On Thu, 16 Mar 2017 06:39:04 -0700, Bruce Hoult wrote:

On Thursday, March 16, 2017 at 2:59:28 PM UTC+3, Martin Gregorie wrote:
On Thu, 16 Mar 2017 03:50:02 -0700, Bruce Hoult wrote:

It would be interesting to know the true cost of winch launch.

Last year we charged GBP 11 for a winch launch. IIRC which launches
have a small tug subsidy included in that charge.

We do a lot of winching: our winches are used every flying day provided
bad weather doesn't cause cancellation. That is 5 days/week in winter
and 7 days/week in summer.

That's NZ$20. I hope that's where the charge will be in five years.

In fact you can already get winch launches for $30 each (17 GBP) if you
pay for 40 of them in advance (which must be used within two years).

The only way I can think of to get a better cost estimate that asking
round is to total costs over a year and divide that by the number of
launches. Here's quick guess at what needs to be included:

- one set of new Spectra cables (or two if using steel)
- the cost of strops lost
- fuel used
- items consumed in routine maintenance
- any external maintenance costs
- depreciation, interest on loans, etc

I've probably missed some items, such as a share of the operating cost of
the tow vehicle used to move the winch round the airfield, but hopefully
that list is a reasonable starting point for anybody wanting to calculate
actual winch costs.


--
martin@ | Martin Gregorie
gregorie. | Essex, UK
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