This past weekend I had the chance to use my shiny new VFR/IFR checkout in the new Diamond DA40XL on an overnight cross country flight to Iowa with my family (minus the dogs). Get the details of the flight including lessons learned after the jump.
Today I had my first flight and VFR portion of my checkout in N793US, a 2007 Diamond DA40 XL. I plan to post an in-depth review of the airplane after I complete my IFR checkout and do a XC flight back to Iowa next weekend. In advance of a more detailed write-up, I want to say that this was the most enjoyable flight in an airplane I have ever experienced!!! I’ve got time in various Cessna models, Piper models as well as a few others and this airplane was awesome to fly! It is a very light weight and fast airplane that would be a good transition to some of the faster, and more complex singles out there — however, you won’t find better fuel efficiency!
I hope KCAC has more of these planes on order because these composite airplane manufactures are on to something with their light weight, fuel efficient and technically advanced aircraft!
More to come…
Was so excited yesterday when I was looking around on the Diamond Aircraft site and discovered a local FBO (KCAC) had recently been selected as a Diamond distributor — Okay, so I was only moderately intrigued at this point; give me a second I’ll get to the good part…the rest of the story after the jump.
I want to thank Student Helicopter Pilot Jason of for the heads up on this story.
A few days ago, on the heals of the ENG helicopter crash in Phoenix, there was amazing video of an apparent engine failure on Bell 206 Jet Ranger Helicopter for the FOX station in Dallas-Fort Worth. The video shows them en-route when you can clearly hear an alarm tone — most likely the engine failure warning — go off in the cockpit. It sounds like the helicopter rolled after landing on some uneven ground. Everyone got out and there were only minor injuries. In a helicopter you only have a few seconds to: realize the failure, start the autorotation, get turned into the wind if possible, pick a safe landing site, and hopefully walk away. More details and links after the jump!
Last month, AOPA had a great article by Steven W. Ells about Robinson Helicopters and their manufacturing facility in Torrance, CA.
It just so happened that I was out in the Los Angeles area for a training conference with 10,000 other network engineers and I realized how close to the factory we were going to be. A co-worker and pilot friend of mine and I decided to skip lunch on Tuesday and go take the tour in Torrance. Keith is not much of a helicopter person per se, but I’ll keep working on it. Full write-up after the jump!
Last spring when I visited the Cessna Plant in Independence Kansas, they told us that 2006 was the last year could order standard round instrument gauges (commonly referred in the Cessna world as Nav I and Nav II avionics packages); being replaced by the new Garmin G1000 system (called Nav III). I was a little surprised at this decision given the G1000 had only been out a short while, however, on the trip to KIDP, I got my first taste of a G1000 equipped aircraft and although a little bit overwhelmed at first — mostly because I was flying a Turbo 182 for the first time — it was a very fun system to fly — with some CFI guidance in the next seat. Find out all about my G1000 checkout after the jump.