Uiteindelijk snijdt DG hard in zijn eigen vlees. Zweefvliegtuigen met een dergelijke ondersteuning van de fabriek, daar zit niemand op te wachten. Wel erg jammer want een faillissement van al weer een zweefvliegconstructeur doet de sport en diversiteit geen goed.
DG/LS
This is a good moment to in a little more detail talk about DG's infamous service contracts. DG tries to exploit a
clause in Part-M to make people believe they need to sign that service contract with them (Wilhelm Dirks explains
this in a letter in much detail - can be found on the internet). Part-M mandates you always need to use the
latest documentation with your plane.
And DG sells them to you at the cost of the annual services contract.
However: if you refer to the original manuals of your plane in the documents section of the aircraft maintenance
program (AMP) and get approval for it (which you will, as many national authorities are pissed by DG's
approach) you are perfectly legal and ok to operate your plane. If anyone tries to tell you anything different - first
check that they know what they are talking about and then double check their financial interest. If in doubt, call
the CAMO-person of the National Civil Aviation Authority of the country of your plane's registry.
In addition, the EASA Type Certificate Data Sheet (TCDS) for DG and LS planes clearly states that you can use
either the original manuals or the new ones (and in that sense EASA sort of contradicts themselves somewhat -
probably because they also don't like the idea of Part-M being exploited by DG Flugzeugbau). Check the TCDS
out in the technical documents section of the EASA website.
Bottomline: an approved aircraft maintenance program overrules any more generic regulation.
