DA42 transition tips
The DA42 is a great aircraft and rather easy to fly but learning to fly a new aircraft is per definition a new thing and can be tricky. There are a few things you can do to ease your transition, thus saving money and time.
Fly a DA40 TDI
Am I advising to fly a single engine to help with your transition on a twin engine ? Yes, that’s exactly what I do. If you’re about to fly a DA42 with the Thielert engines and have never flown with them, it’s better to get familiar with them on a single engine. This is not a big deal, but why use two of them for this purpose ? If the DA42 you will fly is equipped with the Lycoming engines, forget about this tip.
Fly a G1000 DA40 (or any other single)
All TwinStar are equipped with the Garmin G1000 glass cockpit. If you don’t have any experience with it, expect it to be a significant part of your training. Flying the G1000 is not as easy as it seems and training time should not be understimated. I was already G1000-fluent when I got my DA42 transition and it made it much easier. If you never flew with the G1000, it makes sense to build some experience in a less expensive aircraft, or even in a simulator.
Fly a high performance single engine, not a DA40
The performance and speed figures of the DA42 TwinStar are very similar to those of high performance single engine piston aircraft like a Bonanza or Saratoga. Any type of flying has a lot to do with being up to the speed. Being used to cruise speeds in the 150 kts range and flying procedures at 120 kts, your DA42 training will be much easier. If not, getting used to these speeds on a less expensive aircraft is not bad…
They worked for me, they should work for you…
The DA42 is the first multi-engine aircraft I flew so I used it for my MEP rating. I had 76 hours of experience with Thielert engines, 25 with the G1000, and 130 in high-performance single engine. I did not had a lot of recent experience, and learned a couple of new G1000 tricks, but thanks to this cumulated experience the training was easy, focusing only on the multi-engine part. This alone is hard work so anything you can do in a less expensive plane to get prepared is worth it… And remember, there must be fun in your training.
One Comment, Comment or Ping
Axel
Interesting stuff, especially since I’ll soon be doing my multi rating most likely in the DA42 myself. At least it shouldn’t be a problem for me to use the G1000. I just summed up my G1000 time to be 50.4 hrs in the airplane and 16.5 hrs in a G1000 equipped Frasca FTD. In addition to that I have spent countless hours in front of my own G1000 simulator setup at home.
To help myself learn the G1000 system when I was working on my instrument rating I purchased the G1000 pc trainer from garmin.com and installed it on my computer with a dual monitor setup. This way I could have the PFD and the MFD shown simultaniously on each monitor just like they would appear in the actual airplane. With a flight yoke and rudder pedals connected to the computer and Max Trescott’s excellent G1000 handbook for reference this proved to be an invaluable tool in learning the G1000 on my own.
Whenever I had a flight or simulator lesson at school I would spend a couple of hours in front of my G1000 simulator at home first going over the exact same things I knew I would be doing later on at school. This way, I never had any problem operating the G1000 during my flying or simulator activities at school and I am convinced that this saved me quite a bit of money during my instrument training.
Jun 6th, 2009
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