On Wednesday, October 28, 2015 at 4:05:08 AM UTC+3, Sean Fidler wrote:
86k is still a big check. Plus shipping, taxes, insurance and maintenance...

It looks like you could option an F350 to about the same price. Would it last as long, or need as little maintainance? I would be surprised.


And everyone goes crazy and only wants to discuss winches, and gets irritated when I argue for aero-towing.

Aero-towing or auto-towing?

If you have unused old military airfields, or dry lake beds then go for it with auto-towing!

In New Zealand it's hard enough to find space for a winch. Auto-towing surely needs more length for the same altitude.

The only places I can imagine auto-towing in NZ would be beaches. Or maybe on top of a ridge. With a suitable wind you need flying speed more than height.

Though some of the beaches are long enough that you could auto-launch to ridiculous heights with a long enough rope. "90 Mile Beach" has in fact more like only 55 miles of high speed driveable length. But that should be enough :-) There are plenty of other beaches with 5 or 6 mile runs.

A car (and someone to drive it), trailer, and glider with FES could make for very interesting touring holidays.