Ok guys,
I did a bit of research on the issue. Here the key points from DG's
posting with some additional information about DG's and Elan's
history. For those who wonder, I'm a native German speaker :-) :
The issue:
- Elan, who has been producing all DG 300/303 since its launch (up it
being taken over by AMS-Flight in 1999), apparently changed the
production process of the main spar at some unknown point in the past
without Glaser-Dirks (the DG predecessor) approval leading to the
possibility of faulty main spars (not all main spars produced by them
are necessary faulty).
- The glider that initially revealed the faulty main spar as a result
of a servere landing accident is about 20 years old with aprox. 1500h.
- There are about 500 DG-300/303 gliders still flying with an average
age of about 15 years and a total of about 1 million hours.
- No DG 300/303 has ever had a failed wing in flight as a result of
structural failure.
- The required breaking strength of the wing at the time of
certification was 1.725 times the max allowed in flight-load. The
actual certification test to failure was stopped at 2.1 times the max
allowed in-flight load without the wing failing.
- DG does not now how many gliders are affected, out of 8 tested 3 had
a faulty main spar.
- To test the wing is difficult and expensive, the wing has to be cut
open.
Possible solutions:
1. All gliders will be grounded
2. All gliders will have to be inspected within a reasonable time
period and repaired if necessary. The inspection would cost around EUR
6000 per glider, a repair, if necessary can easily reach EUR 5000. All
gliders would have to come to DG's factory in Germany since it would
be near impossible to develop guidelines about what is still
acceptable and what has to be repaired.
3. DG tries, using calculations, tests to failure and load tests on
faulty main spars, to prove that even faulty main spars have enough
strength as a result of the very high structural reserves of the
original design. This approach might allow to continue operating the
glider with reduced operating limits without the need for inspections
and repairs.
DG decided to go the 3. route to avoid having to ground all gliders
and has spent to date about EUR 10,000 to do the required testing.
Based on the suprisingly good results when testing the faulty main
spars they got the following operating limitations approved by the
EASA (European FAA equivalent):
New Operating Limits for all DG-300/303:
- Max speed reduced from 270 km/h to 250 km/h
- Maneuvering speed reduced from 200 km/h to 175 km/h
- MTOW reduced from 525 kg to 450 kg
- No aerobatics (also applies to the DG-300 Acro)
If you want to avoid these limitations you will have to get the glider
inspected and repaired if necessary.
The liability/legal issues/responsability:
The great majority of the affected gliders were delivered by & paid to
Glaser-Dirks which went bankrupt in 1996. The current DG-Flugzeugbau
only took over the Type Certificates and spare part supply but not the
product liability, the actual gliders and faulty main spars were not
manufactured by Glaser-Dirks but by Elan which does not dispute this.
Elan refuses to shoulder any costs related to the investigation of the
faulty main spars and does not respond to any inquiries. All gliders
with faulty main spars produced by Elan are out of warranty.
About 10 gliders were produced by Elan or its successor AMS-Flight and
delivered by the current DG-Flugzeugbau, all these gliders are out of
warranty as well.
AMS-Flight was established in 1999 to continue Elan's existing
aircraft production and took over the entire Elan Flight Division of
Elan as of Sep. 1st, 1999. AMS produced and delivered about 25 gliders
under their own responsibility and claims, that they converted the
production process back to the original specifications. However, they
don't seem to be able to state when and starting with which serial
number they did so. It is likely that the only DG-303s that are still
under warranty are technically ok but nobody knows for sure and only
an inspection will be able to prove that.
Here the companies' time lines & current sales:
1973 - Glaser-Dirks Flugzeugbau GmbH founded, prudction of the DG-100
begins
1978 - Elan founded
1983 - DG-300 introduced and produced by Elan
1996 - Glaser-Dirks Flugzeugbau GmbH goes bankrupt -> DG Flugzeugbau
GmbH buys up key parts of Glaser-Dirks (excluding the product
liability of the DG-300 series), Elan continues to produce the
DG-300/303.
1999 - AMS-Flight established to continue Elan's existing aircraft
production, takes over the entire Elan Flight Division of Elan as of
Sep. 1st, 1999.
2006 - AMS-Flight stops DG-303 ELAN manufacturing. As of February 2006
444 DG-300 ELAN & 67 DG-303 ELAN gliders were produced.
2006 - AMS sales EUR 2.4 million (projected), 40 employees
2006 - DG sales EUR 7 million (delivered 50 planes), 75 Employees
The potential costs of fixing all affected DG-300/303 gliders
Inspection: 500 gliders in service x EUR 6000 per inspection = EUR
3,000,000
Repairs: 188 gliders (3 out of 8) x EUR 5000 per repair = EUR
940,000
Total (without any related costs): EUR 3,940,000 (approx. USD
5,265,000)
Looking at that total you can see that this could potentially bankrupt
either company (with related loss of employment), hence DG's close
look at their legal responibility...
I'm not taking any sides on this, look at above facts and judge for
yourself. Either way there will only be losers in this messy affair...
Markus
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