Flying USA – September 2019

SEPTEMBER 2019 FLYINGMAG.COM | 39

many years ago that piston twins were
not in fact safer than singles, as many
pilots and apparently even insurance
providers assumed was the case. In the
heyday of the twin movement in the
1960s and ’70s, pilots intuitively under-
stood two engines were better than one.
After all, if an engine quit, a twin could
continue flying while a single could not.
The reason for the abysmal safety
record of twins is that pilots were
mishandling their airplanes during
single-engine operations—which
almost always happened during
VMC demonstrations at low altitude
during training. It turns out, the sec-
ond engine wasn’t the problem with
piston twins—and, in fact, the IFR
accident rate in twins was better
than singles. Rather, it was the way
pilots were training. Few people at
that time grasped the underlying root
causes for the twin-versus-single
safety-record discrepancy, they only
knew there was a problem, and piston
twins, with their higher fuel burn and
maintenance costs, were no longer
sought after by pilots.
Enter the Diamond DA62, which
holds the possibility of turning the
conventional wisdom on its head. I’ll
try to avoid injecting too much hyper-
bole into the argument, but here are
the facts: The DA62, a technological
marvel of the 21st century, is so easy
to fly and manage that loss of con-
trol after an engine failure should be

almost unthinkable. What’s more, the engines—based on

a Mercedes diesel that has been produced in the millions

for cars—is so reliable that the likelihood of an engine

failure in flight is extremely remote. Those jet-A-burning

Austro AE330 compression-ignition engines are also so

efficient that there’s essentially no difference in fuel burn

in normal cruise flight between the DA62 and competing

high-performance piston singles with their brawny and

thirsty gasoline engines.

I quickly learned just how easy the DA62 is to f ly

compared with older-generation twins during my transition

training with Take Flight Aviation when I was paired with

one of the school’s instructors, Steve Belknap. Like many

modern, Garmin G1000-equipped GA airplanes, the focus

in most newer airplanes is on making life easier for the

single pilot. An engine-out emergency in the DA62 doesn’t

require a litany of memory items that make the pilot look

like a one-armed paper hanger as they push and pull on

this knob and that, all while banking into the good engine

and applying proper rudder input. When I earned my mul-

tiengine rating several years ago in a 1972 Piper Seneca II,

the number of steps I needed to run through during each

simulated engine failure made the training exhausting. In

the DA62, I never felt even momentarily taxed.

For an example of how simple this airplane is to operate,

take the engine starting procedure. Because the diesel

engines are controlled by computer, getting the props spin-

ning involves hitting the master switch, flipping on the

engine master, waiting a moment to ensure the glow plug

annunciation is out and then pushing the engine-start

button. That’s it. The Austro diesels come to life immediately

as the electronic engine control units manage rpm automati-

cally and continuously check for faults, while the pilot’s only

job is to steal a glance at engine indications. As long as the

gauges are in the green, you’re good to go.

The before-takeoff run-up procedure is equally as

stress free. It involves setting the parking brake, manually

PH

OT

OS

BY

SH

AR

ON

RA

UB

Opposite:

Transition

training was

done in a

Garmin G1000-

equipped DA62.

New Diamonds

now sport the

G1000 NXi

system.

Below: The

quality of the

craftsmanship

of the DA62

can be seen

throughout.