To Pawnee or not to Pawnee...that is the question...

Michael Ash wrote:

That is an interesting way to pay, although it seems unfortunate that I'd
have to pay extra for a go around if one should occur.

That's life. There is no such thing as a pricing system which is fair
for everybody in all circumstances.

My club, like most (I think), charges by altitude and nothing more,

Most clubs I know charge by time. I guess this is regional culture.

Anyway, enough commentary, I have an actual question: roughly what do your
costs work out to for, say, 1500, 2000, and 3000ft tows? Obviously it'll
depend a lot on conditions but I imagine you have some idea of what your
tow will cost before you launch even if it's not exact.

Well, we try very hard not to think about it... :-/

Seriously, it's hard to tell. There is no such thing as a tow to 1500,
2000 and 3000ft at our site (except for student training). There are
tows to certain known or estimated thermals.

The cheapest tow is to a hill right besides the airfield. On reasonable
days you'll find a thermal there on one side or the other. This tow will
be to approximately 2000ft. (You decide when to release: If you feel the
thermals are strong and reliable and forming low, release earlier, if
you think that you have to try and and search and work weak 100 fpm
thermals which form only at altitude, release later.) A "normal" tow
there is about $35 to $40. Caveat: Those thermals form somewhat late in
the day and you will lose a lot of time if you want to go cross country.

If you want to launch earlier and/or plan to do a big flight, you are
better off towing to some known thermically active regions farther away.
This will cost you about twice as much, but not because of altitude, but
because of distance. You see, the "altitude price system" just wouldn't
work here.

John Smith wrote:
Michael Ash wrote:
That is an interesting way to pay, although it seems unfortunate that I'd
have to pay extra for a go around if one should occur.

That's life. There is no such thing as a pricing system which is fair
for everybody in all circumstances.

Certainly, just pointing out a small problem.

My club, like most (I think), charges by altitude and nothing more,

Most clubs I know charge by time. I guess this is regional culture.

Interesting. In looking around at other clubs and commercial operations,
the ones I've seen have always quoted prices for various altitudes.
Time-based pricing has always been for retrieves from what I've seen. Of
course I haven't looked at a huge number of places either.

If you want to launch earlier and/or plan to do a big flight, you are
better off towing to some known thermically active regions farther away.
This will cost you about twice as much, but not because of altitude, but
because of distance. You see, the "altitude price system" just wouldn't
work here.

Oh, it would work, maybe just not as well.

Nothing says you can't keep climbing as you tow. You'll get charged for
all the extra altitude. My club has no official limit on how high you can
tow, you just get charged for wherever you get off. If you want to tow to
some place far away, you can tell the tow pilot what your plan is and go
straight out until you get there, then pay your fee for however high you
were when you arrived. Maybe this will be higher than you'd like, but it
does you no harm to start out with too much altitude (unless you're going
for a badge, I suppose). Although I haven't really seen anyone do this;
where I fly, a 3000ft straight out tow seems to be about as far as anyone
likes to go. We do occasionally do higher tows, but not in order to gain
more distance.

--
Michael Ash
Rogue Amoeba Software