What does a launch actually cost your club?
Most clubs price a tow off fuel. Fuel is usually less than half of it. This works out the fully-loaded number — engine reserve, insurance, hangarage, and the fact that the tug is depreciating whether it flies or not — and compares it against a winch on the same basis.
Aerotow, fully loaded
Winch, fully loaded
Your club
Every launch, all methods. This is the single denominator.
The median across the 22 of 34 US clubs that publish one is $40 for 2,000 ft.
Below 100% assumes you also own a winch. The tug's fixed costs stay in either way — almost nobody sells the tug.
Used only for the per-1,000-ft comparison.
Where the money goes
Aerotow, per launch
Winch, per launch
Would a winch pay for itself?
A winch saves on the running cost of each launch it takes off the tug. Against its own fixed costs, you would need about to break even — and you are flying .
This assumes you keep the tug for of launches — a realistic residual for aerobatics, check flights, cross-country and days the winch is down. Move the mix slider above to model a different split., which is the mix you set above.
The tug's fixed costs cancel out of this comparison, because you keep the tug in both cases. That is counter-intuitive and it is the most common mistake in a winch business case: insurance and hangarage on an aircraft you are keeping are not a reason to buy a winch, and not a reason not to.
What actually moves the number
Each bar is the swing in blended cost per launch if that one input is 25% out. Longest bar at the top. This is computed from your figures, not asserted.
Volunteer time, costed separately
Your launch method consumes roughly a year. At an hour that is of unpaid work.
This is deliberately not in the numbers above. Treating volunteer hours as free hides the real cost of a launch method; treating them as cash overstates the bill your treasurer has to fund. Both figures are true and they answer different questions — so you get both, separately.
Cost per launch = (F + M + R + C) ÷ N
- F
- fuel and oil for the year
- M
- maintenance, including the engine and airframe reserves
- R
- the capital reserve — what you are setting aside to replace the tug
- C
- fixed costs: insurance, hangarage, annual inspection
- N
- launches flown in the year
About half of the numerator does not move with N, which is the whole finding: the cost per launch is dominated by how many launches you fly, not by the price of fuel. Doubling launches nearly halves the fixed-cost share.
What this assumes, and what it can't know
The starting figures below are estimates, not researched data. The club prices on our cost-of-gliding page come from clubs' own published rate sheets. These operating costs do not — clubs don't publish them. They are plausible mid-size-US-club values meant to be replaced with yours. Do not take a number off this page to a committee without putting your own figures in first.
Block time is engine-running time, not climb time. Taxi out, tow, descend, taxi in. Clubs consistently under-estimate this, and every variable cost scales off it — which is why it usually tops the sensitivity ranking.
The tug is charged capital, the same as the winch. Depreciation on an aircraft you own is a real cost of launching whether or not it appears in your accounts. Charging the winch for capital and not the tug is the most common way a winch business case gets rigged, usually by accident.
Cable breaks are an expected value, not an event. Right for an annual budget, useless for planning a bad afternoon.
What it leaves out: tow pilot currency and training, the cost of the launch point vehicle beyond the figures you enter, airfield rent, and anything to do with the gliders themselves. It also assumes you fly the launches you enter — a wet season moves every per-launch number in here.
It contains no safety content and makes no operational recommendation. Which launch method suits your site is a question about terrain, airspace, cable runs and instructor experience. This only answers what each one costs.
Not yet checked by anyone but me. If you run a club's books and one of these assumptions is wrong, I would genuinely rather hear it than not — tell me and I will credit you here. This is a budgeting estimate, not a quote. Every club sets its own rates and they change; check with the club before relying on a number.
Every figure, editable
Nothing is hidden. Replace these with your own and the whole page updates.
The reasoning behind these inputs
Why fuel is under half the cost of a tow, why block time is the input most clubs get wrong, and why charging below cost can be a perfectly good decision as long as you know you are doing it.
Read: what a tow should actually cost →Common questions
Is a winch cheaper than a towplane for a gliding club?
Only if the club flies enough launches a year: the saving on the running cost of each launch the winch takes off the tug has to add up to more than the winch's own fixed costs. A realistic comparison still keeps the tug for a share of launches, for aerobatics, check flights, cross-country and days the winch is down. Cost is not the whole decision either: which launch method suits a site is a question about terrain, airspace, cable runs and instructor experience.
What do gliding clubs get wrong when comparing winch and aerotow costs?
The most common mistake is letting the towplane's insurance and hangarage count for or against the winch. Almost nobody sells the tug, so its fixed costs are there either way and cancel out of the comparison. The most common way a winch business case gets rigged, usually by accident, is charging the winch for capital and not the tug. Depreciation on an aircraft you own is a real cost of launching whether or not it appears in your accounts, so the tug is charged capital the same as the winch.
How do you calculate a gliding club's cost per launch?
Add the year's fuel and oil, maintenance including the engine and airframe reserves, the capital reserve for replacing the tug, and fixed costs such as insurance, hangarage and the annual inspection, then divide by the launches flown in the year. Count every launch, by every method, in that denominator. On plausible figures for a mid-size US club, about half of the total does not move with the launch count, so the cost per launch is dominated by how many launches you fly, not by the price of fuel.
Should volunteer time count in the cost of a glider launch?
Yes, but separately from the cash cost. Treating volunteer hours as free hides the real cost of a launch method, while treating them as cash overstates the bill the treasurer has to fund. Both figures are true and they answer different questions, so keep both: the cash cost per launch, and the volunteer hours the launch method consumes, valued as unpaid work, beside it rather than inside it.