In message
,
Uncle Fuzzy writes
snip

What is the appeal of a 'sustainer'? They seem to be almost as
expensive as a self-launcher, without the ability to self launch.
It's great not to have to land out, but it seems like an awful lot of
money to spend and still need a tug to get airborne.

In the UK they can be flown without a PPL or NPPL which saves lots and
lots and lots of money. Also many sites (in the UK if not the US) do
winch launching, which is a lot cheaper than a tow, so you launch, start
the motor (or land back if there's a problem) and motor off to the lift.

BTW the BGA accident database contains plenty of sustainer accidents,
where the P1 was concentrating on trying to get it started for far too
long instead of switching to doing a field landing when they could not
get the engine started.

--
Surfer!
Email to: ramwater at uk2 dot net