DG's in competition?

As an actual DG-300 owner, let me try to answer with more than just a
complaint about the Service Fee (which, yes, I hate; and do not pay.
My ship is registered experimental and therefore I rarely have to
actually buy a factory part).

For one reason or another, DG's were never developed with racing as
their top priority (unlike, say, some of the S-H ships). Early on,
the folks behind DG were working on lots of other things besides
winning races. High-end performance was sought, but not optimized.
They don't seem to have pursued new airfoils as aggressively as some
others (witness the DG-400 re-using the DG-200 wing, with its older
Wortmann airfoil). My DG-300 is a prime example of the company's
priorities: It has much better ergonomics, visibility, and control-
harmony than many of its contemporaries (the LS-4 being one notable
exception in the realm of ergonomics and control-harmony). The DG-300
was also one of the very first gliders to have all-automatic control
hookups, and a ballast-dump system that prevents the CG from migrating
aft during the dumping process.

But starting about the time the DG-300 came out, a lot of the glider
manufacturers realized that simply achieving max L/D was no longer the
ultimate goal of their research and new aircraft. They'd reached a
point of severe diminishing returns in that realm. And as cross-
country flying became more refined it was realized that higher wing-
loadings and faster speeds were the areas to concentrate on. In the
mid/late 1980's (right after the DG-300 came out), research and new
aircraft shifted towards airfoils that no longer pushed for a higher
overall L/D; but instead had a flatter polar and retained more of
their L/D at higher speeds. For example: At low speeds and
thermalling, I can do just as well (if not beat) modern racing
machines with similar wingspans & wing-loadings. But when cruising at
80 knots my DG-300 sinks a full 40-60 feet per minute more than a more
modern ship like an LS-8. This isn't really noticeable in casual XC
flying; but in racing it adds up.

At the time the DG-300 came out, the differences in performance were
much smaller, though. Unfortunately, I think DG miscalculated in
thinking that a safe-and-pleasant-to-fly glider would sell on its own
merits. The other manufacturers concentrated on race results and
contest victories as "proof" of the superiority of their aircraft
designs, and were largely successful in their efforts. Given the
rapid advance of soaring technology over the 1970's and 1980's, race
victories helped buoy the idea that a ship that won a contest was "the
new hot thing". DG was never "the new hot thing" on the circuit, and
so it never gained the reputation as a racer.

Fast forward to today. I bought my DG-300 thinking I wouldn't get
into racing (I was concentrating on safety and ergonomics and value-
for-the-dollar so the DG-300 made sense for me). Several people told
me at the time that I was making a bad choice because "DG-300's don't
really 'go' - look at the race results". Yet I have successfully
campaigned my DG-300 in a half-dozen Regional contests (in Sports
Class) over the last 3.5 years. I've consistently finished in the top
5, including taking 2nd place at the Ephrata regionals (my "home"
contest) 3 years in a row. I also took 4th (technically 5th, behind
an Aussie guest pilot) at the Std Class Nationals a few weeks ago -
which was a handicapped race this year. The people that finished
above me in the Nats were all current or former National Champions
with at least 20+ years more flying experience - so I'm OK with where
I wound up. I've only been flying gliders for 5.5 years; so its not
like I'm some jedi-master of the sport - the ship *has* to be
reasonably competitive for this to be possible. I've also set state
records and made 500+ km flights with the aircraft; its certainly no
slouch!

--Noel
P.S. Eric: Sadly, No. It includes DG's built by the former Glaser-
Dirks company. Basically, anything that the DG Flugzuegbau company
supports that it isn't currently selling as a new glider is subject to
the "fee". So far I've always been successful in ducking it,
though. :-P