September 2011 Volume XLI Number 9 The consumer resource for pilots and aircraft owners a u I Sed barorcraft page 24 N 55 remos GX-NXT Pricey, yes. But sleek and sophisticated … page 18 Yesterday’s gadget … page 4 Thielert reviewed … page 8 It’s paying attention … page 21 4 is the mfd dead? 11 load haulers 21 matchbox FC-1 Pretty much, struck down by Gotta carry six people? Best Rock out to your tunes while the iPad and new GTNs deals are older Pipers or 206s this box minds the store 8 thielert follow-up 15 paint shop survey 22 the over/under game Owners are satisfied if not Lots to pick from and some Insurance, that is. Over- exactly thrilled new ones made our list insuring can be a bad thing f i r s t w o r d Editor thielert: not that bad, but no homerun, either paul bertorelli Given Aviation Consumer’s status as the only subscriber-supported, consumer- oriented publication in aviation, we are often asked to “get to the bottom” of MANAGiNG EDITOR certain issues. Some of these are mundane, such as comparing cockpit accesso- Jeff Van West ries or even writing about insurance, which we’re doing in this issue. For me, the most difficult subjects are those in which buyers, owners or CoNTRIBUTING EDITORS consumers report radically Jonathan doolittle different results and per- rick durden Larry anglisano spectives when discussing the very same product. And so it is with this month’s subscriPtioN department follow-up report on the p.o. box 420235 Thielert diesel engines. palm coast, fL 34142-0235 Refreshing your memory, 800-829-9081 Thielert burst upon the www.aviationconsumer.com/cs scene around 2001 and got For canadA above ground when Dia- Subscription Services mond announced it would box 7820 StN Main use the engines in the inno- London, oN 5W1 vative DA42 twin. Thielert canada basically reworked a mass- production Mercedes-Benz sedan engine, stuck a gearbox and a prop on it and back Issues, used aircraft guides thus was born a modern—although not the first—aerodiesel. 203-857-3100 Things went swimmingly forward, Diamond sold a bunch of twins and some DA40 singles and all was well. Until it wasn’t. In late 2007, widespread RepriNtS: Aviation Consumer can provide you or your organization maintenance and support issues came to light, Diamond and its customers with reprints. Minimum order is 1000 were unhappy and by 2008, Thielert had gone into receivership, the apparent copies. contact Jennifer Jimolka, 203-857-3144 victim of a hopelessly optimistic business plan and horrible customer support. Scrub the slider forward and where are we in 2011? Thielert claims to be profitable and it ought to be, given what customers are paying for engines and AViATION CoNSUMEr parts. Yet no buyer—evidently, not even the Chinese—has come forward to (ISSN #0147-9911) is pub- take the company off the solvency master’s hands, so it chugs along more or lished monthly by Belvoir less in stasis. Diamond went its own way with the Austro engine and that’s Aviation Group LLC, an what new DA42 NG airplanes are equipped with. affiliate of Belvoir Media Against this backdrop, you’d think there would be a lot of angry Thielert Group, 800 Connecti- and Diamond customers out there. And there are. A group put together a small cut Avenue, Norwalk, CT class to sue Diamond over the engine issues, but, surprisingly, many seem 06854-1631. Robert Englander, Chairman happy with the airplanes despite the engine shortcomings, which are consider- and CEO; Timothy H. Cole, Executive Vice able. President, Editorial Director; Philip L. Despite having to rip gear boxes off the engine every 300 hours, change Penny, Chief Operating Officer; Greg King, pumps and pay Thielert very high prices for parts—wire the money first, Executive Vice President, Marketing Direc- please—the owners I talked to have a grudging admiration for the diesel en- tor; Ron Goldberg, Chief Financial Officer; gines. They have proven exceptionally economical and although maintenance Tom Canfield, Vice President, Circulation. intensive, they are dispatch reliable, something many owners place high value in. Periodicals postage paid at Norwalk, CT, Some owners seem to so love the DA42 that the engines that power it and at additional mailing offices. Rev- are seen as a tolerable wart on the ownership experience. Although I heard enue Canada GST Account #128044658. complaints about Thielert’s service and customer support—with a few brick- Subscriptions: $84 annually; single cop- bats thrown Diamond’s way, too—I heard no complaints about the airplane itself. That’s a fairly remarkable outcome, given that some owners had their ies, $10.00. Bulk rate subscriptions for $600,000 airplanes beached for weeks, awaiting support from Thielert. organizations are available. Copyright © My view of diesels for airplanes remains neutral. I am just a little south of 2011 Belvoir Aviation Group LLC. All rights believing their market dominance is inevitable, despite the avgas fuel situa- reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part tion. Nonetheless, if the current state of play with Thielert is as bad as it gets is prohibited. Printed in the USA. in the diesel market, consider me encouraged. No sane person could consider Thielert’s business experience a good one, yet the engine has survived this and Postmaster: Send address corrections to earned a surprisingly satisfied, if not ecstatic, customer base. If that sounds AVIATION CONSUMER, Box 420234, Palm a little like “doesn’t suck that bad,” it probably is. Considering how many Coast, Fl 32142. In Canada, P.O. Box 39 aviation startups sink without a trace, maybe it’s really a resounding endorse- Norwich, ON NOJ1PO, Canada. Publishing ment.—Paul Bertorelli Agreement Number #40016479 2 • The Aviation Consumer www.aviationconsumer.com2 • www.aviationconsumer.com September 2011 l e t t e r s no vac revisited mas holidays. During the time, I was Jepp charts are an option for a hefty Re your article on going vacuumless provided regular updates by the avion- price. The intuitive color design and in the June 2011 issue, when I bought ics shop and the Harrisburg FSDO. vector-based graphics, unlike the my new Columbia The engineer pro- FliteCharts, make them a useful ad- 300 in 2002, it vided the details dition. For someone who flies outside came from the that proved our the Americas coverage, it’s nice to be factory as a tra- proposed up- able to add extras, like the Caribbean ditional six-pack grade was statisti- kits, without having all the paper. with a vacuum cally safer than the Yes, the economy sucks, and it is AI (KI-256). In vacuum system it hard to justify putting money into a November 2008, replaced. depreciating asset. But I, for one, am I embarked on On the Colum- glad that companies like Garmin and an upgrade to the bia, there is an Aspen (and ForeFlight) are still work- Aspen EFD1000 airframe standby ing to develop products that make Pro using Lan- battery which pow- flying more enjoyable, safer, and yes, caster Avionics ers critical systems even easier. in Lancaster, for at least 30 min- Seems like Garmin deserves some Pennsylvania. utes. In addition, credit for designing these and releas- (They are awesome.) I chose to install we have the Aspen backup battery and ing them when they were announced, the Mid-Continent Life Saver electric the Mid-Continent backup battery. more or less working well. That’s more attitude gyro with battery backup as So, we have backup power for at least than you can say for many products my backup AI. As part of the upgrade, an hour, probably more. It would be in the aviation industry. The dilemma I wanted to remove the vacuum sys- nice to have a second alternator, but isn’t Garmin’s—they have a very tem because it would no longer power I am convinced that my all-electric focused view of the GA market and a any instruments. Initially, we were Columbia 300 is far safer now than it track record that says they know what led to believe that we would be able was using a vacuum system. they’re doing—the dilemma should to remove the vacuum system with be how to make room for one in your local FSDO approval. It turns out this Andy Barrett stack. was not possible because the vacuum Via e-mail system is on the type certificate. It had Rod Paul to go through the ACO that controlled we are bemused Atlanta, Georgia the type certificate. I am a little bemused by your editorial Our initial interaction with the as well as the two letters you chose to flight guide heartburn Harrisburg FSDO led to a physical in- publish regarding the GTN series. You Just read your article in the July 2011 spection of the airplane and our plans posed the question early on: What edition of Aviation Consumer about by the FSDO on October 23, 2008. else do you want these to do? electronic Flight Guide. The company He researched and let us know im- The GTNs do plenty. They’re not mediately that he could not approve autopilots, they don’t control the air- continued on page 32 the vacuum removal. He put us in plane, but they give you a lot of capa- touch with the New York ACO, which bility. But it’s myopic to say the GTN is contact us researched and decided Seattle ACO just another 480. For one thing, that’s needed to approve.