So I figured I'd start this beings we have numerous "Flying the ____" posts. Last March a friend/business partner took delivery of a new DA62. He moved into the 62 from a 2018 SR22T. Now I have about 150 or so hours in the Diamond and here is what I think so far.

General
I think we most modern outside the box designs you either love them or hate them. This one is no exception. it has the traditional Diamond lines with the tail that tapers down so much you think there is no way it will hold the tail. This one is silver and grey and I think is one of their better color combinations. It kinda looks like a flying wasp. The wings are very long as well which is what allows it to have such small engines and still pick up its 5071lbs airframe.

Engines
The 62 has a pair of Mercedes derived diesel engines. So far I love them. They are not counter-rotating so you do have a critical engine. You can buy oil from the Mercedes dealer if you want or use the Aeroshell product. It produces 180hp and its turbocharged. I will say the turbo charger is not very big. It can not hold max continuous power (95%) above out 13000 or so. It is an absolute dream to start, it a car engine and acts as such. The gearbox turns the props down to only about 2200RPM for cruise making it very quiet. They run extremely smooth. The one item missing from this unit is a prop sync. I figured with the all-electronic design it would have one. It has two fully redundant ECUs that are checked for functionality before every flight and a more in-depth check of the ECU on the first flight of the day. The first flight ECU test is pretty easy, Idle power, press two buttons, let it do its run-up, wait for lights to go out, release button, and you're done. Fuel flow on take off is about 10gph/side and at 95% youll be at 9ph/side. That works out pretty well with 25 a side in the mains and another 18 and change in the nacelle aux tanks. It'll do four hours with reserves, especially if you pull it back to say 90% at 8gph/side. The maintenance cycles are super long and has routine maintenance every 300 hours. I was told this engine swaps the unpredictable engine maintenance of the traditional airplane engine for planned maintenance intervals. The engine is liquid cooled and really doesnt care what you are doing, the temps stay the same, just like a car.

Interior
The 62 has a great interior. The fit and finish of the Diamond is better than the Cirrus, there I said it lol. It has tons of anodized aluminum accents and the back lighting of the panel is beautiful. The seats are what I would call a 5+2 configuration. I wouldn't put anyone back there that weighed more than 100lbs. Also, when you utilize seat 6 and 7 you lose the baggage compartment. There are two baggage compartments in the nost but one is quite small, more like and junk drawer for oil and cleaning stuff along with the tow bar and gust lock. The cabin is quite wide, at its max its 52 inches which is along the middle row that has three seats. There is a slight taper moving forward to the front seats but with two big guys we still down touch shoulders. I love that. The seats in the airplane do not move on tracks, only recline. The pedals slide back and forth electrically on a tube. I didnt think I would like this but now I love it. You really develop a nice muscle memory because the stick is always in the same spot and the switches are never farther to reach because you are in the same spot all the time. It does have a traditional stick in the middle. It can kinda get in the way on those longer trips where you want to move around a bit more. The seats are extremely comfortable. I have sat in them for four hours and felt great when I got out. They are the best seats in a GA airplane Ive sat in. Having three doors makes getting in and out really great.

Panel
Like all new airplanes it has the G1000 panel. This one is of the NXI flavor. Everything is laid out very logically which makes developing flows very straight forward. There is no prop or mixture knobs so all you have in the middle are two fadec power levers. It looks very clean. One thing I really like that Diamond did was put the circut breakers on the panel. Ive noticed many builders are constantly trying to hide them. Checking a circuit breaker in flight on a Cirrus is a nightmare.

Flying
The airplane flies beautifully for the short time you hand fly an airplane like this. The elevators and ailerons are rods and are very responsive. With only 180hp it will not climb like a rocket and you will have minimal single engine performance. Plan on 200fpm on one around sea level. One thing that is a pitfall of having such large wings is you have to kinda fly this thing off the runway. At slow speeds during the take off the wings will begin to dip with the wind and require ailerons to keep the airplane level. It has a very flat climb out. I can see how some would want to over rotate, something to watch out for on a go-around. Stalls and slow flight are very predictable and docile. VMC is pretty straight forward as well. Single engine is a dream, the engine will auto-feather if you lose one. At the max continuous power of 95% plan on 180-185 at around 10,000ft. Fuel burn will be 9gph/side. Approach speed is around 90-95kts with a blue at 89kts. The flare is very flat as well and for accelerate stop number 3500 feet works for almost all situations at sea level, our home airport is at sea level. The airplane is a "gear, flaps, flaps airplane and allows the gear to be lowered at 205kts. I think that works well to prevent a gear up if the gear is the first thing you use to slow down. Flaps approach come in at 136 and flaps down at 119. Approach power is about 56% and those flaps speed are enough to get the job done.

Load Carrying Capability
So this airplane is not a fill the tanks fill the seats type of airplane, most arent anymore. This airplane has just about every factory option, radar, AC, fiki, oxygen. It comes in at 3782 empty with a 5071 gross, shes a fatty. That leaves us with 1289 useful. Now remember, we do not have to carry a ton of fuel to go anywhere. For example to fly for two hours with reserves you only need to fill the mains (50Gal.) So with the mains full you still have a 954lbs carrying capaticy. Thats not too bad. With full fuel your payload is at 711 which is still pretty decent. CG is not really an issue that we have run into while loading it.

Things I hate
It needs a better air conditioner. The vents are too far back to really help the pilot and co-pilot. The blower does not move enough air. There isnt enough storage up front. There is no place to store and IPAD, i hate mounting them on those ridiculous mounts that block my view of stuff. I usually look at the info I need and then put it away. There is no center console junk drawer box, its just two small pockets on either side of the center console to essentially hold checklists. Another thing is you can't close the doors from the ground. It sounds stupid but once you climb off of a wing, you don't want to climb back up. It has three doors so if you had a front seat passenger youll get to do it twice. Put a pull strap or something lol. My god this thing is wide, it has a 48ft wingspan. A PC12 is 53ft for reference. It will not fit in a traditional hangar and I think that is a huge mistake on Diamonds part. Cirrus made the Vision Jet fit in a T Hangar. That was our biggest issue is securing a hangar for this thing. Parts support comes out of Canada so if you need something overnighted and the service centers in the US don't have it, your package will have to clear customs and will not be overnight shipped.

Things I love
Its wide, and comfortable. Once airborne the fresh air vents move a tremendous amount of air. Its very quite and smooth. The doors are positive latch doors and feel extremely well made. They do not flop around in the wind. The doors close tight and seal very well. It has great visibility for a twin. Fantastic ergonomics, there's German word for this that they told us when they were delivering it. Super easy to fly. The Baron is a very busy airplane with tons of knobs and levers, the Diamond is simple and clean mostly automated. It also has no forward combustion heater, heat is done like a car through a heater core. Overall, its a fantastic airplane. I love flying it and the owner loves flying it as well. Id consider it a modern 55 Baron

Nice review. The headline for me was the way it flew single engine, and the auto-feather. I agree that it has the nicest interior of any piston I've seen.

The only thing missing for me is pressurization; otherwise, great plane! Probably a lot of potential once more powerful diesels become available, which will probably happen going forward.

Great review Shawn, thanks for posting!

We need more of these types of threads. Great pirep. I think these look very cool.

Great writeup, thanks!

Great write up, Shawn! I looked closely at the DA62 at OSH a few years ago. I was impressed with the quality of the fit and finish, inside and out. How many of these is Diamond delivering annually?

They delivered 30 last year.

They were in the 30s like Joel said. I think the hangar issue is the biggest problem with them not selling a ton more. In their sales pitch, they say that most people who step into a 62 go for a more concierge approach and have their airplane pulled out of the large FBO hangar which is a weird response because at more rural places bigger hangars may not exist. The process of building a hangar can be a huge pain and really increases the cost of acquisition.

Yep. Any plane that is going to have wide appeal has to keep the wings under 39’ or so. Even the PA46 suffers from that long wing keeping it out of most hangars.

The shared hangar route is just too restrictive (or expensive) for most owner flown GA.

I agree on the wingspan. I am based at a rural field and we don't have a hangar that can accommodate a DA-62. It's out of my price range anyway but if I was in the market sadly I could not even consider this plane. Currently our city is not allowing any future development at our airport so even building a new hangar would not be an option.

not so much a concern in Europe. Large shared hangars are the norm.

Nice write-up! I’ve always liked the 62 - I like the look, the technology, the center stick, the whole package ... except the price! There’s a very nice write-up on the DA62 in the July issue of Twin and Turbine:

http://twinandturbine.com/article/diamo ... ht-review/

I know Joe Casey, the author, who just bought a Cirrus SR22 actually ... he is a well-known and excellent instructor in the PA46 airframe (I trained with him and his ferry co-pilot Deanna Wallace during my initial and mentor ship training in my M600). Both him and Deanna also train in and fly/ferry King Airs. Great instructors and great pilots both of them. Solid review - worth a read if you like the 62.

Nice write up.

I wonder why Diamond went with the g1000; instead of the 2000 or 3000.

Tim

My guess is screen size. The 62 does not have a very tall panel.