I think you're quite wrong on this, Michel. The cost of a glider is mainly
man hours and development; materials count for something like a third. And
it's fairly easy to sell a glider 1/3 cheaper than competing models if you
take the design and the structure from a competitor and build it with a
different airfoil... although I must admit that I'll prefer the Pégase over
the LS4 anytime.
DG and others already switched the man hours to the cheaper countries like
Slovenia, but it's still hard to make a profit in this small market even
though price tags are high. And the reality is: if there is no profit to be
made, nobody will manufacture any gliders.
And no, Michel, instruction is not for free in France. Most medium and large
clubs in France have one or more instructors which are payed (and numerous
instructors who are not payed) - and even though the student doesn't pay a
fee by the hour, where do you think do the salaries come from ?!

--
Bert Willing

ASW20 "TW"


"Michel Talon" a écrit dans le message de
...
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