Greetings From A Potential Diamond User

[Jroseund]

Good Evening Everyone,

Been a lurker for a little bit but not very active in posting.

My family and I are starting to get more serious in obtaining an aircraft for our family travels, and we are narrowing it down very fast to the DA 42-VI. Just wanted to get some other feedback from the folks here if there's something I'm overlooking.

Our main mission profile will consist of roughly 700 NM trip that we want to make Eastbound nonstop, and preferably nonstop westbound with summer winds, but okay with a stop with winter winds. 50% of will be family trips (2 adults & 2 children) that consist of roughly 600 lbs of payload, 25% with 3 occupants and about 25% with 2 occupants. Planning on roughly 150 hours / year for usage. We are located around Western Nebraska in the U.S. Predominantly are trips going eastbound over the Central Plains or SE of the U.S., with occasional trips westbound over the continental divide. It looks like Centennial, CO and Wichita, KS would be the closest Service Centers for us.

Spoke to the boss lady and these are the hard "Yes" for the aircraft.

• Safety, Economical, FIKI, Solid IFR Platform

Very close behind is the Cessna Turbo 206 Stationair. Love the space and payload usage for the aircraft, but I don't think we will be hauling tons of stuff all the time. Also, no Radar, even though I wouldn't be going on the sportiest of summer days that the Great Plains can give you with Thunderstorms, but Radar would make me feel more comfortable for active weather avoidance. Could get the Flint Tip tank extension so we could make the primary mission nonstop though.

We have experience using a Cirrus SR22 for family trips in the past and it did make her feel more comfortable with the parachute, but payload is tight.

Also, I have seen and heard a lot of grumblings with previous posts on the terrible Customer Service for Diamond, nonexistent communication from Diamond and the lack of availability of parts for maintenance. Was seeing if any of those have improved at all for Diamond users in the U.S.?

Thank you everyone for your thoughts and feedback. Looking forward to getting more active on the forms now.

~ Jonathan

[TimS]

Jonathan,

Welcome to DAN. Although I fly an SR22 in partnership, I would prefer a DA-42. However the price point is much higher than my current needs when a SR22 partnership opportunity came up
For the SR22, be aware that during the G3 run, the tank size changes and you get better range. The G5 received a 200lb net useful load increase which can make it easier to load out. There are limited options for the Cirrus, but they exist for WAAS and other avionics upgrades, with a crap load of cash. Cirrus has a huge market share, good third party support, great sales and market support. But they are rather bad at tracking/following specialty parts (not many ever needed, I never ordered one in five years of Cirrus ownership and have only seen comments twice that I recall on COPA).

For the DA-42, there are threads on here for the support aspect, I have hope that Diamond is changing, but this is like having changing directions on the Titanic. Beyond this aspect, the only other concern I have with Diamond is the WAAS/avionics capability..... Even with that concern, if I had the mission, especially the kids aspect, I would prefer the DA-42 any day of the week.

Tim

[Soareyes]

We have experience using a Cirrus SR22 for family trips in the past and it did make her feel more comfortable with the parachute, but payload is tight.

Also, I have seen and heard a lot of grumblings with previous posts on the terrible Customer Service for Diamond, nonexistent communication from Diamond and the lack of availability of parts for maintenance. Was seeing if any of those have improved at all for Diamond users in the U.S.?

From someone who recently traded in a G5 SR22 for a new DA42:

I gave up 150 lbs of full fuel payload.

92 gallons of fuel in the Cirrus, 76 gallons in the Diamond. Both burn 13.5 gph in cruise so better range in the former.

The Cirrus is roomier.

Don't underestimate the importance of ease and cost of maintenance. I just finished the first 100 hour oil change/service event for the new plane. Instead of a choice between three service centers within 80 miles I paid a pro pilot hundreds of dollars to ferry the plane back and forth to a Diamond service center 270 miles away.

The cost of the 100 hour service event on the new plane, still under warranty, was more than 6/7 Cirrus annuals. We are still disagreeing on whether some things they found should be covered under the warranty. For example, the plane was delivered with a slow fuel leak and occasional water in the left wing fuel tank. They found a seal was missing from around the fuel filler port and want to charge me over $1,000 to fix it.

Insurance is more than double but since I had no prior retract/multi experience merely double is better than expected.

Parachute.

Hangar size.

But the difference is Lexus vs. Infinity, Mercedes vs. BMW, Cadillac vs. Lincoln. Can't complain.

[MackAttack]

Seems to me that the DA42 cabin would be a lot tighter for a full plane (it's basically a DA40 cabin). The DA62 cabin is much roomier and has more useful load with full fuel, and even beats the SR22 cabin in my opinion. The SR22 cabins (especially G5/G6 interiors) are still very nice with a surprising amount of room and full fuel useful load (in the normally aspirated Cirrus) is 550-plus pounds. A bit less in the turbo.

If you haven't done so already, I would be sure and fly in all your options (including taking your spouse along) to be sure that the family flight experience will be what you guys are looking for...a 700-mile trip in any of these planes is a 4-5 hour experience.

[Colin]

Is there any difference at all in the cabins? I thought the measurements were exactly the same, with a few differences in things like vent placement.

[Jroseund]

Jonathan,

Welcome to DAN. Although I fly an SR22 in partnership, I would prefer a DA-42. However the price point is much higher than my current needs when a SR22 partnership opportunity came up
For the SR22, be aware that during the G3 run, the tank size changes and you get better range. The G5 received a 200lb net useful load increase which can make it easier to load out. There are limited options for the Cirrus, but they exist for WAAS and other avionics upgrades, with a crap load of cash. Cirrus has a huge market share, good third party support, great sales and market support. But they are rather bad at tracking/following specialty parts (not many ever needed, I never ordered one in five years of Cirrus ownership and have only seen comments twice that I recall on COPA).

For the DA-42, there are threads on here for the support aspect, I have hope that Diamond is changing, but this is like having changing directions on the Titanic. Beyond this aspect, the only other concern I have with Diamond is the WAAS/avionics capability..... Even with that concern, if I had the mission, especially the kids aspect, I would prefer the DA-42 any day of the week.

Tim

Thank you Tim.

The only experience I have with Cirrus is a 2005 SR22 GTS, non turbo. I will definitely check out the later models for Cirrus for the additional payload capability. I definitely agree that Cirrus has an amazing service and network coverage for the operators.

It's a bummer to hear about the WAAS issues. I take it that has been with earlier models that had the original G1000 avionics packages?

[Jroseund]

If you haven't done so already, I would be sure and fly in all your options (including taking your spouse along) to be sure that the family flight experience will be what you guys are looking for...a 700-mile trip in any of these planes is a 4-5 hour experience.

Thank you Joel.

That is definitely a must do for us no matter which aircraft we ultimately choose. As most of our mission profiles will be longer duration (+3 hrs) comfort is definitely up there on the list.

[TimS]

It's a bummer to hear about the WAAS issues. I take it that has been with earlier models that had the original G1000 avionics packages?

Yes, search on here for G1000 and you will find multiple threads on it.
Short version. In general Diamond G1000 software is rather out of date and has not kept up. Diamond/Garmin are now working out the kinks to upgrade non-WAAS to WAAS and the older G1000 planes, but it requires a rather large avionics upgrade which makes it expensive. The first couple planes are now going through the process, which seems bumpy, but at least is moving forward.

Tim

[TimS]

That is definitely a must do for us no matter which aircraft we ultimately choose. As most of our mission profiles will be longer duration (+3 hrs) comfort is definitely up there on the list.

Cirrus is more roomy I think, but when flying the DA-42 is so much quieter and less vibration that it is light years ahead of the Cirrus in terms of comfort for me. The rest of the fit/finish discussion is "noise" to me

Tim