Season Passes available from Soaring NV in Minden

I think Craig makes an excellent point. In fact, the whole thread seems to mix commercial and club operations, and these are apples and oranges in my opinion. I've been a member of a club for quite some time, and I've also worked at a commercial glider operation. They've both got good and bad points, but I don't think you can compare the fee structures. The club environment is usually all-volunteer, and the glider FBO is ostensibly a business. For instance, I'll instruct at my club this morning. We will have two tow pilots for the day, me, and more than one line crew. I'm happy to do it, it's how I learned and it's a great deal of fun. We are a non-profit club running two towplanes and 6 or 7 gliders. Add that up when you have to pay for the labor and the equation rapidly changes. Do I think this is good or desirable or healthy for soaring (or GA) in the long run? Not really, but the reality seems to be that we are in the age of $200,000+ gliders (and Carbon Cubs). Hey, I love 1-26s, we have one at our club that gets a good workout. Personally, I fly an older Standard class ship which fits into my performance/budget situation. As far as Minden goes - and I've spent time there in the last five years - the conditions that made it a soaring Mecca are still there. Truckee and Air Sailing are fine spots as well, but I know some pilots who choose to fly out of Minden instead. Whatever fits your situation, and it's good to have choices. However, to the original point - commercial glider FBOs and soaring clubs are not the same thing and I think there's been a lot of mixing of the two in the thread discussion.

Mike

I am grateful that enterprising individuals have taken up the mantle of providing soaring services at Minden. It's a treasure of a soaring location. Certainly it's not the only good place to fly in the area, the western US, or the world, but one I'm glad to have continued access to Minden as it presents its own unique benefits.

I remain somewhat perplexed at the tendency of glider pilots to whine about relatively small differences in tow costs - particularly at commercial operations that don't run on free labor. I'd be shocked if these operations are making more than very low tens of dollars per hour per person once you account for fuel, maintenance, cost of the tied up capital, etc. Certainly nobody has joined the 1% towing gliders into the sky.

If $10-20 per tow is more important to you than the freedom to avoid pulling duty and pay club dues, by all means join or form a club and put in the hours and work to save yourself a couple hundred bucks per season, but surely it serves no useful purpose to criticize folks who serve the community while trying to scratch out a living.

The flat-rate offer is an interesting innovation. Hopefully it encourages a few folks with the time and motivation to do a lot of flying out of Minden and build up the baseload demand for tows.

Thanks Soaring NV!

Andy Blackburn
9B