I first got a chance to fly the Diamond DA40 Star in December at a "new plane shoot-out" where several manufacturers came together for a debate and to offer demo rides in their planes. That day, I flew the DA40 after just stepping out of a Cirrus SR22.
Today, I had the opportunity to give the DA40 a chance to stand on its own - Comparing it to an airplane with nearly twice the engine power and a much higher price tag just isn't fair! I also did not notice any "stick parallax" today like I did after just having flown the Cirrus with its side-mounted stick.
I had been hoping they'd have a G1000-equipped DA40 by now. No such luck - I was stuck with steam gauges this time. This plane was equipped with Garmin 530/430 GPS/NAV/COMs, 340 audio panel, and 327 transponder. There is a King KAP 140 two-axis autopilot with altitude preselect. Engine instrumentation, as with all DA40's, is provided by a Vision Microsystems VM1000 display, which includes all the regular instruments (MP, tach, fuel pressure/flow, oil temp/pressure, etc) as well as CHT and EGT for all cylinders and a fuel computer.
Diamond is certainly king when it comes to options: You can get your plane with Bendix-King avionics, Garmin avionics, or glass cockpits from Avidyne or Garmin. It's quite refreshing to have such a wide range of choices.
Getting into the Diamond Star is much easier than a lot of GA planes, especially for the back-seaters: There is a back door on the left side, a luxury that no other four-place single has that I'm aware of. Front-seat passengers can each get in on their own side of the plane thanks to the large canopy which tilts up and forward. To get into the front seat, you just grab a hold of one of the canopy supports, step on the step, step on the wing, step into the plane, and sit down. No stepping on seats, no scooting over, no ducking, and no slithering around to get in back.
Getting situated in the plane was simple as well - First, lower and lock the canopy. All four headsets plug in to the same panel, which is located between the pilot seats and easily accessible to all. The restraint system consists of an integrated lap belt and single shoulder harness similar to what you'd find in your car. The one unusual thing is that the seats are not adjustable due to the control stick being integrated into the seat. Instead, the rudder pedals are adjustable. At 6'4" and 250 lbs, I am not a small guy, but I do fit into the DA40 without bumping my knees or my head on anything. The 2004 models have even improved a little more on the knee room for those of you unlucky enough to be bigger than me.
All of the controls are easily accessible. The center console is home to (back to front) the trim, fuel selector, engine controls, cabin heat controls, and parking brake. The control stick has a trigger-style PTT, a control wheel steering button (momentarily disengages autopilot), an autopilot disconnect, and electric trim switch. The panel is laid out so that the only controls to the right of the radio stack are the buttons on the VM1000. The electrical switches are conveniently arranged in a neat little row at the bottom of the panel.
Speaking of electrical, everything on this plane is. In the event of an alternator failure, it is easy to conserve energy as the DA40 has an "Essential Bus" which powers only the necessary equipment to safely get on the ground (Nav/Com 1, transponder, flight instruments, etc.). To conserve power via this method, switch the Master off (both sides) and the Essential Bus switch on. Once the main battery is depleted, the AI (backup "steam gauge" AI on the glass cockpit models) and the panel floodlight can be powered by a second backup system (separate batteries) which is activated by tripping the Emergency switch (located under a red cover to avoid accidental activation).
Power is provided by the familiar IO-360, mated to an attractive 3-blade wood-composite prop by MT Propeller (a standard 2-blade metal Hartzell prop is also available). There is also a "SlickStart" ignition system, with Unison's LASAR ignition available as an optional replacement. Our hot-start took only a couple of blades of the 3-blade prop.
On a day like today, normally GA aircraft would be departing runway 21, but 3-21 was closed for some sort of work, so we had to taxi to 14, plenty of distance to test the castering nosewheel system. The rudder actually does have a little authority at taxi speeds and can be used for long, slow corrections. Otherwise, turns are made with the brakes. It's a different feel than a steerable nosewheel, but I'm sure I could get used to it. While it's more difficult to make the wider-radius turns, you can literally turn on a dime with the castering nosewheel system.
After a brief runup just like you'd do in any other piston-powered plane, we took the runway for takeoff, with a welcome relief: You don't have to switch the Garmin transponder on manually. As soon as you're moving at 40 knots during the takeoff roll, it will switch itself from Standby to Mode C automatically. I'm sure I'm not the only one to forget the transponder from time to time. I hear Madison Departure telling somebody to check their transponder almost every time I fly - And no, it's not always me!
Let me pause here to talk about the DA40's visibility. I can't imagine a single-engine airplane getting much better than the DA40 in this regard! The wing is long and narrow, with the leading edge located just about adjacent to the pilot's seat back, so you can still get a great downward view despite the low wing. However, the forward visibility is really spectacular. With the single-piece canopy, low panel, and sloping cowl, you can see vertically from about 30 degrees down to straight up, and horizontally for about 210 degrees from the pilot seats, with not a single support bar to block the view! This is truly a "panoramic" view and is one of the best features of the DA40.
Finally, the takeoff roll: Once aligned with the centerline, add power and the rudder has enough authority to maintain directional control almost right away. The low-drag airframe seems to accelerate to rotation speed (59 KIAS) faster than comparable metal singles. Just a tiny hint of back pressure on the stick, and the Star lifts smoothly into the sky.
Due to the aforementioned visibility features, you can actually watch the runway drop away from you out the front of the plane, rather than seeing only sky and cowling. This made for a bit of trouble selecting the proper climb attitude at first, but I managed to settle into an 80-knot climb after several seconds, which resulted in a brisk 1,000 fpm climb rate.
The aileron and elevator controls in the DA40 operate pushrods to the control surfaces rather than cables, which gives the controls a positive, solid yet sensitive feel. In fact, the plane felt very stable and responsive in the roll axis for the entire flight.
The pitch control took a bit more getting used to, simply because I'm used to flying beat-up 30-year-old planes. The Star's responsiveness led to a bit of difficulty in holding the correct pitch and even setting the correct trim at first. By the end of the flight, I found that its stability was superb and that the best way to control the airplane was to not even hold the stick at all, but to widen my hand into a circle around the stick, so that I was no longer even touching the stick. When a control input is needed, I just had to move my hand in the correct direction and put a bit of pressure on the stick, then go back to letting the plane fly where I pointed it, again without my hand touching the stick. This plane is so stable that it could put an autopilot to sleep on a long cross country! However, it is also responsive enough to be delightful to fly, and us flesh-and-blood pilots can relax a bit and enjoy the spectacular outside view.
Stalling the DA40 is almost a non-event. Power off, flaps down, pull, pull, pull, and while the stall horn was blaring away, all the plane really did was settle gently, buffeting a bit, then buffeting a little more sharply as the airspeed dropped even further. It never dropped a wing and behaved very well throughout.
Performance was impressive when compared to other fixed-gear, 180hp singles such as the Archer. As I mentioned before, climb rates around 1000fpm are normal. At roughly 23" MP and 2400 RPM, we were seeing around 145 KTAS.
Finally it was time to land. Pattern speeds for the DA40 are 90, 80, 70. However, since we landed on a long straight-in final, I kept the speed up until about 3 miles out. While the DA40's low-drag airframe makes slowing down a bit more difficult than other planes in its class, it did not take much effort to get down below 108 KIAS and add approach flaps, then down to 91 KIAS for landing flaps. Since it was a windy day, we kept to 70 over the fence and I managed to get down with only a single, gentle bounce.
The DA40 is, in some areas, better than any plane in its class. The panoramic view is certainly one of those areas. The speed is another, besting the Tiger by about 10 knots, and most of the other 180hp fixed-gear singles by 30 knots thanks to the low-drag composite design. You have more choices for avionics than other manufacturers offer: Two traditional "steam-gauge" packages, and two glass cockpits.
The safety record of the DA40 so far is excellent. No fatal crashes, no post-crash fires. The fleet size is still relatively small, but I expect that the safety record will continue to be fairly good - This plane is easy to handle and doesn't attract the "more-money-than-brains" type of pilots that often do stupid things and wreck planes.
The Diamond Star with the King avionics goes for $188,900 and with the G1000 for $224,900. They now have a version with an O-360 and fixed-pitch prop as well that goes for something like $176,000 which should appeal to flight schools. The normal injected, CS prop version really should make a good fun cross-country bird.
Here are some Pictures of the plane (and me) just after the flight.
For more info:
Diamond DA40 Star:
http://www.diamondair.com/contentc/da40frame.htm
VM1000 Engine Management System:
http://www.visionmicrosystems.com/product/vm1000.html
Garmin G1000 glass cockpit:
http://www.garmin.com/products/g1000/
SlickStart and LASAR ignition systems:
http://www.unisonindustries.com/