Avweb's Diamond DA40 NG Flight Trial 

A great summary on the Diamond DA 40 NG. I flew from Frankfurt-Egelsbach to Wroclaw in Poland and consumed just 14.5 USG. This aircraft's consumption is so low that it almost runs on fresh air!!! Above all it is a VERY SAFE aircraft.

"we are about to commit aviation" I love it!

Intro was perfect, thanks Paul.

Every single one of these videos have been great. They go into just the right amount of depth.

Coming to you from Letourneau University, all our flight ops have been closed April something. Crazy!

Greetings from Argentina, Paul. A real pleasure watching your videos, as always ... ! Please take care of yourself; and all the guys over there.

Great video and given the current situation, a bit of levity is more than welcome so thanks for the T-shirt in the beginning!

Fantastic very informative with every point made explained in detail ! I always feel like I am in the classroom with the professor that knows what he is teaching and makes it easy to learn. Thanks again. Paul you make the university of RU-vid worth sitting in and taking notes every time.....

You always do such a great job Paul. I always learn something interesting from your reporting thanks, keep up the great work.

Im doing my ATPL in those at the airfield Austroengine and Diamond are based (LOAN) and the Diamonds are an absolute blast to fly. Loved the video!

Thank you. I learned to fly in Diamond aircraft in the late 90s. I got my PPL in the DV20 and DA20 Rotax powered aircraft. They were fun to fly, did spins real well, and were slippery little things on landing. If high and fast you could kick in a full deflection slip and come down in a hurry or hold altitude and slow down. I discovered that you become accustomed to this and don't carry any excess speed in the flare as they would float way down the runway. Then right after i took my check ride i got checked out in a 172XP. That caught me off guard as it slowed immediately when power is pulled. I was accustomed to the slippery little plane and not the Cessna and its aerodynamics and had to go around the first approach as it threw me off. Adjustments made and landings were fine but it did demonstrate the difference in a sleek composite airframe vs old school aluminum and rivets. Both perfectly acceptable but different requiring different techniques. I also have maybe 10 hours dual in the Super Dimona. What a blast to fly here in the Desert Southwest. Yes I do like the Diamond airplanes and would love the chance to fly the NG and a 62 and would love to own 1 of each. Thank you again. Be safe.

Thanks for this well presented and documented review.

I'm a student pilot and I'm flying the DA40 now, it's an amazing aircraft, one of the best in the world for training purposes. soon I'll be moving to the DA42. Great job on the video buddy, just great.

Best summary so far. Looking forward to gettin our DA40NGs over here at Yokota!

Thanks for a great video Paul! Greetings from the bunker in Finland :)

love that Diamond calendar

Stay safe and healthy Paul !

Like your t-shirt!

Excellent thorough report thank you.

good spec sheet and technical video love the technical stuff

Thanks! Great video and informative on this exciting plane.

The wise words from Paul at the beginning of this video aged very well. Thank-you for a great video on the DA40 NG

Thank you so much for your professional content, very helpful

It’s nice to finally see some car tech coming into aircraft. Compared to modern cars (or even cars 30 years ago) a lot of the lycomings and continentals we’ve been using forever on airplanes are downright primitive. Nice to see electronic fuel management, direct injection, and other car tech in a plane that will hopefully see wide use in GA.

Superb journalism!

Thanks Paul !!

Great report!

Amazing visibility out the plane

Very well said intro, and great video lots of good information 👍

Great video ! What kind of mounts did you use for the cameras ? I am talking specifically about the tail camera and about the one that's positioned under the wing. Thank you !

Wonderful! Share please how did you install and fix GoPro on DA-40NG. In particular under the wing for the mooring ring and aircraft keel. I have to fly it in the future, so I want to prepare the mounts. Thank you!

Every one is always so down on automotive engines, corvair, viking and such... but when Diamond does it, it's ALL GOOD!

Definitely a favorite

Take care Paul.

Great motor . I would really like to know what the motor package would cost in cdn dollars. Call it a sense of curiosity .

Thanks for the video! Each fuel tank is in a wing?

Excellent review, thank you. I’ve rented the Lycoming version quite a bit in CA, but I’m looking to get into an NG share scheme in the U.K., and you’re review was just what I was looking for. As a matter of interest Paul, did you borrow the sweater? It looks like a standard issue RAF one circa 1990, although I only ever wore mine when I was in trouble; otherwise a sweaty old flying suit. I totally agree with your comments about the handling. The DA40 is without doubt the nicest handling mass produced part 23 aeroplane I’ve flown. Thank you once again for such an objective review.

love the da40

What ever happened to the Gemini? It looked so amazingly promising. Easy to maintain, light, compact design, very low vibration, great power to weight, fuel efficient.

Best single engine 4 seater in its class.

Nicely presented as usual. Thank you

We all love YOU

2:00 nice RAF wool jumper

2:53 minor mistake when talking about the diesel Thielert DA42 but shows the Avgas Lycoming DA42-L360

BINGO To Nick Zidis,,,, BINGO,,, Great Intro,,,, Perfect Paul,,,

God I love the Diamond planes...

It's time for all of us to get going, sooner rather than later.

23,000 psi rail pressure is need to introduce fuel under compression stroke. Yes common rail WITH electric injector is more efficient than old diesel mechanical injectors which were like little high pressure pumps to get pressure. But fuel injection timing was fixed.

Great t-shirt, says a lot

Nice info about the DA 40 NG and the engine especially. Question I have is, would Austro ever build a 350 HP or higher engine that could be fitted to something the range of a PA-46? That economy would be amazing. Also wouldn’t it be great if Diamond Pressurized their twins. Living in the mountains of Utah pressurized would be awesome as opposed to just using O2. Thanks in advance for your answers

1:47 frozen arctic waste land lol.. london ontario is farther south than like 12 states lol

Thank you for that reminder the entire world has been through hell 3 times since the century turned.

How can a 4 cylinder diesel motor, adapted from automotive to aeronautical use, cost $28,000 to rebuild. The whole Mercedes A100 WITH the motor cost less than that. What am I missing here?

You don’t have to forward slip a DA40, but you do because it’s a blast 😄!

I love the plane but as a cross country travelling bird it's limited by the speed. Just can't ignore the 160-170 knot speed you can get with the Mooneys, Cirrus, RV10 along with a decent load in the last two. In those conditions you're looking more at 130 in the DA40. The 42 though, man what a plane that is. Wish I could afford to buy and maintain one!

Stay safe guys

28 000 for engine overhaul? What's the cost of a new engine?

I like to see modern engine design in GA! Unfortunately the costs are still the same as 1930's technology Lycoming 360 and the Continental equivalent engines. Something has to give in this equation. Experimental is going to dominate if all mainstream engines continue to cost over 20k. Great video.

Now that the floodgates have opened for EFIS and digital engine monitor STCs I predict that the next big thing will be STCs for automotive engine conversions, especially diesel. The automotive manufacturers can do things with economies of scale that Lycoming and Continental could never dream of.

It's time for our very good friends at Continental and Lycoming to produce much more advanced engines in the future.

VERY nice explanation of the advantage of the diesel version. Unfortunately there's a huge price premium over the Lycoming version that isn't offset by the fuel savings. Nevertheless, I hope aviation manufacturers continue to embrace this technology, since Jet-A should be available for a long time to come (100LL not so much) and the FADEC operation has clear advantages for pilot workload.

Cool plane .. but man does that cockpit look cramped! Anyone know how wide those seats actually are?

Why no opposed piston engine

Hi Paul, thank you so much for this report. I enjoy your work a lot. And I hope you stay safe in this troubled times. I fly a DA40 XLS (2009) with Lycoming IO-360M1A, Powerflow, And Hartzell 2 Blade Scimitar Prop on a regular basis. I think the DA40 XLT that is beeing sold at this time of writing, has almost the same specs in terms of Engine/Prop combo as mine. I noticed that the data you use for your comparison between the NG an the XLT is not reflecting the flight data in real life. I guess you took the performance data from the POH of the XLT, as any pilot would. Right? Unfortunatelly that data is not correct, it does not reflect the true capability of the XLS/XLT. Diamond never updated the POH and just added STCs at the end of the POH, If you read them carefully, you will notice that the STC for the Hartzell Prop gets rid of the RPM limitation! You can run the Prop at 2700rpm instead of reducing RPM after T/O to 2400... This increases the climb rate by at least 100fpm over POH numbers! Making the DA40XLS/XLT the best climber I know of in the segment! That coupled with the high aspect ratio gives you amazing climb and one of the reasons I prefer the DA40 over all other planes in the segment! Because if you only have one engine. I preffer getting off the ground as quick as possible!The comparison between the Speed/Performance of the DA40XLt and the NG is not correct! Due to the higher RPM the DA40XLS/XLT is capable of flying 140-150kt at 5000ft-6000ft! I regularly fly in the low 140kts @65%/9.7USG/best power mixture. Just have a look at the Performance Data in the DA42 IO-360 for the right MP/RPM settings. The DA40XLS/XLT is a hell of a bargain on the market, its a perfect cruiser and the safety record is only second to Cirrus, which invested lots of money to train their pilots. There has never been a fire on impact with a DA40 to my knowledge and the stall caracteristic of this plane is amazing.... You forget to mention that the Austroengine TransmissionGear needs to be refurbished every 600hrs. And the big issue with the engine is that your only partner for service will be Diamond! And that is a big problem as your bargaining power as a buyer is much lower, and the „new“ owner of diamond is jacking up prices since years. The DA40NG is a great plane don`t get me wrong, I would love to own one. The main buyer of this plane will be operators that get lots of hours/year than maybe the cost of the NG might be a little better but if you factor in the refurb cost of the transmissiongear. But the only real advantage of the NG is maybe a little more speed in the mid fl teens and the single throttle leaver and engine smoothness and cabin noise levels, but it will climb less, fly slower at normal altitudes (without o2 req) and it will cost you more than a XLT :-D Best Regards, Maximilian

Our partnership sold our DA40 several years back. Sad!

I'd like to see diesel fuel consumption comparisons in pounds per hour. Aircraft carry fuel by weight and Jet-A is about 10% heavier than 100LL.

How do they deal with cold temps and the diesel fuel? I would be concerned about gelling.

This video has some misinformation about the thielert/continental series engines. First the maintenance issues were mainly due to gearbox iand electrical issues. Second, the newest versions of the TAE engines have 2100 hr TBO/TBR. Overhaul is not prohibited.

One small. diesel is not available at airports. Can one substitute A1 being kerosene and much more expensive but available and what do manufacturer say. is good fuel and bio fuel??? Thanks.

23000 PSI Fuel System? Is that correct? (@4.30)

Can you put Jet fuel in the NG?

Newbie question: I know the engine is diesel but is that the actual fuel used in this engine and is it readily available at all airports?? Did not want this to be a "in what year was the war of 1812 fought? ' type question. :)

Seems Little Carmine was right... We are at the precipice of an enormous crossroad.

Happy COVID Guys. I am getting a DA 40NG full option to operate between Tunisia and Europe - as I think that the airline industry will be in a big mess for a long time. This operation was developped before the "Happy COVID hollydays" - but the situation today confirms, that a little single piston Jet fuel burning machine, is all what man needs.

just one thing. peak torque in an automotive diesel is at about 1700-2000RPM

Paul I hope one day you will have the time to open up the world of WIG ( wing in ground effect for all readers) crafts to educate on very low altitude travel. I have learned that there is 3 levels of registration for these crafts. This would make for good educating pass time during these covid days. Thanks again.

I picked one of these out of a field last summer crashed due to engine failure. only had 113 tt hours. Pilot walked away air frame beyond repair. Im personal not sold yet on the early adoption but i am excited to see this continue development

👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍

👍🏻

Paul

Diesel also doesn't burn when you crash.

What is the temperature operating window for the desiel with additives? Most people become nervous with automove diagnostics as it relies on multi point sensor technology where the sensors degrade over time?

[0:00] - [1:35] - реакция на трудности здорового человека.

What price? It engine is Certified ?since?

Done soon enough eh.... as December rolls around and more shutdowns....

Can you get Diesel easily at GA airports?

Is diesel fuel commonly found at GA airports?

So looking forward to seeing Covid-19 in our rear view mirror!

Paul, you have a great Aviation job and travel the world..........so what would it take to make you "crack a smile" ?

“We’ll be done with this soon enough” Yeah that’s what they all said

150kts at 7gph is really impressive, plus the diesel is much safer in the event of a crash. I wonder how much the diesel cost.? I'm guessing it's half the price of avgas

Actually there is tons of precedence for current situation.. spanish flu, Typhoid, small pox, T.B., black plague, and on and on... we were past due.

Being a diesel which doesn't have a distributor, spark plugs or magneto it's actually triple redundant with the two ECUs. With both ECUs out, it will still run, because diesels auto-ignite (compression ignition).

@2:26 for iPhone users

Hello, Now if they would fix the avionics panel. Get rid of all the circuit breakers, then make the displays bigger. Have a design team (BMW DesignWorks) look at the placement of all the other flippers, knobs and switches and get it cleaned up, that would be awesome, especially in the DA-62. To have such a beautiful plane with a avionics panel that looks like it was assembled by toddlers, is a shame. Joe

✌✌✌🇩🇿🇩🇿

Thanks for the deep dive on the engine. BTW - I've been unable to login on Avweb. I've followed all of the instructions for clearing cache and such. When I tried the "contact us" link, I get the 404 error (www.avweb.com/db/fdc.collector?client_id=avweb&form_id=maileditform&link_id=311)

40% more efficient justifies all that engineering work and weight. Unbelievable difference.

Turbo is the way but then pressurized cabin is also the way. Nice bird, nice seats. Would like to see retractable gear. Half the weight, half the price would be good too. Since it's a diesel mercedes engine with peak torque around 2k and peak power at 4200, surely direct drive must be workable and skip the tranny? Looking at the power graph, 92% power is all the way down around 2900rpm so why the gearbox.

Instead of having a complex diesel engine, why not combine an aviation electric motor as seen with some of the experimentals and a small turbine APU to generate the power from diesel? Wouldn't the part count be lower and lighter overall with this hybrid design and extend the TBO?