I have to say I was a little disappointed that Diamond didn’t develop a pressurized version of the DA-62. There is a market for a smaller, diesel-powered long range all weather tourer, I think. It used to be a common category, but they’re all getting very long in the tooth by now.
I had high hopes for the EPS Diesel engine getting certified and retrofitted to the Aerostar (that would be a perfect travel machine), but alas, that’s now gone. Maybe someone picks up the mantle and certifies that engine.
172driver wrote:
The thing with twins is – once you’ve flown them, you don’t really want to go back to SEP!
Absolutely true. The twin thing is very much a desire in itself – the stable feeling of heavy engines on the wings, the systems redundancy, the multi training discipline etc. And I even started on a ’78 Seminole (which weaned me off Piper forever, sorry Adam) – still I got completely sold on twins.
It’s a very subjective & irrational preference. I don’t even care much for the PC-12, TBM, SF50 or any other SETP/SEJ for the same reason.
AdamFrisch wrote:
I have to say I was a little disappointed that Diamond didn’t develop a pressurized version of the DA-62.
I seem to recall Christian Dries mentioning, that current certification standards make pressurised pistons absolutely cost prohibitive & you might as well buy a turbine instead. (disappointing nonetheless)
When was the last pressurised certified piston – Piper Malibu 1979?
sedatedokc wrote:
I am an American with a PPL with only 200 hours now in Norway. I dont have any experience with Diamonds or Cirrus or flying around Europe, and any advice would be appreciated!
Hey, where in Norway are you based? I have assisted many new pilot-owners in choosing, learning and operating their planes, latest a guy purchasing a new C206 amphib after his trial lesson, he is currently pre-solo and learning in his own plane. You are welcome to PM/call me if I can do any thing to assist.
As for the selection, I have flown both the SR22 and DA40/42 quite a bit. The Diamonds are (or at least were) a nightmare maintenance wise (gearboxes, injection system/fuel rails, time limited hoses, ECU issues etc etc). With your budget (considering we are talking about USD), personally I’d be looking at a TP. Avgas avail. especially north of Trondheim is scarce. As mentioned earlier, insurance is going to be difficult and costly whatever route you go for a high value hull.
Another thing regardless of type; be very aware what maintenance is going to cost you. Build a good relationship with your shop. CAMO and maintenance is a bit of a mine field unfortunately.
172driver wrote:
The thing with twins is – once you’ve flown them, you don’t really want to go back to SEP!
Nor SET for that matter. Single engine is a risk, no question about it and in areas with lots of water to cross in freezing temperatures and with that budget in hand, spending it on a single would be throwing away safety for what exactly I don’t know.
Most who fly SEP’s do so out of economic necessity, because they can not afford a twin. I certainly am in that category, my taste in GA goes rather in the direction of Adam’s or Jason’s. Twin, if possible turboprop or even jet. But alas, that is for other budgets and therefore I will always fly and enjoy my SEP while being very aware of it’s limitations, knowing that overwater, night, low IMC is a massive hazard and actually should be avoided, certainly with passengers.
With a budget of 1 mio € (or even $) I would definitly go by my old moniker to spend maximum half of that for the best airplane I can find and use the rest to upgrade and fly. And with 500k you can easily find very nice and even quite well equipped twins, starting from Seneca’s (if you must even with G1000) , lovely Cessna twins with or without pressurization up to Cheyenne’s. Quite a few of them these days have upgraded avionics with G500’s and the latest GTN’s, many have been upgraded interiors and are spacy and comfortable, way beyond the usual SEP and many beyond SET’s as well.
The DA42’s are lovely trainers and travellers the way that @Emir and @Aart use or have used them. Definitly a huge advantage of those is that they can be run on Jetfuel, something they only share with turbines. For someone with 200 hours, it may well be a stepping stone in the right direction, also because most of them have very low depreciation and can be resold quite easily once the pilot outgrows them and wants something faster or larger.
Looking at the current market however, most of the DA42’s for sale have massive drawbacks. Practically all of them are former trainers, some have long range tanks (a must imho), most of them are non WAAS which is a total no go and most have the 135 hp engines. Currently there is one DA42-VI which would be a nice plane with WAAS, LR, FIKI and Austroengines, but that one is very pricy with over 700k including VAT.
FIKI SR22’s can be had from about 300k up, again mind that they are WAAS, particularly if they have G1000. Nicer exemplars go very quickly in the same price range than the DA42’s.
Seeing that one can get even a Piper Jet Prop SET for about those prices and seeing a huge offering of really nice piston twins which allow lots of travelling in pressurized cabin comfort for comparatively very few money, I’d be very tempted to go in that direction rather than shelling out this kind of money for what is basically a trainer.
A lot of this is psychological, however. A DA42 will get a double engine failure – as one former owner on EuroGA knows, but he never wrote about it – if you fly at -15C OAT without alternate air. True; you should not be doing that, but it is a human error like so many… Two piston engines protect you from a catastrophic failure of one, but you still have the whole fuel system. And on the DAs you have two engines which need an electrical supply – just like a car actually 
A lot of twins have gone down over the years due to these “other” reasons.
Most of these threads where a potential buyer expresses a decent purchase budget will go down this way. People (who mostly have never had the money to be in that position) suggesting 40 year old complex heaps of piston twins, turboprops or even jets.
Thing is, „rich“ people (not meant in a derogative way, plus the OP seems to have disappeared anyway) have different minds. They usually want and almost always buy new stuff. New electronics, new paint, new interior, new everything. And support. And reliability. And no, they don‘t want „projects“ either. Life is short.
The sad thing really is that there is nothing out there in terms of modern aircraft except the Cirrus and the Diamond. A small choice.
As a buyer of a new TB20, I agree
Mooney_Driver wrote:
Looking at the current market however, most of the DA42’s for sale have massive drawbacks. Practically all of them are former trainers, some have long range tanks (a must imho), most of them are non WAAS which is a total no go and most have the 135 hp engines. Currently there is one DA42-VI which would be a nice plane with WAAS, LR, FIKI and Austroengines, but that one is very pricy with over 700k including VAT.
You’re pretty much right here – buying DA42 at the moment is not an easy task, especially if you’re interested to keep its resale value and have all recent avionics. If it’s not equipped with GFC700 (and WAAS) and AE300 and G1000 NXi, it can easily loose its value pretty fast in the years to follow or leave you without possibility to upgrade avionics. If somehow Garmin/Diamond become more supportive in opening the ability of upgrading older airframes (NXi for DA42 TDI fleet and NXi for older DA42 NG), then the situation will be a bit brighter. However, with budget of 1 million the OP doesn’t have to be considered about these issues and can get very low time (if not new) DA42. OTOH the lack of offer (and some 900 DA42s are in operation) shows that people find this aircraft attractive.
Mooney_Driver wrote:
Seeing that one can get even a Piper Jet Prop SET for about those prices and seeing a huge offering of really nice piston twins which allow lots of travelling in pressurized cabin comfort for comparatively very few money, I’d be very tempted to go in that direction rather than shelling out this kind of money for what is basically a trainer.
Going towards old pressurized twin piston is something that I would never do at OS’s place: new to ownership and relatively new to flying combined with old and complex airframe with 100 LL super-hungry engines and pretty much hard-to-upgrade avionics (especially autopilot) can easily turn purchase to a total disaster.
Going towards turbine is definitely better but it’s questionable whether one can have all modern stuff within 1 million budget – M500 is probably twice of that, M600 even more, older Meridian that fits the budget will have Avidyne avionics (or even older Meggit) and JetProp that fits the budget will have even older and less desirable avionics. Out of all currently offered versions turbine PA46 at controller.com, I would be able to choose 3 or 4 and with some avionics upgrade get desirable result within this budget. However, I’m not sure if this is something for somebody new to ownership and new to turbines.
Peter wrote:
A DA42 will get a double engine failure – as one former owner on EuroGA knows, but he never wrote about it – if you fly at -15C OAT without alternate air.
This can happen in icing conditions, not in the clean air. There’s big difference between “will get” and “can happen”. But alternate air is mandatory in icing conditions and any engine will stop due to blocked air intake.
