On Sunday, July 15, 2018 at 12:48:07 AM UTC-5, John Foster wrote:
On Saturday, July 14, 2018 at 2:43:06 PM UTC-6, wrote:
American clubs need to bite the bullet and start renewing our fleet or we will continue to shrink. 100k for a glider shared across the membership and amortized isn't that much. An ASK21 is a steal compared to a c172.

Its a little hard doing that when your "club" consists of 4 working stiffs, all of which don't even have the money to go out on their own and get a glider pilot's license. We're trying to get something started here in MT. And I can find a used airworthy c172 for easily as much or less than I can find a used ASK21 (which I have yet to see a used one go for anything less than $75,000).

When my club, SES, started, we were launching with a car, a rope, and a pulley. I think there were around 10 members at the time. We found a Ka-8 and a Ka-7 that needed some love. Financed them at a local bank and paid interest only on the loans for a few years. I think we were paying something like $60/month for the Ka-7. Now we average around 40-50 members, 2 Ka-8's in pristine condition, a pretty good looking Ka-7, and a high(er) performance 2 seater (Scheibe SF-34), a Standard Cirrus, and a Pawnee tug. All paid for now, by the way. Regardless of what gliders you have, if they fly regularly, your club will most likely make it.