Motors are much more popular in Europe, towplanes more popular in the US. This is changing rapidly in the US. How often you start for a retrieve (and how you do it) depends a great deal on where you fly. I fly almost exclusively in the high Sierra desert. In that terrain when you are 4000 ft AGL you are very, very low and looking for a landing site. At 2000 AGL you are well below all the ridges (where the lift is) and likely to be preparing for the pattern. I fly out of Truckee, runway is 5900 ft MSL and surrounding mountains are 11,000 ft. You leave the area only on a good soaring day (which are frequent in season), chances of your getting back are pretty good. Most of the gliders on the field are non motor, and most of them get back every day too. A retrieve involves climbing to 11,000 to get over the surrounding mountains. End of day final glides usually start at 15,500 from 30 miles out, sometimes 18,000 from 60 miles out. Very different (I think - never flown a glider there) from the UK.

On Friday, April 23, 2021 at 5:39:12 PM UTC-7, waremark wrote:
On Friday, 23 April 2021 at 15:36:48 UTC+1, jfitch wrote:
If what you said were true, the podium at nationals would be crowded with MG pilots. How many MGs were represented on the podium (or even the top 5) in the last several 18 meter nationals? (hint: none).
I'm amazed. In the 2019 UK 18m Nationals I believe that every one of the 37 gliders entered had a motor.
I have started my motor I think 6 times in 20 years for a retrieve. Every time it was 1500 ft AGL over a paved runway marked on a sectional. The glider is too expensive to stuff into a field and too heavy to carry out of it.
I'm amazed again and impressed. I'm sure you're a brilliant pilot and I'm not. I start my engine for a retrieve several times a season, generally raising the prop at 1,000 foot over a field. If I was over a paved runway, and not conflicting with other traffic, I would probably go lower with the intention of landing if I couldn't soar and taking off again. I believe I am quite prudent compared to other motorglider pilot friends.