Canadian DA-42, Mayday button?

flyboywbl

3rd regional in 1 year
Hey guys, to day at KBZN there was a Canadian DA-42 with a camera mounted under one of the engine nescells pointing straight down. Looking in the cockpit there is a red button marked "Mayday". It also had these probes sticking out from the ends of the wings. I wonder if this is like a surveillance plane or something. Any way i had never seen that before. Any one know what i'm talking about? I should of snapped a picture but i did not. I'll see if it's still there tomorrow to get a pick.

-Matt
 
Maybe a diamond test aircraft. They are using new engines so it could be part fo the test equipment.
 
I know Diamond has put several different types of surveillance equipment on the DA-42. Some of them are pretty butt-ugly. As far as the Mayday button, I have no clue. Is it possible that they moved the ELT or the Standby AI switch? Or maybe it jettisons the pod for better performance in engine failure. That would be awesome!
 
There is a guy here in OH that has a business of doing this. I have seen some very interesting equipment on a DA-20 and 182. His contract was for operations overseas.
 
I know Diamond has put several different types of surveillance equipment on the DA-42. Some of them are pretty butt-ugly. As far as the Mayday button, I have no clue. Is it possible that they moved the ELT or the Standby AI switch? Or maybe it jettisons the pod for better performance in engine failure. That would be awesome!
didnt one of those sensor planes crash?


edit:

yep

http://www.airframes.org/reg/oefcd

in Romania, 3 Fatal
 
Hmm. Anyone have more details on that accident? It seems with the G-1000 it should be pretty easy to see something like that coming.
 
Could it be like the easy button?

easybuttontv3.jpg


Alex.
 
Hmm. Anyone have more details on that accident? It seems with the G-1000 it should be pretty easy to see something like that coming.
The G1000 also has a tendency to direct the pilots attention way too far into the cockpit. And you can turn off the terrain and obstacle alerts. My understanding was that that plane did a lot of low level survey work. I would imaging the alarms would be going off all the time.

Hell, my terrain warning going off on short final (there is a mountain five miles ahead) bugs me to no end.
 
"Terrain, Terrain, Pull up, Pull up, Terrain, Terrain" It' gets annoying! especially when scud running. The problem with turing it off is that when you're low to the ground thats when you need it. I had to fly back from KSTP to KBIS, in a DA-40, about 500-1000 feet off the ground because of a low ceiling (I was not IFR rated at the time). we left it on because there were so many towers along the way. Boy it was annoying but it was nice to get a heads up on a tower we did not see on the sectional.
-Matt
 
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