Bill Daniels wrote:

Looking hard at the yearly costs of participation, air tow looms large. The
50-75 flights required to attain a glider certificate will likely cost
something like $3000. Glider rental cost won't come down until the prices
do and I wouldn't ask the instructors to reduce their fees since we need
them badly. If 50 of the 75 flights were by winch instead of airtow, the
$3000 drops to $300. That's a pretty significant drop in up front cost for
a student pilot.


From what i can see here, winch launches don't make a big difference in the
total cost. Maybe you can hope a 20% gain in the total cost, which is good
but not sufficient. Fortunately in our country instructors instruct
for free ... Airports are more or less subsidized, hence don't cost much.
The real burden is the cost of new gliders if you want to maintain your fleet
current. You all assume that it is impossible to cut on glider prices. In
my opinion it is false. Let me just mention the Pegase which has been built
in France approximately at the same time as the German LS4 and with basically
the same performances. The Pegase was 1/3 cheaper, and you can be sure that
the factory was extremely far from efficient. Now where Lennie is perfectly
right, the snobism and elitism occurring in the soaring community was such
that the Pegase has always been badmouthed compared to the LS4, while
they are both excellent gliders. The clubs which have bought a large
quantity of Pegase have been able to offer modern gliders to their members
(Buno-Bonnevaux is an example) at reasonable price, and the result has
been excellent soaring performance for these clubs. Now wonder the price at
which a glider could be built in India, for example!


--

Michel TALON