"GolfR Guy" (golfrguy)
08/02/2019 at 10:00 • Filed to: Airplanes, Review, socal
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"GolfR Guy" (golfrguy)
08/02/2019 at 10:00 • Filed to: Airplanes, Review, socal | 9
| 8 |
Now, I may not be....
an auto-journalist, or an airplane-journalist, or even a regular journalist for that matter; but I’ll try to review something I got to ride in yesterday.
I’m not a pilot either, I don’t have a PPL, but I have flown some airplanes before (Cessna 152 and 182T Skylane) due to taking some discovery flights and selling my old BMW to a pilot in Camarillo. So I figured that when I got the chance to tag along with a friend who’s going for his instrument rating, that I’d take some pictures and see what this DA40 is all about.
Looks
It’s long, barely swept wings and the fighter-jet style cockpit canopy give this a more interesting look than your standard Cessna fare. Plus it has a pop-up cockpit canopy (like a Sterling Nova) and gull wing rear passenger door (only one in the rear kinda like a Hyundai Veloster!).
Is this an aeroplane?
See the similarities!
POWAH
Powered by a fuel injected Textron Lycoming IO-360 M1A engine kicking out a whopping 180hp, 0-60 (Indicated Air Speed) !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and it has a maximum cruise speed of 147 knots, burning 9.2 gallons of slightly leaded Avgas per hour. Its maximum takeoff weight is 2,535 lbs. Fun fact, they sold a diesel version of this engine in Europe; and yes, it was not available here in the USA.
Turning liters into money
That tube is used to see if there’s water in the gas tanks.
INTERIOR
I’m sure the front seats are pretty nice considering the pilot and instructor didn’t complain about their comfort. The back seats are a bit hard. Even though they are adorned in leather, the seat padding on the bottom is pretty thin, worse than a commercial airliner. Foot room was less than desired and there wasn’t much reading material. I did have a very nice air vent however.
Ziplock brand barf bags!
The back seats might not have it all, but the front seats do! Equipped with center sticks and Garmin G1000 avionics, this plane is one of the best to do IFR training in. Plus with it’s incredibly large field of view, seeing traffic in the sky is quite easy.
HANDLING... or flying...
So, I won’t really know how it handles since I didn’t get to take control, but from what my friend told me it’s very forgiving. It’s longer than normal wingspan turns this thing into a glider almost. The wrap-around canopy and low panel help the pilot’s vision, plus the wings are just behind the pilot and therefore you can see up, left, right, and down and sideways. The one blind spot is down and straight ahead, where your view is blocked by the panel and cowling.
Also, since the DA40 we were in had a G1000 cockpit, with an optional GFC700 autopilot, navigation was easy and there the info you wanted was right where you needed it.
As of January 2005, with hundreds of airplanes in the fleet, there has been only one fatal DA40 crash. Great safety record in my book!
We didn’t get lost.
OVERALL
This is was a really fun Wednesday for me. While it was really just me hanging in the back and our route from KEMT to KSBA was just that and back with no time to get out and stretch our legs, I had a good time just watching him fly “under the hood”* see below. Plus listening to ATC and SoCal approach gave me a bit of an itch to go for my PPL, but we’ll see as I have bad red-green color deficiency.
Under the hood glasses
So under the hood basically means you can’t see above the cockpit panel. So no looking out the window except for traffic spotting. You basically focus all your attention on the instruments. Probably feels strange the first time you do it.
Ash78, voting early and often
> GolfR Guy
08/02/2019 at 10:27 |
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Very cool! I’ve been in small planes for many hundreds of hours as a passenger, but I’ve never been in a composite plane of any kind. That wraparound glass looks amazing. And I like that they went with a centerstick instead of a sidestick. That always just seemed much more natural, especially since it works equally well for lefties/righties.
Another thing I’ve never done is to go into/out of an airport with a lot of commercial traffic. That looks eerie to see the airliners on the same tarmac.
Thomas Donohue
> GolfR Guy
08/02/2019 at 10:27 |
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Very cool. I believe the DA40 is what the US Air Force uses for training.
ttyymmnn
> GolfR Guy
08/02/2019 at 10:28 |
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Great write up! I enjoyed that. Now, waiting for Oppo pilots to chime in.
Snuze: Needs another Swede
> GolfR Guy
08/02/2019 at 10:49 |
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Great write up, and very cool experience. Ive flown some Cessnas and T ampicos, which were fun, but this looks way cooler.
Also love the pictures, you got some great shots. In the one of the coast, what are all those white rectangular things on the ground? My first guess was solar farms, but solar cells are usually blue. Also, there's an island in the background, is that Santa Cruz, or maybe Santa Catalina?
TheRealBicycleBuck
> GolfR Guy
08/02/2019 at 11:17 |
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Nice writeup! The flight school I attended has a couple of Diamonds for training. One used to be an Air Force trainer. I’ve never flown in either of them. It’s more likely that I will get a plane with steam gauges, so I was advised to train with the old equipment since transitioning from the old gauges to a glass cockpit is easier than the other way around.
Fun fact: the rear seats fold down to make for a very spacious cargo area. It’s almost the sports wagon of the aviation world.
CaptDale - is secretly British
> GolfR Guy
08/02/2019 at 12:27 |
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What airport were you flying out of? I know Long BEach flight schools have Diamonds, but that doesn’t look much like LB.
Also very nice write up! I love the DA planes.
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GolfR Guy
> CaptDale - is secretly British
08/02/2019 at 14:52 |
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Thanks man! We flew out of El Monte. Socal flying club
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CaptDale - is secretly British
> GolfR Guy
08/02/2019 at 14:54 |
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Ah ok very cool. Makes sense why you were on the LA coast.