James Gaar <> writes:

Five years ago members of Adventure AirSports LLC (AAS) started the first aerotow flight park in the Midwest, the nearest being 600 miles away in Dallas, Texas. This is still true today. AAS purchased a DragonFly Ultralight capable of towing hang gliders safely into the skies over Kansas to promote and support hang gliding locally and to give traveling pilots a chance to get some airtime while in the Kansas City area. It was and still is a worthy cause.

With a combination of time, energy, a healthy dose of good timing and luck AAS was able to pull it off. However after 5 years, with the impact of the new Sport Pilot regulations and the rising cost of keeping the DragonFly in top condition, it became necessary to seek more assistance from the hang gliding community. We found there was a limit to what 4 Partners with active lives outside of hang gliding can do in this regard, and we have been bumping up against this limit with more regularity. This year we started a club in order to take most of the financial liability and workload off the Partners and allow the club to support the operation to a much greater extent. To make regular (weekly) operations possible and sustainable, we needed additional personnel trained and available to help run the flight operations safely.

A meeting was called and a budget was presented. Unfortunately we have not seen the level of community pilot participation that is needed to make the aerotow operation sustainable. As a result it has been decided amongst the Partners that, if not beforehand, at the end of the 2007 season we will sell off all assets of the LLC, close the flight park and pay off our debts.

In order for us to sell the Dragonfly at maximum value we feel it is necessary to put it on the market as soon as it is airworthy.

We make this announcement with very mixed emotions and we would be mistaken to say that there isn’t still a very small chance that the club could continue. However without sufficient funds and a larger pool of qualified personnel to make regular operations practical and sustainable that goal is impossible. The convenience of having the Dragonfly to tow us up after a 45-minute drive from home is still one we value highly. We do not wish to drive 5-7 hours to get airtime. However, to sustain an aerotowing operation like the one we’ve tried to provide, much more energy and commitment will be needed from those who wish to benefit from it.

We would like to take this opportunity to say how much fun it has been flying with, teaching and mentoring some of you and helping local pilots get wings and equipment in order to fly safely and at a low cost. We have been very fortunate to have such a good, safe time and we will sorely miss that. Even without the tow park we are hoping we can fulfill that desire in other ways with you as we journey down the flight path that is before us.

With that we want to say Thank You. We still have a few months to go and that is what we are going to do when the tug is flying again (mid September). We hope you can join us in the skies over Kansas during our final season. This may be the last chance to do so by aerotow in this part of the country.

Asking price is $20,000. Includes a fresh 582, ELSA registrations (432 AT) and all the gear to AT. Email me for more details ">blindrodie", "hotmail.com.

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