"Tuno" wrote in message
...
snipPS: Winch launching is the future. /snip

Watching a winch launch is what got me into this sport (*).

Racing and x/c are what got me hooked on it (**).

-ted/2NO

* Wiener Neustadt, Austria, July 2002.
** Drinking beer while watching sunsets and talking about the day's
flights didn't hurt either!

If you run the numbers, it looks like if you redirect a significant fraction
of the money now spent on aero tows into new gliders, with the remainder
going to support a winch, you can afford nice two seaters - even ASK-21's
with no increasse in the total dollars spent.

The problem is getting your mind around the huge up-front cost of a modern
winch.

If you again run the numbers to see the per-launch costs by amortizing that
up-front cost over a 30 year life you see that the per-launch capital costs
are on the order of $1. The operating costs may be as much as $3 per. If
you charge $10 - $15 per launch and apply the excess to retire a loan taken
out to buy the winch, you should pay it off in two or three years if the
winch is used frequently. Once the winch is paid off, the price could be
dropped to $5 per launch or kept at $15 to pay off all those K-21's and
DG1000's you bought.

The only 'gotcha' is that you have to use the winch agressively so it
generates the cash flow.

By 'agressively' I mean averaging 50 or so launches every day you fly. That
shouldn't be a problem since a lot of pilots will buy several $15 launches
even when there is no hope of lift. One German club did just under 400
launches in one day with a two-drum winch. An RAF cadet group did over 600
launches in a day with a 6-drum winch. 50 shouldn't stress anybody out.

It seems to me that scenario is a win-win-win-win........

Bill Daniels