26.02.09 - Flying the DA42 – Twinstar
Today, it was my personal day of a treat. When we were still in Mallorca, I sent an eMail to Air Orlando to see if it was possible to rent an aircraft and go out flying a bit. Air Orlando has the “normal” selection of Cessna’s and Piper’s and also some nice airplanes like a Cirrus SR22 and a Diamond DA42 Twinstar.
I was interested in the Twinstar as I never had the chance to fly one. So today at around 15:00, I went of with my licenses and headed to Orlando Executive airport.
On the way, I got some nice views of Orlando downtown.
Chad was already waiting for me and after going over the airspace, the V-speeds, etc. we went to check out the airplane. After a thorough preflight and refueling, we started up the engines and went into the air.
The DA42 is a really nice airplane. The engine has FADEC, so no prop and mixture controls. The airplane is made out of composites and fiberglass. The seats are roomy and comfortable. It has a glass cockpit with 2 big screens in front of the pilot and copilot and is just a new airplane.
We took of and flew over Lake Apopka to do some maneuvers. We did some medium steep turns (15, 30 and 45 degrees). We did some slow flight and attempted some stalls. However, it is really difficult to stall the airplane. We only got into some buffeting and that was it. Stall recovery was no problem, you just advance the power, lower the nose and that’s it.
The G1000 instrumentation is really impressive.
We flew to Leesburg (KLEE) to do some touch- and go’s. And after two rounds, we flew south, orienting ourselves at the HW27. Just before the crossing between the HW27 and the I4, we looked for the house in Plumoso Loop and we found it.
On our way back, we crossed Disneyworld and had a good view of the theme parks below us
So, thanks Chad, it was a really nice experience
