Come along for the ride in the brand new Diamond DA50 as we fly to the
airport where it all began... First Flight Airport located in Kitty Hawk North
Carolina. Today we're accompanied by Diamond
Aircraft Test Pilot Jarred, who's dreamed about visiting First Flight since he
earned his pilot's license.
Let's hand it over to Sharon as she preps us for takeoff.
Raleigh Clearance, Diamond 150RG
Diamond 150RG, we are a Diamond DA50 looking for a VFR over to FFA at
5,500 feet. He's probably like "What kind of plane is that?"
0RG maintain at or below 2000
125.3 departure frequency. 5343 on the SQUAWK 0RG
Cool, 5343. 125.3.
Free castering nose like your 40 (okay) So it has a giant
centering spring on it so you're gonna need lots of breaks... (all right got you)
...more than you think. More than you think! We're all ready to go so you can ask for
taxi and go all the way to the runway. If you're comfortable, I'll talk you through
configuring it (absolutely) For the takeoff, full power, I really want you to
focus on the runway and keep the center line with your feet, and I'll provide
little tips to help you too if need be. Awesome, awesome I'll pull over to Juliet-3
and then we'll get our taxi clearance (yes) if that's cool with you...
Get her rolling first... oh that's a smooth throttle, I like! So on the takeoff roll,
rotate very gently please... What's the rotation speed? 66 kts. 66 kts, nice! And then
greater than 80 kts in the climb. We'll get it all cleaned up and then we'll
probably climb out at 100 kts or more.
Raleigh Ground, Diamond 150RG, holding short of Juliet-3, ready for a taxi.
Taxi 23L via Juliet, Alpha-7, we have Whiskey 0RG.
Over to Tower, thanks 0RG. It's got so much torque that it turns
one way faster or better than the other. Okay. Man you can just feel the
power of that engine though! (Ha) I don't hate that. Have you ever flown a
300 horsepower engine, Sharon? So I flew the 50 in Austria, but other than that, no
that's it. Well I've flown jets and King Airs but that doesn't really count haha
Alright taxi lights off, landing lights on... take off flaps. Thank you, fuel pump on.
Raleigh Tower, Diamond 150RG Holding short 23L ready for departure.
Left heading 1-6-0 clear for take off 0RG.
Alright feet on the floor, smoothly accelerate to full power. First Flight here we come!
Alright there's 45 kts, airspeed alive, engines green.
Go ahead and rotate slowly.
Lots of right rudder. Alright right rudder.
Positive rate, gear up.
Get yourself all trimmed out on your heading that you want and then once
you're there you're gonna pull it back to 90% power (okay)
Do you feel how much rudder you need? Yup I do feel that.
Go ahead and lets get some of that rudder trim in there. And we'll leave these on the whole time.
Right here... Oh, gotcha yup
You feel it? And you got your trim indication here so you know where it's at. Yes.
Over to departure, 0RG G'day.
What would you say for someone to keep in mind of the most in the transition
from say a 40 NG to this airplane? Both complex and high performance (yep) so a
certain level of comfort with the retractable gear. We also have cow flaps
on this but we'll leave those until we get leveled off at our cruising altitude.
There's no limitation on leaving the cow flaps open but we will gain three or
four knots when we close them in cruise flight which is nice. If you're looking
to upgrade into something, you got a little more complexity with a high power
and the gear that you have to look out for, but I'd say this is probably the most
stable Diamond that we make so for hand flying, this is probably the best one. If
I was going to hit play on IMC I would definitely take this one. So it's going
to want a bootload of left rudder when you get into cruise... I feel that.
So you've got that, and then I also want you to pull the power back to 70.
Alright 70%, there we go! The rudder trim is really critical so (yeah) as with any high
performance airplane. It's kind of important that we use our feet more than
our ailerons to keep it straight.
Yeah I'm so excited for this.
Aw... it's gonna be so fun... You have no idea! So before I was even a pilot my dad was super into
airplanes so he would take us everywhere. I went to First Flight for the first
time in like 2017. At this point I was like thinking of, you know, becoming a
pilot I drove in and I was like this is so cool... next time I come here I'm gonna
fly myself I'm not gonna come back until I fly myself. And then during
instrument training on my long instrument cross country, we did the RNAV 21 as
one of the approaches and that just felt so good! That's such a cool story!
Kind of a full circle moment!
ATIS: Kill Devil Hills First Flight Airport Wright Brothers National Memorial
Automated weather observation 2022 Zulu
Weather Wind 2-5-0 at 9 kts. Gust 16 kts. Visibility 10 miles.
Runway... yeah 21 is right traffic. We'll put the gear down midfield downwind.
3 green... Most important thing. And before we put the gear down, we're gonna check speed
lower gear speed then gear down (yep) Same thing with flaps, flap speed, speeds good
flaps down (yep cool). First Fight Traffic Diamond 150RG about two and a half
miles uh off the airport at 3,500 feet doing a 360 on the entering the uh right
downwind for runway 21 First Flight. Should be good just to roll into the
downwind here (cool) First Flight Traffic uh Diamond 0RG entering
right downwind Runway 21 First Flight.
Don't rush yourself in too tight, okay? Get yourself a nice long final to get
stable. Never landed the airplane before so there's no reason to hot dog it in.
Good point. So go ahead and lower the gear when
you're ready. All right all right gear is coming down.
And remember your rudder trim (alright) to help you out so you're not struggling with the
airplane too much. All right three green.
Three green, pumps are on. Brakes are off. You can go ahead and put one notch of flaps now
too to help you get a little bit more sight over the nose.
We'll wait till we're on Final for the last notch (all right). What are your
approach speeds here? Okay so get it trimmed out for 81 kts when we're in close.
Power for the spot on the runway you want to touch down on.
Fly it to the runway at 80 kts. We'll pull the power off when we get close.
Am I too tight in here? It's always hard to know the turn radius on
this thing. You can always go around. I love it! First Flight Traffic Diamond
150RG turning right base Runway 21 First Flight.
All right so we want to be about 95 kts in here?
Yeah you don't want to run it out of energy, but you also want to be too fast right.
Exactly.
Oh yeah we're just gonna keep the turn going.
And you can go ahead and roll on that last notch of flaps and catch it with a little bit of power.
and it always let us... That's what this airplane does... three green.
First Flight Traffic Diamond 150RG turning final
Runway 21 First Flight. All right so nice and stable 80 knots
down to the runway (all right) I don't know if there's wires there or what the deal is with that.
So we're okay I guess. So go ahead pull some power out and slow down.
Coming in high but also short field so it's okay that we're
gonna be a little bit high (yep)
How's your trim feel for 80 kts? uh it feels pretty good.
It's a little fast, pulling some power back.
Adjusting for the crosswind... Bump in a little
bit of power actually I don't know if those (okay) are high tension lines or what they are.
All right, once we get past these wires go ahead and pull the power out. Okay.
And pull it to idle. Pulling the power to idle. And just maintain 80 kts.
Now bump in some power (yep) I was gonna say, that sinks out quick.
And we'll fly it all the way to the runway. Yep!
The runways over here. Bump in some power. Yep. Here we go! Now pull it out.
Pulling it out. Fly it all the way to the runway.
There you go. Nice! You got it? Very good. Yep. Very nice! That's a sneaky little
bumpy approach there with the trees and... yeah those power lines right there... (Ha)
So there you have it... a complete DA50 flight from a major airport to a short
3000 foot beach runway. And we helped Jarred fulfill his dream to visit First
Flight for the first time. If you enjoy this kind of content, Like and Subscribe
to support us producing videos just like this one. Until next time, keep on flying!