John Smith wrote:
We charge per minute, airborne to touchdown of the tow plane. With this
method, the glider pilot is absolutely free to decide where and how high
he wants to tow. (We have several release points, depending on the
weather, the time of day, where you want to fly and whether you want to
fight in your first climb or just release and go. And of course all our
gliders are radio equipped, so we can direct the tow pilot. (Such as in
"Try that big cloud at 10 o'clock."))

We expect the tow pilots to make the round trip as short as possible,
and they do their best. Of course there are some who do better than
others, and sometimes they manage to find thermals to accelerate the
climb, and sometimes they do not. We believe that it averages out over
the year and that charging per minute is the most transparent and
flexible method.

That is an interesting way to pay, although it seems unfortunate that I'd
have to pay extra for a go around if one should occur. My club, like most
(I think), charges by altitude and nothing more, except for exceptional
circumstances like aero retrieve. I think there's a lot to be said for
this, but in the back of my mind I always thought it was slightly unfair
that a fully loaded two-place trainer going to 3000ft on a hot summer day
got charged the same amount of money as a light single seater going to
3000ft on a nice cool day.

Anyway, enough commentary, I have an actual question: roughly what do your
costs work out to for, say, 1500, 2000, and 3000ft tows? Obviously it'll
depend a lot on conditions but I imagine you have some idea of what your
tow will cost before you launch even if it's not exact.

--
Michael Ash
Rogue Amoeba Software