Darryl - Thanks for the analysis. I agree. It would seem that the
manufacturers are erring on the side of being ultra conservative in
the short term. And maybe hurting their own reputation in the long
term.

Nick - Yes these TN's came out a while ago. I started trying to
figure out if I was affected or not back then. You must have better
deductive powers, and German, than I do as the serial number document
(http://www.dg-flugzeugbau.de/werknummer.rtf) is murky at best. If my
serial number is E102G72 then I am either SN 102 or SN 72 (from the
AD's point of view). Even DG seemed confused on this point. The
bottom line is tha ELANs are excluded. So, why don't they just make
that clear? I realize that they can't mention every glider that isn't
involved -- but in this case this is an important distinction.

I would have been rather upset if I had gone to the expense and
trouble (not to mention the downtime) of fixing a problem that didn't
need fixing because even the local DG dealers can't figure out serial
numbers. Sigh.

FYI - The second AD for the aileron rod end has already come out.
http://rgl.faa.gov/Regulatory_and_Gu...3?OpenDocument.
This affects all DG-100's and 200's of every stripe. At least that is
crystal clear. And DG/LS wants 250 Euros for the "release
certificate" no matter if your rod end needs replacing or not.
According to DG this is to pay for the filing of the European
paperwork.