Ruud,

How old is your Duo - and did you find out how old
the other one at the factory was? I am hoping that
the production problem is of recent duration and not
spread thoughout all ages of the fleet.

Our Duo T S/N 35 was delivered in December 2001 and
has not been inspected yet.

John Galloway


At 12:18 06 August 2003, Ventus2ct Ruud Holswilder
wrote:
The problem with the Duo could not have happened at
a worse time.
Right in the middle of the soaring season and the Schempp-Hirth
factory on holiday.
A lot of SHK workers volunteered to skip their vacation
and help out
with the inspections that started already started last
weekend.
I made the 700 Km drive to Kirchhein on Sunday afternoon.
Next day SHK workers were already busy from 7 AM.

The inspection procedure is rather simple.
One team is taking care of the removal of ailerons
and drilling
inspection holes.
After that the inspection team comes in with a boroscope.
If no defects are found, the holes in airbrake box
are repaired; the 2
small holes (12 mm) in the lower skin are reinforced
with epoxy and
covered by tape.
Ailerons installed , paper work done and you're out
in about 3 to 4
hours.

Unfortunately the left wing of my Duo had a 4 cm defective
bond near
the wing tip and repairs were needed.
From that entire number of Duo's present at that time;
there was one
other Duo who needed similar repairs.
They had to cut out a few small panels in the underside
of the wing to
make repairs to the bonding of the spar.
After this they had to repair the cut-outs and restore
the finish.
This took about 24 hours of extra time.

Next week the CS factory that manufactures most of
the Duo parts will
be back from vacation.
A hefty investigation will start…