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I am taking delivery of a new DA62 some time in October. I’m not yet a pilot and having a difficult time finding a Diamond with G1000 to train on. Any recomindations in Sacramento CA area?

Are you saying you do not have your PPL yet?
If not, I would strongly suggest going up to Diamond London to get all of your licenses and ratings.
I'm assuming they're still training pilots. Diamond London would be your best place for training given what you have coming in October. Plan on flying whole heck of a lot.

Yes, Diamond Flight Center in London, Ontario does training still https://www.dfclondon.com/. Just give them a call.

From Sacramento I would instead use Bay City Flyers. But I had such a good experience with Angel City Flyers (same outfit) that I am biased. They have an all-Diamond fleet. I mean, not counting their Cessna Mustangs.

Tommy wrote:I would strongly suggest going up to Diamond London to get all of your licenses and ratings.
I'm assuming they're still training pilots. Diamond London would be your best place for training given what you have coming in October. Plan on flying whole heck of a lot.

One qualifier on DFC London, I did some DA62 transition training with them earlier this year and I did find their instruction to be excellent. However, they are lacking in CFIs who are FAA certified. At least for MEIs, I think only one had FAA certification. Without FAA certification, they can't sign your logbook. Also, to get your license you would also need a DPE and I'm not sure they have one available.

I picked up my MEI in a DA42 in the states and then just did transition training in the DA62 with DFC London. No need for an FAA MEI in that situation.

--Ron

Mike,

Happy to sell you mine! I’m kidding, but not really...

A couple observations since I just did almost exactly what you’re wanting to do:

If you can, buy a DA40 and sell it when you’re done with the Instrument rating. Pretty sure I’ll at least break even on my DA40 given the interest level is off the charts. Owning it gave me a ton of flexibility, and I definitely got through the instrument faster this way than renting. Sounds like you already know that as much of your training as possible should be in a G1000 DA40 - it’s the perfect platform to transition to the DA62 from.

In your overall quest of PPL->Instrument->Multi ratings, the long pole in the tent will be the 50 hours PIC XC and/or the 40 hours of actual or simulated instrument time. Make sure that every flight after the PPL includes a stop 50nm away, and put the foggles on early and often whenever you can. Obviously you’ll need to do the Instrument in the single since you need the PIC hours. In theory you could get the multi rating first, but I don’t think any underwriter will touch a DA62 policy for a low hour pilot without the Instrument.

Get a recommendation from Diamond sales for an insurance broker if you haven’t already. Carriers do not have enough data on this plane, and so they seem to view it as a very expensive Cirrus crossed with a hard to fly Baron. Put a plan together with your broker and then you’ll at least know what you have to do. Expect the plan to be something like Instrument rating, Multi rating, plus something like 50 hours dual multi (instruction and/or mentor pilot time). Also, expect it to be expensive for the first year. Use the mentor time for useful stuff - I went to Aspen, New Orleans, Florida etc. It was great. Depending on your insurance plan it might not really matter if you have your multi rating prior to getting the plane. I did a bunch of mentor hours with an instructor in my 62, and then went for 12 hours or so and the rating in a DA42-VI. The multi is not very hard after the instrument, at least in these planes. I was unable to find a DPE who could do a checkride in a 62 (5 hours make and model). The 42-VI solved that problem, with very little wasted time. There’s a wonderful lady now in Dallas who owns and teaches in a 2017 42-VI (and can teach/mentor in a 62), highly recommended. It’ll be a million degrees in Texas for four more months, so she might be willing to suffer through a few weeks in California. I couldn’t even get a call back from Angel City.

Anyway, rest assured: what you’re wanting to do is reasonable, the plane is awesome, and none of this is really that hard. But, insurance will likely hate the idea anyway, so you’ll have to persevere.

Cheers
Jason

Thank you all for your input, Jason especially. I’ll think through the idea of getting a DA40 for a short time and may reach out to you for the contact in TX.

Mike

fleetrader wrote:Thank you all for your input, Jason especially. I’ll think through the idea of getting a DA40 for a short time and may reach out to you for the contact in TX.

Mike

I also think it is a great idea to train with a DA40. That said, the used DA 40 market is very tight right now. I did a fast check on Controller and Trade A Plane and there is only one aircraft for sale that would meet your criteria with G1000 and also equipped with an AP. Here is a link for a low hour very nice 2012 XLS model. They are asking top dollar at $345k
but I would imagine they will get close to that with the market being what it is. Looks like it is a definitely seller's market.
https://www.controller.com/listings/air ... d-da40-xls

Oh that’s a sweet one! Seller’s market for sure, I could have sold 10 like mine for at least what I paid for it.

After thinking about it further, I stand by everything above, but I’d add that really anything more or less in the trainer class with G1000 and GFC700 would be fine. The DA40 is great because the layout of the cabin and “button-ology” is ideal because it is about as similar to the 62 as possible. But, in my shiny badge opinion, if you know you’re going to be flying the 62 in short order, then it is far more important that as much of your instrument time as possible be with the same avionics. You’ll have a lot more latitude in training to actually go places, and in real IMC in your own plane. Which is super important, because as soon as you have your multi rating and your 62 I guarantee you’ll be wanting to go real places and not spend so much time in the pattern.

Cheers
Jason

I don't see much sense in buying DA40 to train then to sell it and continue flying DA62. It's just wasting money and time. Buy your last plane first Training in DA62 is as easy as DA40.