On Oct 8, 12:33 pm, alex8735 wrote:
....snip...
As far as I know German clubs are often far cheaper than US clubs
because they are struktured differently. Members are expected to do
all the work themselves. Everybody has a job to to from mowing the
gras, fleet maintenance or instructing. Maintenance only costs the
materials used. Fuel is not a problem because a winch launch barely
uses 1 lite r of diesel. Airfields are often in posession of the clubs
or cheaply leased from the city. The biggest costs in our club are
insurance costs. If you insure your fleet yourself then you can save
even more.

Flying is not really cheaper in germany. We just pay less money and
more time. A normal club member will spent about 10 half days each
year on the winch (or doing some other job on the field), is expected
to stay and keep the operation running the whole day if he wants to
participate (1hour of flying means spending the whole day at the
field) and has to work 60 - 80 hours in the winter doining maintenance
or other chores. Most clubs depent on a small number of people who are
willing to invest even more time into the club.

This is how my US club is structured, but we still pay high dues
($800-1300/year).

We have no paid staff. Club members mow grass, fix buildings, fly
towplanes, launch gliders, whatever.

We pay for towplane and glider maintenance, insurance, fuel.
We also have to pay for the airport we bought 5 years ago, at market
rates, not cheaply and have to keep the hangers and whatnot up.

None of the US clubs that I know pay anybody to do anything, we do it
ourselves and it's still expensive.

I think it's for 2 reasons.
- Paying for towplanes
- Paying for land

Todd Smith
3S