
In general, group 1) is not going to be washing their dirty laundry in public, because the way aviation dealerships (and warranties specifically) work is that if you start doing that, you get cut right out of any support.
And most of group 2) will not be washing their dirty laundry in public either because they know their situation will be even worse if they do.
The only people who go public are those who have tried everything and failed.
I am not suggesting that everybody has major problems. There are Diamond owners who have been OK, but on a quick count of owners who I know and meet face to face, these people are in a very definite minority. Most of the problems seem to be engine related; the rest of the plane is getting sorted out. There are very complicated politics between Diamond and Thielert right now, which don't help.
This in turn means that any attempt to deliver figures is going to fail.
I know virtually nothing about Mooneys but in general Lyco/Conti engines don't have consistent and catastrophic failure modes. They have problems with requiring careful engine management which many pilots don't do. Most instructors know nothing about engine management so this isn't trained, and as pilots become owners they often know very little about how to make the engine make TBO. But with careful management, the engines DO make TBO in most cases.
Now, one could argue that the need for careful engine management is crap and I would agree - we are in the 21st century and should all be flying with FADEC etc. But working on the basis that with technical knowledge you can make a Lyco last reliably yet with technical knowledge you cannot make a Thielert last reliably, there is a big difference.
As for Mooneys, I don't like them myself - single door, so like all similar single door designs they are hard to get in and out of. Their performance figures are (nowadays) based on silly TAS gain figures obtained at silly altitudes with silly oxygen flow rates and silly fuel flow rates into turbocharged engines. Plus they look very 1950s
But there is nothing particularly unreliable about them. I just don't see the rationale in buying a Mooney at the new price tag when one could have something more modern and "civilised". But that is just an opinion, and somebody might think a Mooney is fantastic - they are welcome to that view.I've flown the DA42 a couple of times and really like it, but there is absolutely no pretending the detail build quality is anywhere near the TB20. The key difference is that Diamond "will take over the world" while everybody else making IFR tourers is still trying to flog 1950s airframes fitted with GPS. Even the TB20 is a 30 year old design...
Join Date: Dec 2009
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I own a DA40 TDI for 1,5 yrs. Bought it new and did about 130 hrs. It has been down approx 4 months since then. I had countless ecu fail and visits to service. Last time it had engine rough running in flight and engine dying short after emergency landing. I waited 2 months for the polish diamond service to get it running - no success. I am now paying 8000 Euros to Diamond Austria for disassembling and bringing the aircraft by road to Diamond HQ. I like the airplane design, but thats not good enough when it simply doesn't fly. I am considering changing for a Columbia 400.
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Accident report published in English
Extract from the English version of the accident report:
The pilot took off from Gothenburg City Airport for a solo navigation exercise to gain a night-time endorsement to his pilot’s licence. The climb out was via the outward reporting point BOHUS and thence northwards. After about ten minutes of flight, just north of Kungälv, the engine stopped at a height of 1500 feet. The pilot went through the check list, without any result. He transmitted an emergency message and carried out an emergency landing on the only available lit area, on the E45, which is a four-lane motorway. In order to avoid the lighting columns, the pilot decided at a late stage to land against the road traffic direction in the two left lanes. Despite this the right wing struck a light-ing column before the aircraft landed on the ground. Immediately after touch-ing down the aircraft collided with a private car. The tip of the right wing of the aircraft struck the car windscreen. The aircraft then slid off the road and con-tinued along the grass to the left of the road up to a junction, where the right wing once again collided with a lighting column, which caused the aircraft to swing round to the left, whereupon it stopped. Another private car was struck by gravel and wreckage parts as the aircraft finally stopped.
The pilot was unhurt and could exit the aircraft without assistance. Neither of the car drivers were injured.
The pilot took off from Gothenburg City Airport for a solo navigation exercise to gain a night-time endorsement to his pilot’s licence. The climb out was via the outward reporting point BOHUS and thence northwards. After about ten minutes of flight, just north of Kungälv, the engine stopped at a height of 1500 feet. The pilot went through the check list, without any result. He transmitted an emergency message and carried out an emergency landing on the only available lit area, on the E45, which is a four-lane motorway. In order to avoid the lighting columns, the pilot decided at a late stage to land against the road traffic direction in the two left lanes. Despite this the right wing struck a light-ing column before the aircraft landed on the ground. Immediately after touch-ing down the aircraft collided with a private car. The tip of the right wing of the aircraft struck the car windscreen. The aircraft then slid off the road and con-tinued along the grass to the left of the road up to a junction, where the right wing once again collided with a lighting column, which caused the aircraft to swing round to the left, whereupon it stopped. Another private car was struck by gravel and wreckage parts as the aircraft finally stopped.
The pilot was unhurt and could exit the aircraft without assistance. Neither of the car drivers were injured.
