In this video, LifeStyle Aviation client Rod Garnas shares his journey of upgrading from the Diamond DA40 NG to the Diamond DA50 RG. He reflects on the delivery experience, the significance of aviation in his life, and the joy of sharing this milestone with his family.
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The DA50 RG offers the ultimate in handling, stability and control, ease of operation as well as structural and system redundancies, all coupled with a high degree of crashworthiness. The sleek all carbon composite airframe incorporates advanced aerodynamics with the latest in passive safety technology for high performance, great efficiency and superior occupant protection.
The DA50 RG is powered by the 300 hp Continental Aerospace Technologies CD-300. The CD-300 is a geared, liquid-cooled, turbo-charged and jet-A1-fueled engine controlled by two redundant full FADEC. Pilot workload is lightened using a single lever power control that adjusts thrust and propeller RPM’s automatically. The extra benefits of operating a jet fuel powered aircraft are low emissions, low fuel consumption and global availability.
The 3 blade MT hydraulic variable pitch propeller features advanced blade geometry with state of the art aerodynamic airfoils for efficient performance, smoothness and low noise. The blades are built in natural composite design which leads to an exceptional vibration damping behavior and reduced weight.
The 50 is just amazing. I never dreamed I would be in a position to have an airplane like that.
Hey, my name is Rod and I'm the proud owner of a Diamond DA-50RG.
In late 2020, 2021, John showed me a picture of the 50 and I said, can we get that? And he said,
no. He said they haven't been approved by the FAA yet, but in the meantime, we have a 40.
We put it on over, gosh, about six, 650 hours in it. I got my commercial license this last year
and the 40 was just an ideal airplane for that type of instruction.
Just do a tight 90 degree turn, throw it right over to the right, hard,
pull right back on it and snap at wings level.
When I told you yesterday, that's the best hand flying Diamond that they built.
It's not even close. The 40 is good. This is on a completely different level.
Lifestyle has been outstanding. The delivery of the aircraft was
amazing. We had some classwork before they would let me see the airplane.
I think the last half of that class, I wasn't listening all that hard because I was
wanting to get out to see our new aircraft and opening up the doors and seeing it. I was amazed
at how beautiful it was. My son and my wife, they picked out the colors and the interior
and to share it with my family meant a lot. When we got the airplane, I said, there's, you know,
the top three things in my life are my wife, my son, and this airplane.
The transition between the DA-40 to the DA-50 has been minimal. Diamond has done a very good
job with the airplanes to make them interchangeable. If you can fly the DA-40, you can fly the DA-50.
We're a little bit low out here, so just kind of keep some back pressure in,
just so we don't sink any further. You don't want to pull up too much and, you know,
completely decelerate. Monitor your airspeed there as well. When we were doing those flights
in the Outer Banks, something that Franklin told me is that you've got to handle this thing.
Don't let it control you. You've got to control it. And that's the thing that you don't realize
that you've got to really take control of it because you can get behind in a hurry.
You have a lot more movement on the stick in this airplane as well, so you really have to
rapidly make corrections. Otherwise, you're kind of going to be, you know, chasing it constantly.
It's hard to do a bad landing in the 50. It's fast, it's heavy, but it handles so well.
If you hit those numbers, you're going to have a great landing every time.
Just like with anything, the more you do it, the better you're going to be.
I always tell people they need to fly this airplane. Fly it by result, not by expectation.
The result that you want is this nose high, main wheels down attitude. Pull back as hard as it
takes to get the plane there. For us coming, transitioning back into flying, I couldn't think
of a better team to be paired with than with Lifestyle Aviation. It has been all the way from,
you know, questions about flying to questions about maintenance for the airplane, arranging
maintenance that needs to be done, annuals. It just, you can't find a better team to work with
than with Lifestyle Aviation. We have a sign in our hangar and it says,
a mile of highway takes you nowhere. A mile of runway takes you anywhere.
Being a pilot is, there's nothing like it.
