DA 62 |

On February 24th, the delivery of two DA62 MPPs to North Sea Aviation Services (NSAS) from Belgium has been completed. The aircraft is configured in a maritime surveillance fit and feature the latest technology of electro-optical and infrared cameras (EO/IR), maritime radar as well as an AIS (Automatic Identification System for ships). NSAS already operates the DA42 MPP and identified the benefits of the larger DA62 MPP as key motives to upgrade their fleet with the DA62 MPP. Especially the increased cabin size, which significantly improves crew comfort during long missions, was key in the decision-making process.

Equipped with the Multi-Purpose Nose which carries the EO/IR turret, the BR700 belly radome that houses the maritime radar and the single seats including a centre console with integrated radio and control devices for the operators in the rear make the aircraft the most advanced and versatile surveillance platform in its class. Mario Spiegel, Sales Manager, Special Mission Aircraft Division at Diamond Aircraft Austria, says,” Maritime surveillance is often still conducted by large and expensive aircraft, sometimes even with less advanced sensors or vintage equipment such as binoculars. Where the data collected by larger and smaller aircraft are the same, when equipped with equivalent role equipment, there is one factor getting more and more fundamental, environment-friendliness. With the modern piston engines, utilizing up-to-date automotive technology, burning as less as 10 US gal of Jet Fuel per hour (in loiter) it is needless to say that the DA62 MPP is by far the greenest surveillance aircraft on the market.”

Markus Fischer, Director, Special Mission Aircraft Division at Diamond Aircraft Austria, says, “After so many years in our business it is still inspiring to see our new developments deploying in real operation, in specific to new friends and business partner like NSAS. NSAS has great plans and we will do our best to support them wherever it is necessary and looking forward to their feedback to push the MPP to an even more capable airborne asset.” Jef de Kinder, Founder and CEO of NSAS, commented, “Due to its great fuel efficiency, flexible platform, advanced aircraft design and many other features, NSAS quickly preferred the DA62 MPP. The low operating cost combined with the high mission standard delivers extraordinary results, leaving the competition behind and creating a class of its own. Diamond Aircraft Industries, therefore, has excelled thanks to their constant innovation.” Source: ‚Diamond Aircraft‚.

Expectations were high and so was the pressure, after the glorious roll-out of the new DA62 SurveyStar. The entire Aerial Survey Industry was having an eye on the first steps of the DA62 SurveyStar.

Meanwhile the first aircraft has accomplished well over 100 mission hours with GeoFly and has already proven its efficiency and versatility. In fact, the aircraft is outperforming all expectations and has marked a couple of cornerstones worth to highlight:

Endurance: Equipped in the multi-sensor setup including the Riegl VQ-780i and the Vexcel Ultra cam Eagle M3, an endurance of 7:17 hours was achieved with fuel remaining for almost two more hours, resulting in a max total endurance of 8:20 hours + 0:45 hours of reserve.
Autonomy: With the help of the three-axis digital autopilot and a special procedure (see below) the aircraft is able to fly survey missions almost fully autonomously; thus even ultra-long missions become less exhausting for the crew.
Efficiency: Due to the extremely low fuel burn of the jet-fuel engines, efficiency is that good, that the aircraft can even compete with turbine-powered aircraft in high and fast missions, assuming your acquisition window (weather/atc, etc.) big enough. However, the flight takes longer due to lower speeds, the cost below the line are way cheaper when compared with classical turbo-prop aircraft.
Versatility: In light of the above, GeoFly already ordered the integration of its Vexcel Ultra cam Osprey series, including the new 4.1 on the DA62 SurveyStar, which is usually used on turbo-prop aircraft.

Garmin G1000 flight line loading:
Loading the photo-mission flight lines into the Garmin G1000 is done by converting latitude and longitude points of project-specific files and constructed them into a Garmin „.fpl“ file. The information is gathered from the Aerial Flight Management software used by GeoFly, and thereafter converted to a „.fpl“ file after setting the parameters required by the equipment or higher (e.g., such as starting line number, turn bearing offset, and offset distance). The „.fpl“ file is thereafter loaded into the MFD via Bluetooth using Garmin Flight Stream, or through an SD card and loaded in as any other flight plan.

The IGI CCNS5 used on this particular flight uses a 1 nautical mile extension of the line for the establishment and to enable recording and mount movement prior to line start. Therefore, in this particular project, the waypoints „A“ (Start of the line) to point „B“ (End of the line) were calculated with 1 additional nautical mile. For turns, the same principle is used with an estimated spacing distance and bearing offset to allow the aircraft to make the turn on its own. Due to unknown actual head-, tail- or crosswind, some manual overrides were required in the turns. Source: ‚Diamond website‚.