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I'm a Valais doctor with my own clinic in Sion. My wife, three children and often two of my closest friends fly with me - seven seats aren't a marketing construct, they're a fact of life.
Before the DA62 I owned a DA40 NG and leased a DA42-IV NG. Both excellent, both hitting the limits of my mission - the DA40 too small, the DA42 with its classic layout short on comfort. The DA62 closes both gaps.
Standard routes: Sion LSGS → Cannes-Mandelieu LFMD for weekends, one hour fifty. Or Sion → Mali Lošinj LDLO in summer, just over two hours twenty - the twin and its 2,622 km of range cover that without a stop.
Sion has an ILS on RWY 25 - perfect for IFR inbound when the foehn fills the valley. Cruise 356 km/h, Garmin G1000 NXi, MTOM 2,300 kg, useful load 720 kg. With seven on board and luggage I run the W&B for every mission - the aircraft is honest, but it's also real.
Two Austro diesels on Jet A-1 is my central argument. Over the Mediterranean, over night IFR, in IMC, I don't want a single-engine fuel reading. The price is the second maintenance schedule - that's the deal.
Sion LSGS is home - ILS on RWY 25, foehn discipline, excellent FBO service. Cannes-Mandelieu LFMD is the weekend address: strict, beautiful, noise-sensitive. Mali Lošinj LDLO as a summer island destination.
Salzburg LOWS for Austrian appointments. Bern-Belp LSZB when work or politics calls me to the capital. Samedan LSZS occasionally, but rarely - the twin isn't a high-altitude specialist, the approach demands a clean briefing.
A colleague in Lausanne flies a DA50 RG. We compare regularly: he has five seats, one engine signature, much less maintenance, and a lower acquisition cost. For many Swiss GA profiles that's the right choice.
My reality is different - seven seats used regularly, over-water flights common, deliberate IFR and occasional night. In that profile the twin is responsibility, not luxury. Pilots who experience the DA62 as 'too much aircraft' have the right profile for the DA50.
“Over big water, in IMC, at night - the second engine isn't an argument. It's the reason.”
What I'd do differently today: build a fixed MEP training rhythm with a Diamond-certified instructor from day one. MEP currency isn't a tick-box - it's a habit.
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