Diamond Katana in wind....(pilots please)?

Question

I know I keep asking this question, but people keep on telling me that this plane cant handle the wind I will be flying in. This week is my introductory flight, and the weather is supposed to be 10-14 and maybe fifteen knots. Is this going to be a bad experience for my first flight?

Answer 1

It'll handle it just fine. It might be a LITTLE bumpy on landing, but you'll have a lot of fun. and if it's a consistent wind, you may not even notice it till you are getting out of the plane. you get concerned when you near the 20's

Answer 2

I guess I would have to ask how much experience your "friends" have.  Google up a search for Katana flight review.  You will find comments such as...

The Diamond Katana is a 2-seat training aircraft with a European motorglider heritage. It is statistically safe, slow, forgiving, reliable, quiet, and cheap. You can buy an 80 hp Rotax-powered DA20-A1 for between $35,000 and $50,000 or newer versions with engines up to 125 hp for prices that approach $100,000. The Rotax-powered DA20-A1 can cruise at 95 knots indicated airspeed while burning just 3.25 gallons per hour. This article will concentrate on the 80 hp DA20-A1 because that's what the author has personally trained in (total of nearly 90 hours).

What is most addictive about the Katana is the visibility of the low-wing design combined with a plexiglass canopy. You feel as though you're part of the sky. With its constant-speed prop pulled back to 1900 RPM the interior is remarkably quiet and you're still cruising at 95 knots, just shy of the 104 knot standard cruise.

Pilots who regularly fly $500,000+ airplanes love the Katana. The examiner for my Private checkride was a 25,000-hour guy who has instructed on multi-engines and turbines. When I said that we were taking a DA20-A1 he said "I love the Katana; it is so much fun." My 1500-hour friend who owns a 240-knot Mooney Bravo also loves to goof around in the Katana and rents one whenever his Mooney isn't available.

The DA20-A1 cannot be IFR certified due to its lack of lightning protection.

Safety

The Katana has an excellent safety record. In the April 2001 issue of AviationConsumer.com the article "The Safest Trainer" (Jane Garvey and Paul Bertorelli) gives high marks to the Cessna 172 and the Katana. If you're unsure about the Rotax engine, you'll be comforted by this quote from the article: "The trainer with the best engine reliability record was the Diamond Katana, with only two engine failures, one of which was operator induced by lack of oil." Should you kill yourself in a Katana, you'll be the first American to do so. The plane's fatal accident rate of 0.2 per 100,000 hours is entirely due to a Canadian VFR-into-IMC incident.

No Diamond airplane has ever caught fire after an accident.

Answer 3

Is this your first solo flight or will you be flying with a CFI?

Answer 4

That's not wind. That's barely a breeze. You'll be fine. Who the h**l is telling you this? Jeez man, go have fun.