On Sunday, December 15, 2019 at 2:40:32 PM UTC-8, Dan Marotta wrote:
The launch itself is way less expensive than the aero tow.Â* It's the
capital cost that's killer.

Last week another Stemme driver and I had a wonderful wave flight of
about 360 km with a 280 km triangle.Â* At some point in the flight he
asked me if I hated him for taking me for my first ride in a Stemme.Â* I
called him a ******* for causing me to spend so much money and then we
had a good laugh.Â* It's only money and I'll get a piece of it back when
I sell.

A little arithmetic is in order.Â* A Grob-103 or an LS-4 can be rented at
Moriarty for $50/hour.Â* Add to that about $65 for a tow. So a 4 hour
flight (you're only charged for the first 2 hours) would cost $165.Â*
Average that to $82.50/hour.Â* Now, if I sell my Stemme for, say, $50K
less than I paid for it and, to date, I've flown it 750 hours (in 4
years), that cost would amount to about $67/hour not counting
maintenance, fuel, insurance, etc.Â* Let's be generous and say $100/hour
which, given the comparison between the Stemme and the above ships, is
not a bad deal.Â* Not consider that I'll probably fly this ship another
8-10 years and another 1,000-1,500 hours and that hourly price drops
considerably.

To sum up, the expense of the tow is not really how much it costs on a
per unit basis, he's really saying that he laid out a lot of money to be
sitting in that cockpit.Â* He'll get a bunch of it back when he sells..

On 12/14/2019 4:23 PM, Nick Kennedy wrote:
Several years ago I was helping Wilf Krueger K2 strap into his DG 800B motorglider.
He looks up at me and says "here goes the most expensive tow I'll ever buy"
He smiles and takes off.
I'm curious from those in the know, how much did that launch
really cost him?
Over say 25 flights a year over 10 years how much roughly does it cost per gasoline powered motorglider launch?
Including ALL maintenance and fuel and parts. And hands on time to keep the engine running at say 75/hr labor. Extra annual inspection costs too..
That's 250 launches
In my LS3a my average launch seems to be about 65 bucks.
65X 250 launches = $16,250

What are you motorheads really paying per launch over time?
Do you try to keep track?
Or is it just one of those necessary life expense's you really don't want to know the total as you'd pay it no matter what ?
Thanks in advance
T

--
Dan, 5J

What price can you put on launching whenever and wherever you want? Priceless is my answer. I have watched pilots come out to the field at dawn to prep their gliders and be one of the first in the tow line. And when the towplane leaves, so do they. Just not having to travel every weekend to fly (and forget about weekdays) was enough for me to buy a MG. People mostly don't buy MGs because they can't afford them; if you can, go for it.

Tom