Mark James Boyd Wrote:

" I'm not self-launch endorsed, but other than this and the fact your
engine is probably a $10,000 one cylinder chainsaw engine"

Well...I'm not sure if this is intended to be flippant or not...but I'll say
my DG uses a two cylinder, dual CDI ignition, dual carburetor Rotax...about
505 cc's. The engine is very nicely mounted on isolation dampeners and
really runs very smoothly, though it does have a slight harmonic in the
4,000rpm range you feel when you shut it down...I think the cost is easily
considered as follows: this years 170 hours of soaring used 4.2 engine hours
( 21 gallons of super unleaded) If I'd average 3 three hours per flight that
would be about 57 tows...say $30 a tow to be safe...around $1700 for the
year...I'll leave out the 8 or 9 retrieves, when I either went straight out
somewhere and landed, or simply got nailed and had to land
somewhere...either way, retrieve costs could easily add up to a substantial
cost, but I just started up and headed home...in my 700 hours of flying the
DG-400 I have only had one very minor engine complication, self remedied,
but trying to be unbiased. I would assert that the dollar per flight hour
vs. freedom from tow lines and the benefit of going when and where I want is
worth the minor investment and I believe it actually pays for itself over a
5 year period.

My Stihl on the other hand..also has CDI igition AND mixes the fuel/oil for
me...I sure wish the DG did that.


Steve