DG quality?

Am Donnerstag, 7. Januar 2016 21:00:10 UTC+1 schrieb Dave Walsh:
I stand corrected; good that NOAH is available in Schempp
gliders. Ancient trials of ancient glider pilots trying to "bail
out" on the ground wearing added lead to simulate high g
forces showed that even fit pilots need help!
Dave Walsh

NOAH is (or was?) also offered by AS.

Of course I'm not going to write names here, but I remember pictures of the wing sections of different gliders actually showing cleaner, tidier or messier looks inside, especially in the spar/skins glueing areas. Those pictures have widely been used as selling points.
Nevertheless, I also remember brand new sailplanes with ballast leaking from the leading edge, so tidy doesn't always mean perfect.

Other sellers use the stability of wing profile as a selling point, which seems reasonable to me, as reprofiling is very expensive.

In the age of gelcoat, some makers used a product that would need a total repaint within 10 years or less, so a high quality finish was a strong selling point for the messier wings...

Occasionally sailplanes need fixing some original defects, and this is also where the service provided by the manufacturers highly differs. Kudos to the maker of my current ride for providing everything at no cost under warranty (in Europe the law provides 2 years protection from original defects to every customer). Some friends have had what I would consider totally unacceptable service by other makers, having to pay cash for their mistakes, and after lenghty discussions.

Ask around, then choose what you really like, it's the sailplane you are probably going to fly for a decade.

aldo cernezzi
www.voloavela.it

On Tuesday, January 5, 2016 at 1:34:21 PM UTC-8, wrote:
I know this is somewhat subjective. Factory support agreements, etc. aside, has anyone noticed any difference in the quality of newer DG production models compared to SH and Schleicher? Thanks

One of the hardest carrier landings I ever saw was on a DG1000. I was pretty impressed with the durability after seeing that and it never missed a beat and continued on flying..