Will cheaper motorgliders increase the number of soaring pilots?

We were suffering severe thread drift, so I pulled this out of the pile...

Kirk Stant wrote:

I'd guess if/when you get that Antares, you'll find whatever you fly now,
collecting dust.

Good point (and all of this discussion is fun - "devil's advocate"
stuff at times.

You may be right that if I had a self launch my pure glider would
gather dust - I would probably trade it for a really nice 1-26 (with
an open canopy) and a Swift for acro. Different tools for different
jobs.

Now you're talking! A common situation in England and Europe, I've read,
where a pilot might have shares in several quite different gliders.


But I'm not sure about self-launching being the way to grow the sport,
purely on a cost basis. I could afford half of a cherry LS6, and have
flown it about 200 hours a year ever since I got it. There is
absolutely no way I can pony up to the equivalent self launcher
(lottery excepted, of course!).

Cost is the big problem, for sure. If adding a motor cost only $5000
instead of $25-$30,000, almost everyone would have one.

THe cost can be reduced considerably by getting a medium (30 to 38:1)
performance motorglider. Look at how popular the Russia AC-5M was when
it was available.

It can be cut in half by getting a partner, and the increased utility of
the motorglider (see Steve Hill's posting) means both partners can get
almost as much flying in as they would owning it by themselves.

How many newbies are going to take
that first jump?

I believe there is a class of newbies that would take that jump: power
pilots transitioning to gliders. Here's why:

* they already expect an aircraft to cost a lot
* they will think the maintenance costs for a motorglider are
insignificant compared to their airplane costs
* they are more likely to use partnerships, reducing the cost further
* they value independence, being able to fly on their schedule and from
an airport of their choosing
* they dislike the idea of landing out, both emotionally (it sort of
seems like a "crash") and it's inconvenient retrieve
* in-air restarts give them a chance to learn soaring skills their
transition training only hinted at during their short training time
(compared to a student without a previous license)
* a bias towards "gotta have high performance" (40:1) hasn't been
implanted yet, again due to their much shorter time in the sport. To an
airplane pilot, even 20:1 seems amazing, and 30:1 or more just incredible

There are hundreds of thousands of power pilots in the USA, and a lot of
them are attracted to the idea of soaring, but the perceived hassles
keep them from pursuing it. A moderate performance, moderately priced
motorglider might be just what it takes to get them into the sport!

(Robert, feel free to step in here)

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Eric Greenwell
Washington State
USA