Amadeus
Well Known Member
I was at an Illinois/Indiana state line airport a couple Monday's ago (path of total eclipse) and a guy there in a brand spanking new Diamond DA-50 made the comment:
"Experimental, huh? I refuse to fly something that is trying to kill me."
I was taken aback by such a brazen statement and admittedly it took a couple minutes to gather my thoughts. Had I spoken my initial reactionary thoughts I'm certain the conversation would've ended (hopefully peacefully) then and there. However, given a minute to regroup, my thoughts were that HE is the one flying an airplane that is unproven. The RV12 has over 15 years of history and nearly 1,000 of the model flying now. HE is the one flying the truly experimental airplane in that the DA-50 has less than a year in the air and only THREE DA-50 flying in the United States. To me that is unproven. It also has a diesel powerplant recently transitioned from automobiles to this airplane that has only 1200 hour TBO and cannot be rebuilt. The Rotax is a proven aircraft engine with more than 50,000 912 series engines produced. I suppose if I had just dropped more than $1.2MM on an aircraft that has a wingspan requiring an expensive private box hangar I would be working overtime to justify my purchase, too.
"Experimental, huh? I refuse to fly something that is trying to kill me."
I was taken aback by such a brazen statement and admittedly it took a couple minutes to gather my thoughts. Had I spoken my initial reactionary thoughts I'm certain the conversation would've ended (hopefully peacefully) then and there. However, given a minute to regroup, my thoughts were that HE is the one flying an airplane that is unproven. The RV12 has over 15 years of history and nearly 1,000 of the model flying now. HE is the one flying the truly experimental airplane in that the DA-50 has less than a year in the air and only THREE DA-50 flying in the United States. To me that is unproven. It also has a diesel powerplant recently transitioned from automobiles to this airplane that has only 1200 hour TBO and cannot be rebuilt. The Rotax is a proven aircraft engine with more than 50,000 912 series engines produced. I suppose if I had just dropped more than $1.2MM on an aircraft that has a wingspan requiring an expensive private box hangar I would be working overtime to justify my purchase, too.