On Aug 19, 3:51 pm, Stewart Kissel
wrote:
Are DG's all finished in poly? What about Duo and
other SH products? Poly or gel?

Personally I think the exchange rate being a little
more favorable would make either ship more appealing.

Does any sailplane manufacturer not have poly/acrylic paint as an
option now? On DG sailplanes it is an option, not standard, at least
the last DG price book I looked at. SH I think paint is still an
option not standard. But poly/acrylic paint is available on both and I
don't see why anybody now days would not go that way. For a few $k and
considering the base price of these sailplanes I'm suprised anybody
ordering one today would want to save a few $K by avoiding the paint
option.

That thick DG gel coat that looks just beautiful out of the factory is
prone to temperature cycling related cracking on the upper wing,
usually running from the spoiler box to the trailing edge. We had one
such crack in our gelcoat finished club DG-1000S ground out and
repaired but you never know it may come back. I have one similar in my
DG-303 barely visible but its there. I expect choosing poly/acrylic
paint would greatly reduce the chance of any similar cracking. My
*impression* is the SH gelcoat does not stand up to UV exposure as
well as the DG gelcoat do, but are much less prone to temperature
related cracks. I think Jack Harkin's new Duo-X (mentioned in other
Duo threads) has paint, but I'm not sure (she looks beautiful,
sigh, ... I'm in love).

It is nice to see some manufactures stopping messing around with long
lists of options and doing things like making acrylic paint the
standard, like Schleicher on the new ASH-30 (yes I know for the price
you'd hope so).

Darryl