DiamondStar DA40XL Demo!

When at Oshkosh, Beth & I got a demostration flight in a brand-new Diamond Star DA40XL. It's quite a change from the Cessna 172 that I normally climb into. I was cruising by the Diamond booth at Oshkosh, and expressed some interest in the DA40, because I've heard some much about it, and I was just interested to see it, climb in the cockpit, make some airplane noises (I did that a lot at Oshkosh). So, there I am going "Brrrrrr......wrrooowwwwwwwwvrrrrrmmmmm...." and asking the Diamond salesman what it's like the fly the DA40, when he says "Why don't you take it for a ride? We've got demonstration flights set up all day at Appleton. We'll run you up in a shuttle and you can see how you like it." I started to mumble that I didn't really have to fly it, he could just tell me how it flew, and before I knew it, we were signing up for a demo flight. That afternoon, we arrived at the Appleton airport, courtesy of a college student named Seth, who had driven over 2300miles shuttling people back and forth between Oshkosh and Appleton. Anyhoo...we met the instructor and climbed into the "new plane" smell of a DA40XL. It's really different to be sitting in a GA aircraft with the interior of a BMW instead of a VW campervan. What? No hydraulic fluid, musty carpet, zinc chromate primer smell? This can't really be an airplane.

After a brief preflight (not really too much to inspect prior to takeoff), we started the engine up and WOW. The IO-360 was S-M-O-O-T-H! Between the 3-blade constant speed prop and the new engine mounts on the Lycoming, it was effortless power! Just a slight bump of the throttle was all it took to taxi around the airport. It was just so smooth and powerful.

The cockpit had a really neat layout, with steam gages up at the top, and the main throttle, fuel, mixture, and cabin air controls right in the center console - all within easy reach. The main centerpiece of the dash was the two displays for the G1000, which was really an awesome flying tool. The amount of information that was available on the G1000, from key airspeeds for the aircraft (Vx, Vy, Vst) to accurate fuel levels, and a complete engine management package (cylinder temps, manifold pressure, exhaust temps). Add to that the real-time weather downlink, terrain avoidance, and charting capabilities, and you wondered why you'd ever need a paper chart again! The seats (did I mention they were comfortable?), reclined slightly and were extremely comfortable to sit in. They were fixed with the frame of the aircraft and certified to 26g's in accordance with european crash standards. Well, I guess you'd want to walk away from a crash in the DA40, but one nice feature was that they were fixed! That's right - no unsettling shift backwards during climbout when the seat pegs come loose from their track. In the DA40, the rudder pedals adjust, so you don't have to worry about seat adjustments. Did I mention they were comfortable?

Flying the DA40XL was also effortless. With a half-tank of gas and 3 people on board, the aircraft came off the ground quickly and climbed at over 1000ft/min on a 95°F day with high humidity. It was like a rocket ship compared to the C172 under similar conditions - I'd be surprised if we cleared 500ft/min in the Cessna. All that power translates to clearing the 50ft obstacle that much sooner! Visibility from the cockpit was awesome, like sitting on a park bench 5000ft in the air. We flew around Appleton and tested the autopilot, and some steep turns, and the slow flight characteristics, including a power-off stall. Even at 50kts indicated with the stall horn wailing away, it was rock solid and you could turn the aircraft back and forth without any adverse flight characteristics. The power-off stall was benign and recovery was quick. I would've liked to play around some more, but after about 30 minutes, we had to head back. It was harder than I thought to bring that airplane down. Flaps, and feathering the prop for deceleration were necessary as this bird really wanted to fly! I brought it down, but needed to keep the nose rather low, more low than a Cessna to maintain the airspeed and proper descent rate. My flare was pretty rough and we just kind of hit the runway, but I would've liked to try that again. Unfortunately, I'll have to find a rental or save my own pennies for the $290K price tag. Somehow, I think that I would prefer the DA40XL to a $290K house, boat, car, you name it. You could really fly all over the country in this airplane with only 8-9gph fuel consumption. As they say, you can sleep in your plane, but you can't fly your house. I liked it, and more importantly, Beth liked it!