Aircraft Partnership

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Clip4

Final Approach
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Cli4ord
Sold my plane a couple years ago and thinking about purchasing another and selling off some shares. Tell me why I shouldn’t.
 
I don't know you well enough to tell you :D

Really, though, success is a combination of good people and thoughtful consideration of the terms of the written agreement you put together.
 
Clip4 said:
Sold my plane a couple years ago and thinking about purchasing another and selling off some shares. Tell me why I shouldn’t.
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I was looking to buy into one once. The original owner had it written up in a way that he was like the Czar. He made all decisions. None of that voting stuff. I didn’t buy in. But he had partners who had.
 
I've never owned but recently joined a club with 20 guys owning 2-planes.

I think the original owner, who flies way more than anyone else, has a bit of that czar mentality but it works out for me. We have voting, by-laws, online scheduling and communicate via slack, email and some text. I'm learning from those more experienced and thoughtful at a fraction of the learning curve cost.

Most importantly - watching how much time goes into ownership with coordinating mx, insurance, dbase updates and other things . . . It's helpful to have help with that.

Now you've done it all on your own before so maybe you'll struggle with that. With my daughter in 14U travel softball I usually fly during the week. Not a ton of conflict. 10-guys per plane though.

You find 2 former owners looking to do the same as you and I think it could be great. Sharing costs. Sharing responsibilities. Sharing stories / adventures.

I never had that outlet in real life. Only forums like this. If none of that is appealing maybe go a different path.
 
I was in a 10-person partnership with a 172. We charged a monthly rate for hangar and insurance, each member paid 10% of maintenance bills no matter how much or little they flew, and the hourly rate was just enough to cover fuel and most of the overhaul fund. In eightyears, I flew more than the other nine combined. They subsidized my flying. One partner didn’t fly once in that time, two others flew it a total of three times, one guy flew about an hour or two a month and the rest less than 10 hours a year. I was putting on two hours a week most of the time.

But…one of the guys wanted an autopilot. He convinced the majority to vote for it, so we all got to share in that bill, even though they only flew VFR day. The longest flight any of them ever took in the plane was 48 miles, twice a year. (I did fly IFR and went out of the area, but as a new instrument pilot preferrd to hand fly and build skills.)

There were also the annual that some of them helped with and left three inspection covers completely open and a total of 13 more screws not even finger tight, when they’d told me it was complete and ready for flight.

So those kind if things can happen with partners. If you have a low tolerance for wasting money on unnecessary equipment and are by-the-book with maintenance practices, you’ll need to assert a leadership position and stay in charge.

We also got boned on insurance. Because we had more than five parrtners, it was treated as a club by insurance and charged club rates. Even though we were equity partners and our rules required ownership to be PIC. As people sold over the years, they reduced it to five owners and got a reasonable price.

Weigh the options and remember that if you have more than one partner you’ll be a minority owner. There’s also availability. If you’re the only owner, you can just run out and fly whenever you want, and not have to check the schedule. I’m a sole owner now and will never go back to a partnership or club membership.
 
It depends 100% on personalities and written understanding and agreement about ownership and operation. My current sole ownership of a C206 over the past 38 years has involved about a dozen shareholders over that time (we set it up as a Corporation before LLC was an option) and has worked out extremely well for me, and none of the others have any regrets about their participation, which all gets back my first sentence.

It seems to be quite common for these arrangements to end up with some members being inactive but still paying for costs, which works well for the active pilots.
 
I've been in two equity clubs - the pluses have outweighed the minuses. As someone mentioned, quite a few members tend to not fly, or fly very little. Ten or even fifteen guys can share one airplane without much scheduling conflict. YMMV. In both clubs we had monthly dues and an hourly rate for engine overhaul, annual, upgrades, and maintenance. For a well equipped IFR C-172 the wet rate was about $90 an hour. My current club is about $55 an hour dry for an IFR Cherokee 140. IMHO maintenance tends to be handled better than sole owner/partnerships - if for no other reason than there is a $$$ reserve for fixes, and/or a big ticket item gets spread over a lot more guys.
 
Eww, do you really want other people touching your stuff? :D

Partnerships work even for those who do not fly, instead of dropping 100% of costs and not using the airplane, they are paying much less for not flying.

I think it depends how close you live to the airport and how sporadic are you. Do you want to just show up and fly? Do you want to keep your headset on your seat? It’s kind of something special to do.

But having a partnership means you might be able to take a back seat on mx and let someone else be the czar, and then you have an airplane ready. Hopefully you can fly where and when you want, for the most part.
 
I've been part of one equity club for 4 years and now I'm joining a second one. The pros outweigh the cons. But I'm biased, I couldn't afford sole ownership even if I wanted. Both clubs keep the plane hangared with storage for personal gear. Cleaning the plane is easier with a few extra hands. Every upgrade and maintenance is a lighter burden.
I've had to cancel flights because previous flight dinged the prop, or tail strike, or battery dead and each time no one said anything.. Or another pilot had a passenger puke. But can't say I had a memorable scheduling conflict. If you can live with some of those curveballs, you could even probably get two planes!
 
Have never entertained joining a partnership . I want the plane available when I want it.also I get to choose the upgrades .I have seen partnerships work and I’ve seen them go bad. It only takes one bad partner to spoil the experience.
 
While owning some smaller percentage of an airplane is certainly better than owning 100% of no airplane, I won't be going back as long as sole ownership is feasible for me. I was in a 10 member equity club and between the constant membership turnover, "big personalities," and a bunch of sketchy crap I didn't learn was happening until after I left... no thanks. I know three people I'd be happy in a partnership with but one of them lives in Texas and another isn't even a pilot. Finding someone I don't already know seems too much like dating.

mandm said:
Eww, do you really want other people touching your stuff? :D
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This is my real problem. I fly with another pilot who likes to help me tie down after a flight, and it's a joke now that I'm compelled to redo his knots before we walk away from the plane.
 
You can try sub leasing from pilots. Better than trying to get a plane for a 3 day weekend at a flight club
 
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