"Tony Verhulst" wrote in message
...

That beautiful Skylaunch III kit will cost close to $60,000 once you add
an engine, shipping, and the miscellaneous parts needed to complete it.
I doubt there are more than one or two clubs or commercial gliderports
in the US that could justify that kind of expenditure, given their
current levels of operation.


Unfortunately, our site is not suitable for winching, but if it were......

We did about 2000 aero tows last year - using a Pawnee, a C182 (since
replaced with another Pawnee), and a birddog. If we got a winch, we
could sell a Pawnee for around US$30,000 and save about US$10,000 PER
YEAR in maintenance (including engine reserve). If we did 1000 winch
launches at $10 per launch... Hmmmm, a pretty easy sell to the board of
directors, I think.

Tony V.


"I doubt there are more than one or two clubs or commercial gliderports
in the US that could justify that kind of expenditure, given their
current levels of operation."

Could it be that the "current level of operation" is due to high air tow
costs and that a winch operation would fix that?

Bill Daniels