Went flying with Dad in the DA40 today, fresh out of the manufacturer's complimentary 25-hour oil change and general all-around checkup. It's really kind of odd, but Diamond will cover pretty much everything that is needed for an annual on a 25-hour check, except for the following:
1.) Weigh & check charge in Fire Extinguisher
2.) Test & Check magnetic compass
3.) Something else rather mundane.....(I'll update later)
Odd....I wonder why they don't just pick up the tab and give you a fresh annual when you buy the airplane and take it in for the 25-hour service. Anyhoo....We went flying this evening, and it was w-i-n-d-y! Winds at 2500ft were about 35kts, and winds at 4500ft were 50kts out of the southwest. If I was flying to Buffalo, I could've been there in 1 hr 30 min. But, I wasn't. Just getting a little more familiar with the aircraft. It's a lot different than a cessna, especially when you want to fly traffic patterns, in this regard - you really need to start pulling the throttle back once you climb off the end of the runway. I was not really looking at my altitude for the first takeoff, and I went to take my cross-wind leg in the traffic pattern and had completely blowm my altitude. I was at 2100ft, and still climbing at 1300FPM! It just all happened so fast....usually at this point in the C172, I'm about 200 ft short of pattern altitude and not even thinking about reducing power yet. Something to really keep in mind when I fly this newer aircraft in the future.
Well, we went around a couple of times and had fun playing in the crosswinds and the gusty conditions, and managed to get four landings in. On rollout of the fourth landing, I was sitting in the left seat completly oblivious, when Dad started to turn the aircraft towards the right side of the runway, and then brought the aircraft to a stop. It was then that I noticed the intense Whump-Whump-Whump, and Dad looked over at me and said "We have a flat tire. Shoot." We were stopped about 1500ft short of the turnoff at the end, and crept slowly along to clear the active runway before we got out and inspected the aircraft. Mains were okay....the NOSE was flat. Fortunately, only one of the wheel pants sustained minor damage, but how
were we going to get the aircraft back up the hill to the hangar? Hmmmmm.......
The DA40 is fairly well balanced, like most aircraft usually are required by the FAA to be, so we started by pushing down on the tail, just in front of the vertical stabilizer and pushing on the trailing edge of the wing, just at the root of the wing. After pushing the DA40 about 300 ft up the 1% grade of the taxiway off the end of Runway 4, we could see a very long and frustrating evening getting this aircraft back to the hangar. Well, at that point, we decided to perform the Slim Pickens 2-Man Taxi maneuver, much in the same fashion as Slim Pickens rode that H-bomb down to earth in
Dr. Strangelove.
I hung my 200lbs over the rear fuselage to keep the nose wheel off the ground and Dad started the engine up and taxied slowly back to the hangar. It's rather windy back there.....I can't imagine what it would be like at 2700RPM! Shoot! You fellers shoulda been there! A feller could have a pretty good time in Vegas with all that!
Here they are, in all their puny glory. The ultra-dim taxi and landing lights, courtesy of the engineers at Diamond Aircraft. Seriously, guys...I know that the leading edge is rather skinny....but couldn't you mount something more powerful on the nose cowling? Apparently, the DA40 was only meant to be landed on brilliantly lit runways at night. I don't think that I would ever be tempted to land on a grass strip with these wal-mart flashlight excuses for lights. Okay. I'm off my soapbox now. The DA40 is a great plane, great avionics, handling, performance, etc.....just needs better lights.
