The DG website has some details about these new fees, and even if you
support DG, and your DG is not liable for the fees (my DG303 is
exempt) and you tend to be sympathetic to the realities and costs of
business, there is a lot to puzzle over. If nothing else, this could
have been presented more convincingly.
The announcement, copied below, mentions the EASA costs in one
sentence but goes into more detail about the costs of answering
emailed questions, leaving the impression that it is the actions of
the owners themselves creating these costs by generating more
questions than DG can afford to deal with. Then, a service contract is
'offered' and a little lower in the annoucment it becomes clear that
in Europe, at least, this service contract will become mandatory.
If I was the owner of DG I would have handled this by releasing some
details of the cost study he cites, more details about EASA costs,
etc. (I'll bet the costs of the DG300 wing spar problem was included,
and it should not have been, as DG, the current and not the former
company, was on the hook for that one.) Again, I am sympathetic the
the owner of DG, but reading his presentations over the years he does
come across a bit arrogant at times and this is one of those times.
Brian
FROM DG:::::::::::::::::
DG-Flugzeugbau.de : Service Agreement
Cost Of Continued Support For Aircraft Built By The Former
Manufacturers Glaser-Dirks And Rolladen-Schneider
When DG Flugzeugbau was founded in 1996, it agreed without question to
continue the complete type support for any DG aircraft built to that
date.
At the same time, the Internet evolved into a mass-communication
medium, enabling pilots from all over the world to post their support
questions directly to the original manufacturer and type supporter.
This presented us with a steadily increasing flood of support
questions, and as you know, we answered them all.
Channelling the inquiries and the creation of the technical support
forum brought some temporary relive, but was eaten-up quickly by the
exponentially increasing flood of support questions.
The acquisition of the LS types from Rolladen-Schneider aggravated the
situation. And a temporary transfer of the LS-4 and LS-6
responsibility to Slovenia didn’t work out. AMS turned silent after a
short while, and the pilots begun calling us again.
Political pressure put on EASA to balance their budget from 2004 on
caused extra bureaucracy and soaring cost for us.
Continued support of the old aircraft types developed into a
substantial financial loss within the company. We did a detailed cost
analysis early in 2009, which revealed support yielding in a net loss
of multiple hundred thousands Euro each year, which had to be absorbed
and subsidized by other departments within the company.
This cannot continue as is, it would endanger the health of whole
company!
There is no question that selling a quite expensive new aircraft
creates a substantial after-sale support responsibility. We take this
as granted, therefore nothing will change for the aircraft
manufactured by DG Flugzeugbau GmbH since 1996, about 700 in total.
(The same, if one of these gliders is sold to another customer!)
Therefore, nothing will change for existing and future aircraft
manufactured by DG Flugzeugbau GmbH, after-sales support remains free
of charge.
However, what shall we do with all the old aircraft we inherited but
never sold? For which we never received a single penny and therefore
have no legal obligation to provide free service? These Glaser-Dirks
and Rolladen-Schneider aircraft are subject of the following.
We are unable to continue providing free service for aircraft
manufactured by Glaser-Dirks and Rolladen Schneider.
However, to assist you to keep your aircraft airworthy and in good
shape, we offer you a service agreement for an annual fee. Starting
with the year 2010 the following support services for Glaser-Dirks and
Rolladen-Schneider aircraft are only available through this service
agreement:
* Technical support
* Spare part support, as long as technically possible for us, even
for 30 years old aircraft. (Applicable also when ordering through an
aviation maintenance shop)
* Supporting material for service bulletins and airworthiness
directives. (free, except for the delivery of required material)
* Technical drawings (free)
* Required maintenance instructions (free)
* Manuals (free again)
* 50% Rebates on inspection procedures for service time extensions
* Special bonus from our Service Department: When your aircraft is
serviced through us, we will charge reduced working rates, with
savings up to the price of a one-year service agreement.
* Aero Clubs (and private people too) ordering a new aircraft from
us will receive free coverage of their existing DG and LS fleet.
* The prices for electronic manuals ordered after June 30, 2009
will be reimbursed when signing the annual service agreement.
A service bulletin issued at the end of this year and approved by EASA
will state the new regulations for service manuals: (1) Existing
service manuals will expire with the end of the year and have to be
replaced by new service manuals. (2) New service manuals are valid for
one year and will automatically expire thereafter. (3) Service manuals
must be renewed through a paid annual update service, which will at
least replace the cover page stating the new effectivity period.
Service manuals are mandatory for the operation of the aircraft.
The annual premium for the service agreement will be 245.00 Euro flat.
Owners up to 25 years of age and Aero Clubs get a reduced premium of
195.00 Euro. Where required by law, the adequate VAT or sales tax will
be added.
These prices assume owners enter the service agreement right away and
are calculated to provide the best value for the money. It will not
work out as savings to fly without service contract for a year or two
since intermediate cost and possibly recalculated new service
contracts might add up higher.
We can imagine that most affected pilots will be startled reading this
news. It is agreeably not so easy to accept paying for something that
was free for so long time.
However, we think it is only fair to ask aircraft owners to contribute
their share for covering the service cost of aircraft, which we
support but never earned any revenue on. In our heart we have strong
ties to all glider pilots in the world. But in the interest of these
pilots, we cannot continue subsidizing the community out of our own
pockets, as we have done for 13 years, and this way risk the ruin of
yet another manufacturer….
The only other alternative to paid service contracts would be to
abandon all type responsibility and service for the aircraft built by
Glaser-Dirks and Rolladen-Schneider. But we believe this would be in
noon’s interest.
Here You find the form for the service agreement. Please read it
carefully, complete all fields and sign it. Then send it to us via
letter, FAX or e-mail (as PDF document), and transfer the first
premium. This helps us to provide you with continued service without
interruption.
Thank you in advance.
Friedel Weber und Holger Back