I belong to a glider club that is looking at the possibility of offering
rides to help us to defray our operating costs and keep our club healthy
financially. In order to evaluate the feasibility of this I am looking into
the regulations that would apply to such an operation, as well as the
insurance impact.

Our present understanding is that both the tow plane and the glider would
need to have 100-hr inspections and that the pilots of the tow plane and the
glider would need to have a commercial rating as well as a second class
medical for the towplane pilot.

However, we are uncertain as to some of the other regulations such as
compliance with drug testing and the requirement for an LOA for this type of
operation, since it appears that there may be some exceptions when it comes
to gliders.

Can someone with experience in this area help to shed some light on these
aspects as well as anything else that we should be aware of?

Thanks.

Bruce