Comments on: Playboy - Why Me? http://www.darrylramm.com/2007/03/16/playboy-why-me/ musings on technology, marketing and personal interests Sat, 06 Sep 2008 06:19:23 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.1 By: Bruce Barnard http://www.darrylramm.com/2007/03/16/playboy-why-me/#comment-934 Bruce Barnard Thu, 15 Nov 2007 00:49:38 +0000 http://www.darrylramm.com/2007/03/16/playboy-why-me/#comment-934 Hi [Darryl], I'm a Fellow glider pilot, Porsche owner, Playboy subscriber ($12) and long time ago during college "List Rental Manager" for a large publishing company in L.A. (Arch Digest, etc.). I learned the ropes about junk mail, and I'd guess your name and address came from R&T or Stereophile, certainly not Excellence. This based on target audiences for each. A trick for your future subscriptions and Utility bills: Add a fake middle initial each time you add an account identifying the original biller. Example: M=Maxim, P=Playboy, W=Water, E=Electric, etc. Then when you get junk mail for Darryl P. Ramm, you'll know Playboy whored out your name (pun intended). On another note: if you were me, would you buy a certain DG303 acro, DG400, or other self launcher under 70K? Regards, Barny Hi [Darryl],
I’m a Fellow glider pilot, Porsche owner, Playboy subscriber ($12) and long time ago during college “List Rental Manager” for a large publishing company in L.A. (Arch Digest, etc.). I learned the ropes about junk mail, and I’d guess your name and address came from R&T or Stereophile, certainly not Excellence. This based on target audiences for each.
A trick for your future subscriptions and Utility bills: Add a fake middle initial each time you add an account identifying the original biller. Example: M=Maxim, P=Playboy, W=Water, E=Electric, etc. Then when you get junk mail for Darryl P. Ramm, you’ll know Playboy whored out your name (pun intended).

On another note: if you were me, would you buy a certain DG303 acro, DG400, or other self launcher under 70K?

Regards,
Barny

]]> By: darryl http://www.darrylramm.com/2007/03/16/playboy-why-me/#comment-940 darryl Thu, 15 Nov 2007 03:47:26 +0000 http://www.darrylramm.com/2007/03/16/playboy-why-me/#comment-940 Barny I would not buy a DG-400, they are getting old and prone to difficult and expensive repairs and DG seems to have trouble suppling spare parts. Dr. Jack lost most of a season flying because of this. On the other hand their core design compared to the DG-80x means they've had less problems overall. Largely probably due to shorter drive belt, less vibration and harmonics issues. Motor gliders are horrifically expensive, a new ASH-26E is around $250k(!) thanks to the pathetic US$ vs. Euro. People with used motor gliders know this and you will pay high prices for those in good condition. I suspect you just won't find a motor glider for anything like $70k that won't be a pile of problems or an outright death trap. A useful data point may be that two longtime DG-400 pilots I know have just brought ASH-26Es. Also look at Eric Greenwell's "A Guide to Self Launch Sailplane Operations" at http://asa.thixo.com/Guide_downloads.cfm - it is a good introduction to the subject. Many sailplane pilots I've talked with mistake why you would want a motor glider - especially you don't buy one for "tow plane avoidance". And people underestimate greatly the cost of ownership, extra hassles etc. And my first question with any motor glider purchase would be who is going to maintain it and how much do they really know about that particular glider and engine. That would guide what I purchased. In my situation that made the choice of an ASH-26E obvious since Williams Soaring know that motor glider inside and out and have a good relationships with Schleicher. Cheers Darryl Barny

I would not buy a DG-400, they are getting old and prone to difficult and expensive repairs and DG seems to have trouble suppling spare parts. Dr. Jack lost most of a season flying because of this. On the other hand their core design compared to the DG-80x means they’ve had less problems overall. Largely probably due to shorter drive belt, less vibration and harmonics issues.

Motor gliders are horrifically expensive, a new ASH-26E is around $250k(!) thanks to the pathetic US$ vs. Euro. People with used motor gliders know this and you will pay high prices for those in good condition. I suspect you just won’t find a motor glider for anything like $70k that won’t be a pile of problems or an outright death trap. A useful data point may be that two longtime DG-400 pilots I know have just brought ASH-26Es.

Also look at Eric Greenwell’s “A Guide to Self Launch Sailplane Operations” at http://asa.thixo.com/Guide_downloads.cfm - it is a good introduction to the subject. Many sailplane pilots I’ve talked with mistake why you would want a motor glider - especially you don’t buy one for “tow plane avoidance”. And people underestimate greatly the cost of ownership, extra hassles etc.

And my first question with any motor glider purchase would be who is going to maintain it and how much do they really know about that particular glider and engine. That would guide what I purchased. In my situation that made the choice of an ASH-26E obvious since Williams Soaring know that motor glider inside and out and have a good relationships with Schleicher.

Cheers

Darryl

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