"tommytoyz" wrote in message
...
I don't own any of these gliders, but after reading Herr Weber's
reasoning, it makes sense. He is not responsible to support those
aircraft. The alternative would be for him to just drop all support.
Would that be better? Maybe it would.

But it is his responsibility ! What he and many readers are not
acknowledging is the simple fact that he bought these companies out of
bankruptsy FOR the name and the legacy , the legacy is the assets, the
company names and along with their following and name recognition is this
liability, which he assumed would also and I'm sure has brought his company
many profitable sales and profits from support. He could have just as well
started a new company, created a name, even used the design rights since he
bought these out of bankruptsy and began anew, but without the name
recognition would have had to struggle along with every other company to
create a product and name that would be associated with the history he would
have created. He does have a right to charge what he wants for the parts and
even the manuals he produces and he could have turned away any
responsibility for supporting old designs if he had not already claimed he
IS the old company.




Interesting would be to compare how the old Glasfluegel, Grob, and
other owners cope with the issue of their manufacturers being out of
business. Would it be better if nobody supported the aircraft, so long
as no serious problems arise?

The original Glasflugel gliders are still very well supported, probably
better than many other old models from their respective manufacturers by
Glasfaser-Flugzeug-Service GmbH, Hansjörg Streifeneder, After the bankruptcy
of Glasflügel, Hansjörg Streifeneder felt committed to the work of Eugen
Hänle and continued with the maintenance and certification of all Glasflügel
gliders. He founded the Glasflügel Aircraft Service GmbH.
http://www.streifly.de/glasfluegel-e.htm He also has the right to sell these
parts and services for whatever he deems is fair and profitable.

Grob has ceased production of gliders for many years and still offers
support for most of their products. They too have the option to charge
whatever they see as needed.
But neither of these companies have come to all of the owners of their old
and long out of production aircraft and demanded a royalty from the owners
for something they don't even promise to support or supply parts for.
tim