On 4/1/2010 10:34 AM, noel.wade wrote:
Raul -

Here's how I read Dirks' comments:

He is not commenting on whether the manuals must be updated every
year.
He's saying that the law makes it clear: _If_ a manufacturer updates
their manuals, the Owners/Operators and Maintenance personnel are
required to ensure that they're using the updated manual.
The law doesn't state that DG must over the revised manuals for free -
just that they are required to be available.

I think Dirks' comments are being used to tell pilots in the EU "don't
ignore the fees from DG. If you refuse to buy updated manuals, you're
flying illegally."

As an extreme example: DG could come up with a new manual every week.
They could charge 100 Euros per manual and require pilots to walk
across a bed of hot coals at the DG factory before giving them the
manual. And if a glider pilot/owner doesn't have the most recent
manual (i.e. for that particular week) then they are not in compliance
with the law - Period!

Bottom-line: The way the laws are written (from what Dirks says),
owners/pilots in the EU are hostages - they are at the mercy of the
manufacturer. Any time the manufacturer revises the manuals, the
owners/pilots/maintenance-personnel are _required_ to get them. The
onus is on those people for having the proper manuals, no matter the
cost.

--Noel



That is how Weber wants you to interpret Dirks' comments. However, my
take is just the opposite -- the EASA has told Weber that they will not
cooperate with his scheme. Weber can never admit that he is wrong, so
his latest is an attempt to explain that the bad news at the EASA
doesn't matter, because you still need the latest manual from DG. I may
be missing something, but it does seem to me that this means that the DG
scheme has been shot down.

DG has lost its enforcement mechanism, because now it is just DG, rather
then EASA, that will say previous manuals are invalid. I would think it
is only EASA, not DG, that has the legal power to make old gliders
unairworthy.

Also, I believe DG originally had intended for EASA to declare that you
must get a new manual for your glider directly from DG, presumably with
your serial number on it. Thus, DG could extort money for the new
manual. But EASA has not cooperated, so now once one person has an
updated manual, everyone else can make a copy. So it would appear that
DG has lost the ability to charge for the updated manual.