Persicope Video will Vanish in 19hrs

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Colin
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Persicope Video will Vanish in 19hrs

Post by Colin »

Colin Summers, PP Multi-Engine IFR, ~3,000hrs
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Colin
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Re: Persicope Video will Vanish in 19hrs

Post by Colin »

The key for me, which you can see me saying in the video, is that the rearmost seats are useable. I wouldn't want to be stuck back there for four hours, but I would be totally happy going to Las Vegas from LA. (I don't want to be in something the size of a car for more than two and a half hours anymore. I need to get out and stroll around.)

I assume this is a one-off sort of thing. There are suede panels on the interior and that seems nutty and short-sighted. But they sure worked on the panel. The de-ice sub-panel is right in front of the pilot. The standby instruments are central to your view. Everything just seems sort of third or fourth generation for design and placement.

Sure, I'd love a G3000 in there, but when I asked the owner of the flight school what sort of transition he would expect for a DA42 pilot he said, "On flight and they'd could be signed off." He thought it was easier to fly than a DA42. Big fat tires slightly lower pressure on the tires, trailing link... And it was really stable in the air.

I'd like to sit in the back seat with two other adults. I didn't have the nerve to ask the two guys standing there. I couldn't tell if that would have been comfortable or not. In general the seats are more comfortable than a DA42, though.
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Re: Persicope Video will Vanish in 19hrs

Post by HPNAviator »

Colin, who was the Irish guy in the Video?
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Re: Persicope Video will Vanish in 19hrs

Post by Mhutton »

Colin, thanks for posting the video. In regards to your G3000 comment. Not sure why they did not change to at least the G2000 for the DA62. I moved out of my DA40 about a year ago, to a used 2008 400 Cessna. Both G1000 panels, that I had roughly 700 hours combined time in. Just recently I purchased a new TTX with the G2000 system. The transition to the G2000 was amazingly simple. Within 10 hours I was a ace with the new panel. Never thought Garmin products where user friendly till the G2000. Glad that Diamond is building a true step up airplane from the 40 and 42. Would choose this over a Baron all day, they are very comparable in price. Just wish it could fly higher, and faster, with presureized cabin. Maybe I will come back to the family some day if Diamond can keep coming up with products like this.
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Re: Persicope Video will Vanish in 19hrs

Post by CFIDave »

The only thing that's not an improvement on the panel is the location of the electric fuel pump switches:

On Austro-powered DA42s (DA42NG and our DA42-VI) the two white electric fuel pump switches are located adjacent to each other on the lower panel, making it trivial to turn both switches on and off with one quick hand motion. At a minimum these switches have to be cycled on and then off for each takeoff, and again on and off for each landing.

In contrast, the DA62 spread the same two white electric fuel pump switches about a foot apart, on each side of the starter and engine master switches. This requires the pilot to move their arm (and look at) 2 different places on the instrument panel.

Separately I'm not sure about how I feel about a pair of starter pushbuttons rather than using a single key to work both starters. Unless I'm missing something, this would seem make the plane a whole lot easier to steal -- unless the DA62 is like a modern automobile with keyless pushbutton starting where you have an electronic key in your pocket that communicates wirelessly with the car.
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Re: Persicope Video will Vanish in 19hrs

Post by CFIDave »

Mhutton wrote:Not sure why they did not change to at least the G2000 for the DA62. I moved out of my DA40 about a year ago, to a used 2008 400 Cessna. Both G1000 panels, that I had roughly 700 hours combined time in. Just recently I purchased a new TTX with the G2000 system. The transition to the G2000 was amazingly simple. Within 10 hours I was a ace with the new panel. Never thought Garmin products where user friendly till the G2000.
I believe the reason Diamond didn't consider the G2000 for the DA62 was for ease/speed/cost of certification. As noted elsewhere, the DA62 is legally a DA42 since it's just an addition to the DA42's EASA Type Certificate Data Sheet (TCDS). From what I've been able to determine thus far, the DA62 probably shares 99% of its electrical schematics and 95% of its mechanicals with the DA42-VI -- there are very few differences between the systems installed in these 2 aircraft.

If Diamond did choose to install a G2000, I would hope that they didn't make the mistake Cessna did that placed the touch-screen controller down on the console between the front seats. One of the things I disliked when I test-flew the TTx prototype before purchasing a DA42-VI was that the G2000 forced you to go heads-down and look down every time you wanted to change a radio frequency, adjust your flight plan, or do anything with the Garmin system, since there are no buttons to give you tactile feedback.
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Re: Persicope Video will Vanish in 19hrs

Post by HPNAviator »

As I mentioned in another post, even the G1000 with the larger screens, separate autopilot controller and the alphanumeric keypad would be a serious step-up in operational efficiency from the current DA40/42 G1000 implementation. In other words the same G1000 capability currently found in a Cirrus SR20. It appears to me the location of the rocker switches in the center of the panel would have made a great location for the autopilot controller. Perhaps in the next revision of the DA62 we may see some Garmin enhancements.
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Re: Persicope Video will Vanish in 19hrs

Post by Colin »

Seosamh Somers is the owner and very able operator of Angel City Flyers. Shooting the video was John Ewing, their chief pilot up at Bay City Flyers. It's a really slick operation that goes from DA40s up to Mustang Jets. They have simulators (including a motion simulator for the Mustang).

You can read some of John's writing at Aviation Mentor, which I have been reading for a decade. He also has a few eBooks for Diamond aircraft.
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Colin
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Re: Persicope Video will Vanish in 19hrs

Post by Colin »

I believe the G1000 is added to the DA40 with an STC. I think they could do the same thing to the panel in the DA62 if they need to. But the truth is, having flown the DA42 a bit, I think the G1000 does everything you need it to.

That shortcut keypad in the TT bothered me, too. Even when it was just a keypad rather than the touch. Rotating your head ninety degrees like that induces vertigo if you are without reference to a horizon. That's right when you would be using it a little more frequently.

It's one of those cases where I don't think the designers are pilot and that's a mistake.
Colin Summers, PP Multi-Engine IFR, ~3,000hrs
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N972RD DA42 G1000 2.0 s/n 42.AC100 (sold!)
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