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On Mar 17, 1:14 pm, Brad wrote:
When a soaring club provides towplanes to a regional or national
contest, how is a club typically compensated for loaning out their
equipment, or are they?

Is a contest and the use of a club towplane by non-club members seen
as a "commercial" operation? And if so, does the towplane need a 100
hour inspection to be legal?

How are tow fees assesed so that contestants, who are probably not
members of the club providing the towplane, pay a fair amount so that
club members are not subsidizing their tow fee?

Brad

Use of club tugs at contests is now an available endorsement under the
SSA insurance program. Our club policy has it and it was automatic
this year on renewal.
That said, current concensus is that this is a "for hire" situation
and the insurance company expects that pilots flying will have the
appropriate certificate and that the tug will have appropriate
inspections for this use(read 100 hr). BTW- if you do annual every 100
hr, you can roll these over and never have this concern.
There is some ambiguity in resposes by FAA related to certificates
required, but the prudent thing to do is to use commercially rated
pilots. This is clearly what the insurance company expects.
Currently approved tow rates for contests should create no financial
issues for tow providers.
Good Luck
UH


UH---
Where did the consensus come from? Clearly charging for tows makes it "for
hire". Is there consensus as well about towpilot required certificates.

FAR 61.113 "Private Pilot Privileges" list exceptions to the "no
compensation" rules. Sub Paragraph (g) allows "towing a glider".
It is totally unequivocal, and the sentence structure is plain. This is in
contrast with the sentence structures referring to qualifications of a
towpilot, in another paragraph.

We have run into a problem due to this for the upcoming 15m Nationals at
Cordele. We have, with some difficulty, finally rounded up enough Commercial
rated towpilots, but it will cost more ferry fuel.

I have sought clarification via the SSA Government Liason Committee and they
are working on it.

Hartley Falbaum
"KF" Georgia, USA