Wearing my old foggies hat, a question: why is it necessary to
have an expensive glass two seater to teach cross country? I seem
to remember it was possible to set off on cross country in a "low"
performance single seater. Of course it resulted in field landings
and was a desperately slow way to learn. But it was the norm a
few decades ago; some instructors even flew X-country in K13s.
The extra costs of long aerotow retrieves from failed attempts are
very minor costs compared with the Club funding an Arcus Turbo.

I think a key issue is the mind-set of the Club instructors & X-
country pilots: a good Club is Key.

PS This method is probably why I am still so poor at X-country.