On Dec 4, 11:03*am, Jim Beckman wrote:
At 23:15 03 December 2010, John Cochrane wrote:

Maybe a $40k glider, meaning $800 lost interest or $2000/ year
interest cost, isn't that "expensive" after all. And with a partner
(an excellent idea for a first purchase) now we can talk about an $80k
glider! * Owning a glider is, in the end, pretty cheap.

You're overlooking insurance costs, no? *And the more expensive glider
does cost more when the insurance premium comes due.

Jim Beckman

Another point to bear in mind is that the older the glider, the bigger
the chance it might have been repaired or modified by a previous
owner.

Early in my ownership of an ASW-20 a decade or so ago, as I slowed in
a strong thermal at cloudbase, the ship did an instantaneous stall/
spin entry and in an instant I was looking at sand and cactus instead
of blue sky and fluffy clouds. It turned out that the previous owner
had installed lead weights at various places in the ship (including
tail and wings) and the weight and balance was WAAAY off. This was
despite having had one done (but improperly) just before I took
ownership. Restoring the weight and balance to within the
manufacturer's specs cured that problem, but it's made me carefully
inspect any ship, esepcially previously owned ones, for damage and
modifications.

And always do your own weight and balance!

Mike

PS - I now own a Discus 2 with a newer Cobra trailer and I second the
finance professor's opinion about ownership costs. Apart from the
initial capital, newer ships aren't that expensive. Now, if we could
get the Euro back down to 0.8 against the US dollar!