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Diamond DA-42 Twinstar rental?

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I'm not totally sure on this but I think there is one for rental at Crawfordsville, IN. It flew in with some other diamonds at our airshow ( terre haute air fair) recently and that airport is a Diamond dealer. Pretty cool looking airplane and it has a huge wingspan. It flew over in formation with a Star before it landed.
 
UVSC in Provo, UT has two of them. Of course, this is not an FBO, its a school, but it's relatively painless to get registered as a continuing-ed student so you can rent from them. (At least it used to be.) I'm working on my multi engine stuff in a Twin Star and I think its an awesome airplane, granted it's the only multi I've ever flown.
 
Waukegan Wings at UGN just had one delivered a few weeks ago. Not sure though if they rent it or if it's dual-only.
 
well lets start off.... all of these places people are listing I flew the airplane to them so I have some time. The props are always out of sync with no way to sync them (only has two power levers). The airplane is just as unconfy as the DA40 with hardly any speed diff. Although it is very simple to fly a student who learns in this will have no idea what to do in a trad. multi. Doesn't fit in most hangars. Less than a few weeks old, one of them already had a major fuel problem. Had to be flown to London, ON to get fixed. If the elec. goes out (batt and 2 gens) the engines stop because of FADEC with no power! Airplane is hot as hell in the summer and has a regular heater so its cold in winter. I could go on and on but these are a few. Only good thing is the amount of fuel burn. I've seen about 7 gal TOTAL at 80% power. But that still only gets you 155TAS at about 080. Just my 2 $.
 
O yeah I forgot a big one. Good luck flying this if you have less than 1000 total time and under 100 multi. Most insur. places won't let you fly solo unless you meet that.
 
Galvin Flying in Seattle has one for rent. The checkout procedure is pretty straight forward, you will need some time in type (DOE) before you blastoff solo, but not nearly as restrictive as posted above (worst case scenario 15 hours). I've got a bit more than 100 hours in the airplane and it seems to work well for me. TKS works great, outside a Mooney or Columbia the speed is OK, I have seen 172 KTAS BTW. The props will be sync'ed if you keep both power levers within a 1-2% of each other. The engines will quit if you lose all electrical power, but isn't the point of a twin redundancy? What is the likelyhood of dual alternator failure and loss of all battery power? Yes there is an outside chance it could happen, but I could get hit by a car crossing the street tomorrow. We are in the business of risk management, and I don't feel that dual alternators present a significant risk.
New students will not be at a true disadvantage in this airplane. Multi-engine aerodynamincs remain the same (with the exception of centerline thrust) in any other aircraft. If at some point they transition to a Baron or Seneca, they will need type specific training in that aircraft, regardless of what kind of multi they learned on. Any plane should be able to be flown by a well trained, competent pilot.
 
UVSC is $173 wet, but as I said above you have to be enrolled in some sort of program with them. That is to say, a part 61 or 141 class or a "continuing ed" program. (Not sure if that last one is still an option, it was about a year ago.)
 
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Plastic planes... you hit a bird and you've got a hull-loss. go figure
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The beauty of message boards, spreading misinformation to the masses. I suppose they will explode if hit by lightning as well??
Perhaps the high cost of rental has to do with the capital investment? The hull value on this is much higher than some old beater Duchess, so I suppose insurance would be priced accordingly?
 
It depends on the mechanic and the size of the "A". Cost and downtime are pretty close to sheet metal repair. Composite repair tends to look much better after the fact, in most cases you can't visibly tell there was damage. Rather than replacing ribs and skin all the way back to the spar and root, composite repair is usually limited to the damaged area.
I would find an experienced mechanic to help you out on this. There are some out there. If a mechanic has never done it before, it can be a PITA. I know a guy in WA that has been doing it for a while and is very good. Depends on who you are talking to.
 
aldassy said:
The beauty of message boards, spreading misinformation to the masses. I suppose they will explode if hit by lightning as well??
Perhaps the high cost of rental has to do with the capital investment? The hull value on this is much higher than some old beater Duchess, so I suppose insurance would be priced accordingly?
Click to expand...


The beauty of message boards.. nobody can tell when you're exagerating.

Insurance is higher because they're more suseptible to hull loss. That comes straight from the insurance co.

Brand new seminoles are $215/hour in Colorado.

g
 
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aldassy said:
It depends on the mechanic and the size of the "A". Cost and downtime are pretty close to sheet metal repair. Composite repair tends to look much better after the fact, in most cases you can't visibly tell there was damage. Rather than replacing ribs and skin all the way back to the spar and root, composite repair is usually limited to the damaged area.
I would find an experienced mechanic to help you out on this. There are some out there. If a mechanic has never done it before, it can be a PITA. I know a guy in WA that has been doing it for a while and is very good. Depends on who you are talking to.
Click to expand...

Something else I was wondering about are the engines. I read a few months ago that the majority of the DA42's would be sold with IO-360 engines instead of the diesels due to lack of mx support across the country. The diesel's may sip fuel, but the composite airframe + new engine technology + new fuel delivery technology has got to be what's jacking the rent price up.

I hate insurance companies. Charging you extra for what might happen. It's killing the rental market.

g
 
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Grove said:
I read a few months ago that the majority of the DA42's would be sold with IO-360 engines instead of the diesels due to lack of mx support across the country.
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I recently read that Diamond ceased pursuing the IO-360 option (I think it was the Flying article, but I could be wrong). They considered the option, then quit work on it. Anyway, given Thielert's acquisition of Superior Air Parts, they seem to be more commited to building that maintenance network in the US (at least in theory; I haven't tried to maintain one, so I don't know how good it actually is).

EDIT: Flying Magazine, July 2006 -

"Diamond has flown the Twin Star with conventional Lycoming engines to offer an alternative to those who don't want the diesels, but the product is not now in active devlopment."
 
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