DG-303 spar issues - puchase?

I'm on my fifth year of having a DG303. Great flying ship, was very easy to transition into. great climber and runs side by side with most ships there, until about 75-80 kts, then performance will fade a little. Very comfortable, great view.

I appreciate the kind words from Mike C. about MQ that I have listed on W&W after well over a decade of flights. I flew it after two-seaters, a 1-26, Libelle and Discus. I think that new glider pilots have some great options in the Discus/DG300/LS4 category with automatic hookups and nice (perhaps read as Cobra) trailers. These ships seem much friendlier to me than other ships new glider pilots get stuck in.

Friendly and Comfortable- I did not fly mine for 18mos and was able to zoom around at 108km/h dry on my first flight for a couple of hours. I love the friendly wing (perhaps read as fat) and the relatively large rudder with outboard aileron positions that make it roll much faster than the Discus. I like the DGs so much that I am hoping to finally step up into another as I planned so many years ago when I thought I should continue to build hours in the DG300 first (perhaps read as not having enough coin).

It seems like there are many options for anyone in the market now. I will not be too sad if this means it will be another decade of flying my DG300. I would like to add some complexity and glide points now that I have added another 500hrs of experience though.

I forgot to add (my personal thoughts) that while I lost much sleep each and every day learning about the later ship spar issue hard landing story as it unfolded by reading posts and looking at pictures, following the releases from DG (post bankruptcy new ownership DG), discussing things with the other owners, talking to DG dealers, traveling to Germany, looking at an "inspected/repaired" ship in person with their photos of nothing found or changed, talking to multiple dealers and repair stations, reviewing the resulting technical note, reading the test reports and doing some calculations of my own on both best and worst scenarios as a working principal engineer that has developed aircraft structures...I have never lost a night's sleep concerned about the rovings in the spars on my early ship since conducting that research.

Warning- Your ship that had higher strength ratings (manufactured over 500 aircraft over two decades by different crews in different locations at Elan and in its third decade of manned flight) is now disowned of liability by new owners of the parent company and is now noted that it could have strengths similar to comparable ships that had initially slightly lower ratings. For a reality check on all our ships and strength effects/variability encountered in production and repairs you could buy or borrow my copy of SAE's Care and Repair of Advanced Composites by Keith Armstrong or just talk to your nearest expert like Steve Hill here, maybe buy them lunch.

On Friday, June 5, 2020 at 3:48:51 AM UTC-4, MQ wrote:
I appreciate the kind words from Mike C. about MQ that I have listed on W&W after well over a decade of flights. I flew it after two-seaters, a 1-26, Libelle and Discus. I think that new glider pilots have some great options in the Discus/DG300/LS4 category with automatic hookups and nice (perhaps read as Cobra) trailers. These ships seem much friendlier to me than other ships new glider pilots get stuck in.

Friendly and Comfortable- I did not fly mine for 18mos and was able to zoom around at 108km/h dry on my first flight for a couple of hours. I love the friendly wing (perhaps read as fat) and the relatively large rudder with outboard aileron positions that make it roll much faster than the Discus. I like the DGs so much that I am hoping to finally step up into another as I planned so many years ago when I thought I should continue to build hours in the DG300 first (perhaps read as not having enough coin).

It seems like there are many options for anyone in the market now. I will not be too sad if this means it will be another decade of flying my DG300. I would like to add some complexity and glide points now that I have added another 500hrs of experience though.

Thanks, everything I've heard about the DG-300's has been what I expected. You're right, there are so many for sale at the moment, and I think I'll make a decision soon.