Yes. The school had tampicos but sold them and got the DA20s (basically like changing from a Toyota Tundra to a Toyota Prius). Don't get me wrong, they are good airplanes. Reliable and cost efficient. But they should not be used for primary instrument training and they definitely should not be used by a school to compete in NIFA competitions. Those things glide like crazy (hence why they are so cost efficient).

Can you imagine filling an IFR flightplan and not being able to follow ATC instructions because we cannot fly into cloud? The students don't get actual IFR and ATC gets mad at us.

Diamond really screwed up with not making the DA20 IFR certified. At least offer it as an option.