Two adventurous Romanian gentlemen made a dream come true and completed an amazing journey from Tuzla, Romania to New York, USA in a 4-seat, single engine piston aircraft – the versatile Diamond Aircraft DA40 NG.
On 9 July 2019, Aurelian Vintilescu and David Stoica took off from Arad, Romania and safely landed in New York on 18 July.
They flew the following route including stops for rests, re-stocking supplies, technical checks and re-fueling:
- Arad (Romania)
- Vienna (Austria)
- Groningen (The Netherlands)
- Wick (Scotland)
- Faroe Islands
- Reykjavik (Iceland)
- Kulusuk (Greenland)
- Goose Bay (Canada)
- Portland (USA)
- New York (USA)
David Stoica: “I called the Diamond factory in Austria before even thinking seriously about doing this and asked to speak to an experienced pilot. I was put through to a company ferry pilot and he helped me a lot. Cheers to the engineers and all the people at Diamond that are building these airplanes. These are amazing machines and so easy to fly.”
About Aurelian Vintilescu and David Stoica
Captain of the trip, Aurelian Vintilescu, 59 years old, is holding a PPL (Private Pilot Licence), graduated from Tuzla Training Organization in 2016 and has about 200 hours of flight experience, all on Diamond aircraft.
David Stoica is only 26 years old and has completed his ATPL (Airline Transport Pilot License) in 2017.
About the Aircraft
The airplane with call sign YR-WDW, is a Diamond Aircraft DA40 NG, that was purchased from Diamond’s Romanian distributor Regional Air Services in 2016.
The modern all composite DA40 NG, equipped with state-of-the-art Garmin G1000 NXi glass cockpit and highly efficient and quiet jet-fuel AUSTRO engine is especially ideal for beginners because of its superb handling characteristics or for experienced IFR pilots and very popular with flight schools all over the world. With more than 2,000 Diamond DA40’s in worldwide service today, many in high utilization commercial operations at renowned flight training organizations, the DA40 fleet is proving its durability and safety, day in and day out.
Very, very well done, Aurelian and David – you are truly inspirational. Thank you for sharing your story and pictures. It is pleasure having you in our #DiamondAircraftFamily!
Do you have a Diamond story, pictures or video to share for our #DiamondDiary? We'd love to hear from you at airmail@diamondaircraft.com.