I received my multi ratings in a Seminole and have over 30 hours in the Twinstar. If you are going to go right into flying an rj, its great. glass, fadec, the whole bit. but i fly a Dash, those hours did me little good other than time. but it is a fun plane to fly, autopilot, listening to XM radio, going to Cali to surf.

Indeed the diamond is a nice airplane to look at, but I pay more (quite alot more) for time in the diamond than for a seneca, and the airplane basically flies you? Engine failure is like cycling the master switch or something, doing everything by itself that you would have to actually learn in the seneca... Oh well, it's not like it's the end of the world, but it would be nice to learn the basics as well

Without the basics you're a fish out of water.

technically, the diamonds ARE conventional (no counter rotating) atleast at our school..(erau). But yes it does have the FADEC which simplifies everything....Just checkin in on the words used earlier about getting training in a "conventional" twin.... Are they able to be bought optional with counter-rotating?

erau mostly have seminoles don't they? only seen a few diamonds

"Conventional" probably in the sense that you actually have to "fly" it through an engine-failure LoL

I thought the FAA restricted you to just getting a private in the DA-42, can you now get the twin comm. license in it?

None of my UVSC-trained friends never mentioned flying anything but a Diamond...so I would suppose not. A restriction like that would be news to me.

I dont like the idea; look at it this way the diamond is an automatic whereas the seneca/ seminole/ etc are the stick shift... ill rather learn how to fly stick shift before jumping into an automatic the diamond does too much and takes away from really learning how to fly a multi (throttle/prop/mixture settings- overspeeding props-synchronizing with the prop levers, etc) ...

theres a few now, but they are transitioning to a whole diamond fleet..

yes you can, since im doing my multi commercial on a diamond

I agree. Try both for the experience, but go heavy on steam.