RE: DA50- Anybody Having Trouble?
Mine went back to DA as well after 5 gallons it had a ringing sound that you really could hear when the plane was in a hover. They did the same for me as most others, pretty much replaced everything inside the engine and sent it back no charge.
I talked with Dave for almost 40 minutes on the phone about the issues the 50 was having and he said they had determined that the lower end bearing they were using early on was just not up to the task. The also had an issue with bearing suppliers selling them bearings that were slightly off spec and that had caused a bunch of problems. Also, the 50 being a single cylindar is not as well balanced a design as the twins are and they tend to hammer the rod and crank harder than the 100 and 150, necessitating bearing changes every so often. As far as warrantee I agree that DA doesn't seem to have a true timeframe that has a hard expiration date. I know quite a few guys that have sent 3 and 4 year old twins back in and DA serviced them for free or a small charge and paid the shipping back to the owners.
First class comapny all the way IMO.