What's the catch?

Any DA42 related topics.

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danno2000
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What's the catch?

Post by danno2000 »

Three DA-42s listed at $225K in Mesa, Arizona. Here's a sample.

https://www.trade-a-plane.com/search?ca ... e=aircraft

Sure, flight school, as is, plenty of wear I'm sure. Even so, the prices are ridiculously low compared to everything else I've seen in years of casual browsing. Is there any obvious reason for the pricing? Or am I just out of touch with the market and this isn't such a big deal?

best,
dan
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Rich
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Re: What's the catch?

Post by Rich »

Twins often have depressed prices due to higher maintenance costs. (Overhaul time means 2 engines. Same with props, etc.) Note these 3 are all IO-360 powered, which means higher fuel costs compared to the diesel version.
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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blsewardjr
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Re: What's the catch?

Post by blsewardjr »

Also no FIKI, which is usually desired for private owners.
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CFIDave
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Re: What's the catch?

Post by CFIDave »

There's very little demand for DA42-L360 models with the Lycoming IO-360 engines, except for possibly a few flight schools. They burn 20 gph avgas, and have 6 levers in the center console like most avgas piston twins instead of the much easier-to-learn DA42 diesel models with only 2 FADEC power levers. The L360 model is also not particularly fast.

Some were built back around 2009 as a "stop-gap" measure after Thielert went bankrupt and stopped making diesels, but before Austro DA42NGs had been certified. IIRC, Embry-Riddle converted multiple of their Thielert DA42 TDI planes to DA42-L360s before getting rid of them. (ERU has a nice fleet of DA42NG/-VI aircraft now.)
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ememic99
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Re: What's the catch?

Post by ememic99 »

danno2000 wrote: Fri Feb 12, 2021 8:59 pm Three DA-42s listed at $225K in Mesa, Arizona. Here's a sample.

https://www.trade-a-plane.com/search?ca ... e=aircraft

Sure, flight school, as is, plenty of wear I'm sure. Even so, the prices are ridiculously low compared to everything else I've seen in years of casual browsing. Is there any obvious reason for the pricing? Or am I just out of touch with the market and this isn't such a big deal?

best,
dan
It's practically totally abandoned product even worse that DA42 TDI :D. Diamond will not provide any software or hardware upgrade in future and it's questionable how much (if possible at all) would cost to convert it to AE300 engines. So if you buy it, you're on your own and you'll have very hard task in future if you decide to resell it.

As I can see they sell 3 of them in similar condition for the same amount but I don't think it will be easy for them to sell any.

Usual asking price of used DA42 with AE300 (e.g. with 1000 hours on engines) at this moment is around 500k USD according to Controller.com although there's one TDI with new CD-135 engines and KAP140 with same asking price.
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diamond_flyer
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Re: What's the catch?

Post by diamond_flyer »

After owning a DA40 with the Lycoming IO-360, I really like that engine. It seems to me the maintenance cost of a DA42 with Lycoming engines would be less than the diesels. I was thinking I might even prefer the Lycoming engines. But I guess if flight schools are dumping them, it makes you wonder.

It seems like a cool plane to build some twin time, and it might be the cheapest twin with a G1000.

Would the cruise speed be 150-155 knots?

What would be the concern about the hardware/software for this model DA42? Is the G1000 specific for these engines? What would be the risk to not updating software?
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Re: What's the catch?

Post by CFIDave »

You can download the AFM for the DA42-L360 to determine performance: http://support.diamond-air.at/da42_l360 ... 73ab0.html

There are so few of these that there will never be G1000 software upgrades, such as to GDU Version 15 for other Legacy G1000 aircraft.

Also, you may have noticed from the listing link above that aircraft has almost 10,000 hours on it, so I'd budget a lot for maintenance.
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Rich
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Re: What's the catch?

Post by Rich »

Endurance and range is kind of limited on these planes. Endurance would be slightly less than my 40 gal. DA40, given equal power settings.
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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