On Thu, 24 Sep 2020 08:39:05 -0700, 2G wrote:

On Thursday, September 24, 2020 at 6:00:01 AM UTC-7, Eric Greenwell
wrote:
Dave Walsh wrote on 9/24/2020 5:11 AM:
You won't need tow planes or winches when everyone has an electric
self launch: everyone just has to get a lot richer.
It's not a problem, our politicians have it all under control, look
at how

well we Europeans are doing with Brexit & Covid.....
And, yes, it's raining.

There is an alternative to getting a lot richer: clubs and
partnerships. With just two people in a partnership, your purchase cost
is one half, and you no longer have to support a tow plane or pay tow
fees. If you can fly near your home, you can avoid travel and motel
costs, too. The partners can fly whenever their schedule and the
weather permit, and even take advantage of marginal soaring conditions
without the inconvenience or expense of a retrieve, so the utilization
of the glider is higher than a towed glider.

So, instead of "a lot richer", you only have to be "modestly richer",
and with three owners of a glider, maybe not even richer at all,
especially as the used market for FES gliders increases in the next few
years. A club might find an FES glider a good value, particularly if
they want to encourage cross-country soaring.

--
Eric Greenwell - Washington State, USA (change ".netto" to ".us" to
email me)
- "A Guide to Self-Launching Sailplane Operation"
https://sites.google.com/site/motorg...ions/download-
the-guide-1

That strategy has been in use since the Wright Brothers started selling
aircraft, so it is not going to change anything. If an electric towplane
can only make 2 launches per day you will need more towplanes and the
much higher cost would have to be passed on to the same number of club
members.

The least exploited strategy is electric winches, since they can be run
off the mains and, with a battery bank you get off-peak charging and/or
to ability operate off a relatively small trailer generator.

We looked at using electric winches a few years back, but dropped the
idea when we found out what wiring up our usual winch points would be
(we'd ideally wire up three or four, with two being at the opposite end
of the runs to the clubhouse & mains supply, (we are on an ex-RAF bomber
field and regularly launch on 04, 22, less frequently on 340 and
occasionally on 160). We have a pair of Skylaunch winches that run on LPG.


--
Martin | martin at
Gregorie | gregorie dot org