On Wednesday, March 22, 2017 at 6:58:45 PM UTC-6, wrote:
On Monday, March 20, 2017 at 10:36:41 AM UTC-7, wrote:
How and why, was the PW-5 made for so cheap?

Because it had a tube tailboom and did not have a T-tail.


Nobody can answer this because it proves you are wrong!

Basic sailplanes do not cost a fortune to build. There is a market for entry level gliders with a handicap of 1.00 for a reasonable price. Few pilots want to own a 40-50 year old fiberglass sailplane.

How much did an ASW-19 cost brand new in 1975?

Bob K and I have discussed the possibility of getting a S-LSA certification for the HP-24. It would cost about $500,000. If that were underwritten by investors, then the HP-24 could be sold as a completed and ready-to-fly glider. There is no other mechanism that would allow for selling a glider built new in the USA. You can not certificate a new, built in the USA aircraft as Experimental-air race and demonstration.

Ramping up type certificated glider production is estimated at $1M. Tim Barry holds the type certificate for the Krosno-KR03a (Peregrine). They've held Part Making Authorization for several years, but you must build three under FAA observation to become self certifying. This may mean keeping the assembly line up and lights on for an extended time as you will likely only get an FAA visit every four months. If they find something they are happy with, they leave, let you fix it and show up again in four months. The production line was set up, but there was not commercial money available after the 2008 bust. 55 percent of the respondents to a two-seater survey after the L-13's were grounded preferred metal construction.

So, starting without a type certificate, the ramp up cost is likely to be somewhat higher. Bob K has shown some concept images of a two-seater similar to the Schneider ES-65 Platypus, but thought it should be TC'd. Greg Cole showed a concept image of the two-seat trainer at the Barnaby Lecture a few years ago, but said it would only be experimental.

Simply put, there are no pathways to cheap two-seaters. Nor are there pathways to cheap single-seaters because there doesn't appear to be a market.

My experience in the UK (10.5 years over two tours) is getting dated, but ownership syndicates were the order of the day. Private gliders were owned by 3-4 pilots. Club fleets were similar. A syndicate (4) at one club formed and bought a DG-300 from a Swedish Club. They were surprised to find that private ownership of gliders in Sweden was uncommon (in the 1990's) and that clubs had large fleets (socialism?).

From what I've observed, shared ownership of gliders in the US has been rather rare, though it is a bit more common in my club today than it's been in the past 20 years. Splitting the cost and expenses four ways certainly should make several gliders attractive.

The cultures of soaring vary among countries, regions, and clubs for a variety of reasons, including geographic. Tough nut to crack.

Frank Whiteley