If you could change one thing in your airplane

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Pascal
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If you could change one thing in your airplane

Post by Pascal »

We all have our pet peeves about our airplanes. What's yours?

I personally wish the castering nosewheel on my DA20-C1 would rotate 360 degrees. Backing up the airplane without a towbar by pushing the wing inevitably gets the nosewheel sideways, and with the lightweight towbar which flexes a lot, it's damn near impossible to back it up on gravel.
H60 pilot

Re: If you could change one thing in your airplane

Post by H60 pilot »

My geography playing no small role in this, but the impossibly hot cabin temperatures of DA40's in warm climates. This plays a great enough roll that it's literally where my conversation ends in regards to ownership. I simply cannot justify this purchase when my family so loathes the experience.

Payload, baggage capacity, performance, safety, low costs and above all my sheer pleasure of flying the Star are the finest combination of attributes available for this pilot. But in a family of four (including fur baby) I'm the only soul aboard trying to hangar a Diamond. Even my Dog wants a Cirrus . . .

C'mon DAI-C, can a pilot get some IR reflective canopy tint?!!!
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Colin
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Re: If you could change one thing in your airplane

Post by Colin »

When I bought the DA40 there were three issues I identified about the plane:

1. Canopy is a greenhouse. (I cannot explain it, but it took me SIX MONTHS to figure out that the little suction-cup sun blockers for sale in car parts places for $2 fixed this issue. Yes, sometimes we flew along with eight of them stuck to the canopy, but we no longer roasted in the sun.)

2. The seats don't move. That's pretty tough for me after three hours of flying. (The DA42 was changed so that its seats are the new reclining model.)

3. The control stick is not something non-pilot passengers appreciate in the right seat. (Again, in the new plane I eliminated that.)
Colin Summers, PP Multi-Engine IFR, ~3,000hrs
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N972RD DA42 G1000 2.0 s/n 42.AC100 (sold!)
N971RD DA40 G1000 s/n 40.508 (traded)
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smoss
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Re: If you could change one thing in your airplane

Post by smoss »

The corked nosewheel problem...
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CFIDave
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Re: If you could change one thing in your airplane

Post by CFIDave »

Colin wrote:2. The seats don't move. That's pretty tough for me after three hours of flying. (The DA42 was changed so that its seats are the new reclining model.)
Reclining seats are available on DA40 XLT and NG models. DA40 front seats now recline just like in a DA42 or DA62.
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Steve
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Re: If you could change one thing in your airplane

Post by Steve »

CFIDave wrote:
Colin wrote:2. The seats don't move. That's pretty tough for me after three hours of flying. (The DA42 was changed so that its seats are the new reclining model.)
Reclining seats are available on DA40 XLT and NG models. DA40 front seats now recline just like in a DA42 or DA62.
I wonder if you could put those in an older DA40?
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Rich
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Re: If you could change one thing in your airplane

Post by Rich »

When I picked up the plane at the factory in '02 I mentioned to Peter Maurer that an option to remove/install the right-side stick would be a good feature to have, in consideration of postulated passengers. But in 15+ years of ownership I've never once had it actually be mentioned by anyone I've had sit in that seat. Nor has anyone said they didn't want to fly in that seat. So at one time this would have been on my list, but now - meh.

The one thing I'd change (and actually can) is the deal of removing the rear seats to perform the various inspections. Diamond has an OSB for putting inspection hatches into those seats. I'll probably get this done in the next few months.

As for the others so far mentioned, they're not big deals for me. In fact the seats are a complete non-issue. For whatever reason I can fly all day long in the fixed position with no discomfort.
2002 DA40-180: MT, PowerFlow, 530W/430W, KAP140, ext. baggage, 1090 ES out, 2646 MTOW, 40gal., Surefly, Flightstream 210, Orion 600 LED, XeVision, Aspen E5
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Charles K
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Re: If you could change one thing in your airplane

Post by Charles K »

Air Conditioning
Reasonable upgrade path to WAAS for early G1000
Nose Wheel
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Charles K
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Re: If you could change one thing in your airplane

Post by Charles K »

I noticed we are all saying more then 'ONE THING' HA HA HA
Charles
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jkadel
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Re: If you could change one thing in your airplane

Post by jkadel »

My only gripe is the difficulty of reattaching the DA 20's top cowing (removing it is easy). I need a friend to help me push, bend, and stuff the top cowing back into pace over the bottom cowling's top edges. I am afraid I might crack the plastic edges on the cowing. Jim K.
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