I am grateful that enterprising individuals have taken up the mantle of providing soaring services at Minden. It's a treasure of a soaring location. Certainly it's not the only good place to fly in the area, the western US, or the world, but one I'm glad to have continued access to Minden as it presents its own unique benefits.

I remain somewhat perplexed at the tendency of glider pilots to whine about relatively small differences in tow costs - particularly at commercial operations that don't run on free labor. I'd be shocked if these operations are making more than very low tens of dollars per hour per person once you account for fuel, maintenance, cost of the tied up capital, etc. Certainly nobody has joined the 1% towing gliders into the sky.

If $10-20 per tow is more important to you than the freedom to avoid pulling duty and pay club dues, by all means join or form a club and put in the hours and work to save yourself a couple hundred bucks per season, but surely it serves no useful purpose to criticize folks who serve the community while trying to scratch out a living.

The flat-rate offer is an interesting innovation. Hopefully it encourages a few folks with the time and motivation to do a lot of flying out of Minden and build up the baseload demand for tows.

Thanks Soaring NV!

Andy Blackburn
9B