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On Sep 17, 1:20*am, Morgan wrote:
I think Erik nailed it on where the money goes and why we are
challenged in the US in a variety of ways.

Insurance is our single largest fixed cost. *Nearly half of your
club's insurance costs and not covering nearly as nice of equipment.
A Duo in the US with commercial coverage would cost in the
neighborhood of $4000 to insure. *More or less depending on the
declared value, but you can see that just covering the insurance for
100hrs of flight time per year is $40/hr. *If it sits idle for part of
the year, that makes the hourly rate even worse.

Critical mass of clubs is obviously dependent on the fixed costs, but
I'd venture to guess that somewhere around 40 paying members is
required to cover basic fixed costs with dues in the $30/$40 a month
range. *If you want to buy or lease new aircraft, you're tacking on
$10-20/mnth for every acquisition. *But add 10 members and you don't
need to add any additional monthly rate.

If I can succeed in building our club by 10-20 members, that is enough
to afford the mortgage/lease on a pretty nice glider or several decent
gliders. *It costs almost nothing in additional overhead to add 10 or
20 members, but their dues go straight to improving the clubs
financial strength and more importantly you need a large base in order
to keep the club active. *People lead busy lives, so 10 or 20% of the
membership coming out on the weekend might be all that is reasonable
to expect.

I have looked at alternative fee structures. *We do not charge an
hourly rate for our aircraft, so we aren't that far off your club
rates. * If I had the same number of members as your club, I'd
probably be able to roll back dues to $30/mnth and that puts us in a
similar price range to your German rates of around $400/yr. *But no
winch to provide cheap launches, so you're definitely getting a good
deal. *I'd rather charge a couple more dollars per month and eliminate
the per flight fees. *It's just an accounting headache and in the end
doesn't raise a tremendous amount of money.

Good to hear how it works for others.

Morgan


Texas Soaring Association and Bay Area Soaring Associates self-insure
and perhaps others do also, including at least one commercial
operator.

Renter/non-owner insurance is left to the member/user.

Frank Whiteley