To Pawnee or not to Pawnee...that is the question...

"Frank Whiteley" wrote in message
oups.com...
On Oct 21, 10:07 am, Michael Ash wrote:
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

Wear and tear on low tows is higher. Several clubs have a hookup
charges to account for this. One large club I know something about,
waives their active 'ops teams' members the hookup charge as an
incentive for their service. The 'ops teams' work together regularly
as scheduled. IIRC, hookup is $10/tow. So if you fly often, the
value of your service time is pretty good. IANACPA, but fee waivers
may be easier to handle than credits in a financial sense (no 1099-
misc at the end of the year?).

Another example, $8 hookup, $1.00/100ft, so a 2000ft tow is $28.00, up
from $0.85/100ft 18 months ago. Tows above 9500msl or wave tows are
charged at the service rate. This former rate was based on $125/hour
service rate with approximately $5/tow profit over tow costs,
including insurance, maintenance, tow ropes, rings, etc. The latter
rate reflects increased fuel costs. Commercial tow pilots are paid a
show up credit and small credit per launch. The engine reserve is set
aside at some rate based on 2000tbo and 350tach hours per year. Last
engine service was at about 2450 hours and cost about $35,000 for 0
time, 250hp stc, and new prop, including remove and replace. The
funds were in the engine reserve set aside. Result is about one more
tow per tach hour on same fuel burn, which meant no large adjustment
was needed to tow rates as fuel charges increased. Of course this
needs analysis at least annually. Presently, I'm pretty sure profit
is zero at the moment, though I don't think there's a subsidy unless
tow plane hours are under 350 for the year. There is no sinking fund
for fabric or other contingencies. I think the transponder was
expensed to the club.

You just have to decide what you want to include in the cost of towing
Set aside funds
Airframe reserve
Engine reserve
Maintenance reserve
Contingency reserve
Insurance

Consumables
Fuel
Oil
Tires
Brakes
Tow ropes
Weak links
Tow rings

Other
Tow pilot remuneration
Upgrades

Then looks at your history and trends and come up with the numbers and
try and forecast for the next year, 2 years, 3 years, and see if your
tows are artificially low or sensible. Artificially low priced tows
may mean that pilots are towing higher than really necessary. This
lowers the launch rate, and believe me, there's nothing that matters
more to the private owner than launch rate. Some clubs have thus
banned or limited training tows during 'soaring hours' or made other
'creative solutions'. The approach to towing and pricing of same
within a club includes more than just covering the cost.

Frank Whiteley


This is the kind of logic I used to use to try to convince my wife owning an
airplane made economic sense since it "paid for itself".

The members are the club. The club is the members and it's a non-profit.
The members aren't 'customers'. If the club charges the members the true
cost of operating the tug then it is, in effect, charging itself. A tug is
a cost center, not a profit center. The fact that full cost of the tows are
paid for by the individual members doesn't make it a 'break even'
proposition.

If the tug costs the members big money then, since the members are the club,
it costs the club big money. It's financial shell game to say the tug is
a"break even" operation.

Put all the costs in one 'bucket' and take a hard look at it. You may fine
one reason why soaring isn't growing.

Bill Daniels