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My understanding is that if an aircraft is flown Part 91, regardless of what the aircraft maintenance manual says, 100 hour maintenance items are not required to be performed. For Part 91, only the annuals are required.

My aircraft is just about at its first 100 hour interval and I wanted to work with my mechanic as to which items they perform. In addition to the oil and filter changes, I want many of the other items completed anyway just to make sure everything is running as expected. But there are several items in the DA62 manual that are marked as 'US registered only', so it seems to me that Diamond doesn't think these items are too important. Can I skip those if I want?

Thanks,

Ron

rdrobson wrote:My understanding is that if an aircraft is flown Part 91, regardless of what the aircraft maintenance manual says, 100 hour maintenance items are not required to be performed. For Part 91, only the annuals are required.
Thanks,
Ron

From a regulation standpoint, 100-hour inspections may be required under part 91 if operated for compensation or hire - depending. See 91.409 (b)

Ron: You are correct that a US N-registered plane operating under Part 91 is only required to be serviced under the Chapter 4 "Airworthiness Limitations" of the AMM. Chapter 5 maintenance items are all optional at the discretion of the owner.

As for my first 100 hour (not an annual inspection) service on a DA62, I only performed the oil and filter changes. To save money (and because I enjoy tinkering with my plane), I did it all by myself, since replacement of these items is legal for the owner to perform without supervision by a licensed A&P.

Diamond sells "100 hour kits" for Austro engines that provide you with a genuine Mercedes oil filter for Mercedes OM640 auto diesel engines (upon which your AE330s are based), a MANN WK 724/3 fuel filter, a paper "coffee filter" for straining your gearbox oil to look for metal (oil that you pour right back into the gearbox, replacing it only every 300 hours), some copper crush washers, and an oil sample container for mailing your oil to Austria for analysis. IMHO these 100 hour kits are a ripoff, especially since I learned (with my DA42-VI's Austro engines) that after you pay all the international shipping to send an oil sample to Austro Engine in Austria, they never bother to get back to you with any results. And of course as a US DA62 owner you're already paying for international shipping of the 100 hour kits from Canada.

So for my first 100 hour service on my DA62 last year, I used:
- Castrol Edge 0W-40 A3/B4 European formula car full synthetic engine oil from my local Walmart (available in 5 quart and 1 quart containers); this is one of the many approved oils listed in the Austro Engine maintenance manual, but one of the few that is readily-available in the US.
- New genuine Mercedes oil filters bought from a supplier on Ebay in the UK. I learned that this filter is actually made by MANN in Germany for Mercedes-Benz; you can purchase the MANN-branded engine oil filters even more cheaply from many European suppliers who will ship to the US. The MANN part is: HU615/3x
- New MANN WK 324/3 fuel filters identical to the ones included in the Diamond kits, also obtainable from European suppliers who ship to the US.
- Blackstone Labs oil analysis kits. These US guys can analyze diesel engine oil and provide great feedback on your Austro engine oil samples. http://www.blackstone-labs.com

You will also need to learn how to safety wire a few bolts/plugs on the engine (purchase a safety wire tool kit from a place like Aircraft Spruce) -- safety wiring is not very difficult. And you'll need to purchase a long 8mm threaded bolt (M8x50 or longer) from your favorite local hardware store that's used to easily extract the small oil filter from each engine gearbox (you'll examine that filter for potential metal contamination and then put it back in).

Since you're flying a plane with automotive engines, it's nice to be able to utilize standard automotive oils and filters, all of which can be found with some Internet searching.

Let me suggest that you and your mechanic might want to purchase Diamond's 100 hour kits for your DA62's first 100 hour servicing, just so you can see what's included in the kits. After that, you might want to consider alternate sources as noted above.

Thanks for the great reply, Dave!

Also, I knew that I had earlier read something, somewhere about a manufactures maintenance schedule and what is and isn't required and I finally found it. AOPA had the following article, while certainly not DA62 centric, does explain the regulations well.

https://www.aopa.org/news-and-media/all ... y-the-book

--Ron

Dave, that's a great post. Thanks for sharing. Will do it ourselves next oil change

Having recently performed 200 hour servicing on my DA62, let me add some other things I learned:

1. I finally figured out how to easily remove the fuel filters: make sure you remove the thin rectangular rubber sheet that wraps vertically around each fuel filter. The rubber makes it almost impossible turn the filter and extract it. Put the rubber sheet back in after you've screwed the new filter back into place.

2. At every 200 hours the engine air filters need to be replaced. These are standard automotive K&N RU-1620 filters that I was able to order from Amazon. They're easy to access on the top rear of the engines near the intercooler, but removing the filters (and fat induction air hose to which they are attached) was a bit challenging only because there's an orange fuel hose in the way.

Also you have to disconnect the cable that operates the engine's alternate air valve (bypassing the filter). When you put things back together you'll have to re-attach the cable and re-adjust the length so that the lever located under the instrument panel works properly to completely open/close the alternate air valve. But if you've ever worked on a bicycle, it's just like adjusting the operation of bicycle brake or gear shift cables.

Good stuff Dave. We'll likely do the next 100 hour (coming up on 900) at annual next month, but maybe will record doing the next 100/200 on a video and post it.

There may be a case for a forum on Austro engines, or at the least a sticky so that we can give some good advice on cheaper parts (Castrol Edge A3/B4, K&N filters, MANN and Mercedez filters, the Panasonic batteries, etc...)

An Austrian engine forum would be excellent!

There's a part number error in my previous post that I can't go back and change:

The fuel filters -- one per engine for DA40 NGs, DA42s and DA62s -- are MANN WK 724/3. These are about $60 each if ordered through Diamond, but only about 10-15 Euros if ordered online (Google for lots of places that sell these). They are not part of the Austro Engine 100 hour kits, but must be ordered separately.

CFIDave wrote:There's a part number error in my previous post that I can't go back and change:

I fixed it in your previous post to avoid any confusion.