Ah, the minutia of aviation.
A fellow CFI and I have been scratching our heads for the past month about the proper type designator for a DiamondStar. I’ve always thought it was DA40 and hadn’t heard anything to the contrary until someone recently said it was actually “DV40″. What the…
Socal TRACON was queried during a flight today and confirmed it should be DV40. Now normally I don’t argue with the Feds, but I think Socal was mistaken.
Diamond refers to it as a DA40 in manuals, on their web site, and on the aircraft itself. I just looked up the ICAO type designator for the DiamondStar and it shows as DA40. The Eclipse/Katana is a DV20, however. Try it yourself and enter “Diamond” as the manufacturer.
The DiamondStar is a DA40 according to ICAO. Maybe the FAA has decided on something different, but I doubt it. I found FAA documents instructing pilots to use the “ICAO Doc 8643″ type designator, which comes from the above referenced web site.
Also, I checked with an LAX tower controller who used to work TOA and LGB, she confirmed it’s DA40.
By the way, the ICAO list also shows a “Katana DA40″, so perhaps Socal hasn’t been wrong when calling us a Katana. Is it possible I’ve been taking offense for no good reason?? The ICAO list is very current — it even lists the Diamond D-Jet.
With all due apologies for destroying the Top Gun mythos, yes, these really are the things pilots talk about and research for hours on end.
Hi,
confirmation from Europe here. I flew the DA40 for nearly two years, both IFR and VFR, and never had any problem using “DA40″ as aircraft type, even for the FADEC / Diesel version.
The Katana is known as DV20, may be creating some confusion. There are some people here calling the DiamondStar a Katana, beacaue they mixe all of the Diamond types.
PlasticPilot