soaring into the future

Dan G wrote:
On Dec 27, 7:01 am, Steve Davis
wrote:
At 21:49 26 December 2007, Brad wrote:
Soaring in America needs
high altitude high capacity winch launch locations,

We need enough glider pilots concentrated in specific geographic areas
to justify a high capacity winch launch operations, sort of a chicken
and egg problem.

I've always wondered why no-one in the US has imported a Skylaunch kit
sans engine and fitted it with a locally-sourced engine and
transmission. That would give you a powerful, controllable winch with
a reasonable outlay.

I'm trying to pull together a syndicate to do precisely that. The
economics make it difficult to justify for existing clubs and commercial
operations, which were structured and located based on the (past)
availability of low cost aero tows. Importing a Skylaunch kit and
completing it wth locally sourced engine, transmission, etc., still
costs around US $80K, or roughly 2.5 low time Pawnees (or 1 Pawnee, an
engine, and a good bit of avgas). I suspect you can imagine the way the
discussion goes at most clubs here...

two seat trainers
which are economical to buy and operate

The PW6U and forthcoming Perkow spring to mind. The latter looks
particularly promising with 40:1 XC performance. As both are Polish
they don't come with the Germany premium.

With the exchange rate as it is (and it isn't going to get better any
time soon), a properly equipped PW6 with trailer costs something over US
$90K, the Perkow will cost even more. Once again, those prices are well
beyond what most clubs and commercial operations can readily afford or
justify.

and a single
seat glider with
launch and handling capabilities similar to the trainer
so a student
doesn't need to re-learn to fly so he/she can fly it.

Astir; also the Junior too which is still made and designed for
precisely that role, that it does very well. For a cheap "hot" (well,
OK, mildly warm) ship get a Cirrus.

Many US clubs now have ships like that. The problem now is that the
high prices for new gliders are having a ripple effect, which means
demand now outstrips supply for good mid-range ($25K to $35K) single
seat gliders. There are a lot of gliders around that should have been
refinished 10 years ago (and now can't be economically), but not as many
good low cost gliders to build a club around.

I think a lot of the solutions now exist, it just needs some motivated
people to make it happen and then tell the world (or at least the rest
of the US) of their success.

I wish it was as easy as you think...

Marc