On Feb 5, 11:21*pm, tienshanman tienshanman.
wrote:
What do you guys think: is it feasible for one guy with a 2 seat
motorglider to offer glider rides as a part time business; just to earn
a bit of spare cash? Do you know anyone doing this who is not part of a
larger commercial soaring operation or schoool? Would appreciate your
thoughts.

--
tienshanman

I love these "toss them out questions" on r.a.s. with no information.
Assuming you are in the USA, assuming you have a commercial license
and own a type-certificated motor glider then Burt's post has lots of
great information. I'll focus on the motorglider stuff.

There are not a lot of two seat motorgliders around, it's either going
to be a Stemme or ASH-25Mi at the high-end, a Grob SL or one of many
lower (soaring) performance touring motorgliders like a Grob 109,
Katana etc. There may be significant issues depending on what
motorglider you are talking about. What exact motorglider do you have?
How much experience operating it do you have? Both to understand it's
performance, practical operating limitations and costs?

Where are you based? Is it a great soaring location? With fantastic
scenery and captive/close by potential customers? What mix of flights
do you hope to provide? Longer actual soaring flights or 30 minute
quick rides? Burt mentioned aerobatics (which I assume is popular with
ride passengers), you are more likely to be limited there with most
motorgliders.

I'm hoping you have a touring style motorglider, but the problem with
some motorgliders, especially the retracting mast type, will be that
you may quickly increase engine hours which (depending on the glider
and it's current condition) could significnalty depreciate the value
or the glider and significantly increase maintenance costs. Many of us
motorglider pilots think in the tens or so minute of engine time
giving many hours of soaring. Changing to a profile that is more climb
and sled ride would significantly change the cost basis.

What will that 20-30 minutes or more of engine tach time per flight
cost you in routine maitnence, depreciation and set aside for non-
routine maintenance? On the other hand there are always the
possibility of doing this seriously, being successful and subsidizing
(post tax) some flying.

Then there are the performance and practical limitations. Which
depending on the type and your experience would vary from non-issues
to extreme limitations. Many motorgliders are underpowered and
relatively heavy. Can you accommodate typical full weight adult
passengers? Can you achieve safe climb rates with this load under
typical density altitude conditions you will need to fly under? What
climb AGL do you expect to need? 4,000'? 6,0000'? Can you meet the
climb rate and profile on high density/high temperature (what about
engine cooling at that required climb performance)? Can you operate
the motorglider safely from your base without additional ground crew?
etc.

I would hope these are all obvious things to any motorglider pilot -
but completely non-obvious to average Joe passenger and we absolutely
need to operate with the paying public with a wide safety margin.
We've had some unfortunate accidents in joy rides that in hindsight
(yes, sorry everything is easy in hindsight) involved low pilot
experience or other risks that should not have been inflicted on
unsuspecting passengers. Adding a motorglider into the mix may
increases the risks, so some thought needs to be made about that and
how to mitigate/minimize any risk increase.

On the business side are you up for interruptions to your personal
schedule, being interrupted by phone calls or having to return calls,
willing to spend money on website and other advertising and run in the
red for a while to build any business? It just seems that this sort
of thing is not something you undertake lightly "for spare cash".

Darryl