Help me convince my wife..... :)

At 16:58 23 May 2016, wrote:
So.. I bought a share in a 1-35 this winter. I've already had a
blast in
it this season. I own just 1/4 of it, so not much of an outlay of
cash.

I've got the disease pretty bad. I'm interested now in going
halves with
another club member on something glass and in the 40+ l/d

Lets say a ASW24. I've rented one before at Williams, and had
fun in it.

With my own glass ship that travels well, I could hit FL and SW
areas in
the winter. My job allows me to float about the country pretty
easy. In
other words, take the glider to FL, work a week out of FL, then
fly a few
days and bring it back home.

So my wife.. while not being very EXCITED about the prospect of
me spending
25 or so thousand dollars on a glider hasn't thrown fits. BUT...
she took
me for a loop today.

She said, what about just going places to rent? I countered with
the fact
that many places were clubs, and many places were not renting
high
performance stuff like that.

When she heard CLUB.. she just said.... well, for the money you
are
spending, you could join at a couple clubs around the country
and travel to
them each once a year.

UHHHHH...

now.. off the top of my head, the depreciation on a well cared for
glass
ship is pretty low, what maybe 2k a year 3 at most? Then throw
in my half
of insurance and mtx.. call it another grand or two. That's a
couple to
three thousand a year.

Any help here?

Please.

JP


I think I made money on most of the Gliders I owned, I only lost
money on the ASH 25.

But the real benefit of owning rather than renting or club Gliders is
availability. The gliders only users are you and your syndicate
partners, so you can work out between you when it is available.

Next the instruments are to your liking and you know how they
work, and the Batteries are kept in good condition, you can make
yourself comfortable, its your parachute which you can get
comfortable in.

You can get to know how the Glider handles and enter
competitions.

If you are just flying the odd hour now and then a club glider is
fine and cost effective, if you want to break records and fly all day
you can't beat your own glider.
Max

Economic and practical arguments are good. But don't forget safety - swapping aircraft regularly will increase your chance of getting it wrong down low. You need your own ship to get intimately familiar with its flying behaviour. There are probably some other irrefutable safety benefits if you think hard. Knowledge of parachute history and aircraft maintenance?
Of course play this card carefully and know your audience - for instance if you spent 6 months convincing her that gliding is not dangerous then maybe disregard this argument line!

Cheers Ben