On Sunday, July 13, 2014 11:05:38 AM UTC-6, noel.wade wrote:
On Tuesday, July 8, 2014 12:49:40 PM UTC-7, Bill D wrote:

I was hoping to find a spreadsheet where I could plug in variables like TBO, overhaul cost, fuel consumption, fuel price etc... Failing that, a workup for one tug might provide a methodology from which I could create my own spreadsheet.





Bill - I'm not trying to be obtuse; but it really does depend on a LOT of factors. Here are a few of the major factors:

1) The operational environment (club vs commercial, for example)

2) How you use the ship (regular tows? lots of high tows? double-tows? new towpilot checkout?)

3) Runway surface and condition (smooth grass, rough grass, compact dirt, asphalt, ??)

4) What kind of ship you use (Pawnee? SuperCub? Cherokee or C-182?)

5) How many tows per year you expect to do

6) How many total towplanes will you be operating

7) Local weather (goes to your hangar/storage requirements and how many months out of the year you can use the airplane)?

8) Financial "style" of your business/club (do you require a funded reserve account so that you can pay cash for maintenance and repairs when items hit their expected life-limit; or is using credit or loans - either commercial or private - an option)?

9) Commercial use of your equipment - Are you offering a lot of commercial glider rides, or flight instruction, or other use that requires you to pay taxes and/or perform more-frequent inspections on your towplane?



These items need to be decided/outlined before any accurate numbers can be factored - otherwise you're just firing blind.



Take care,



--Noel

Noel, you are not being obtuse at all - your points are excellent. I agree, there are a lOT of variables. To be clear, I'm not looking for actual costs because, as you say, they vary a lot from site to site for a lot of reasons.

I was just hoping someone had put all (or most) of those variables into a really big spreadsheet so different tug operations could plug in their particulars to more easily understand and budget their tug costs.