Buying a 172 Vs. Joining a Club

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austin757

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Currently a first officer for an airline. I miss flying GA. If I could only fly 1-2 a month due to work, is it better to buy a plane or just join my local club? I've looked into twins, but for my mission, I think a C172 is ideal. I would like nothing more then to go drive to my hangar and go flying for an hour or so to just relax and clear my head. With only a a couple of days free, however, I'm starting to think it will be cheaper to join the club. I live in NJ and am considering the Monmouth Flying Club out of N12 if anyone is familiar. Thanks
 
Sit down with a blank sheet of paper, or if you are good with spreadsheets - sit down with Excel and do the math. For most people a club will be cheaper, but you will lose the ability to fly anytime you want (because of scheduling issues) and the ability to customize the aircraft to your desires.

Sometimes it's not all about the money. Hard to quantify intangibles come into play here too.
 
No need to even do that ^. 1-2 days out of the month isn't enough to justify the costs of ownership. Your best and most economical bet would be to join the club.

Best of luck!
 
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A partnership might work if you can find some compatible people who are interested. We have a few airline pilots on our field that went in on a nice older Bo. My old hangar neighbor flew for Southwest and owned his own Viking, but he managed to fly more than a couple of days a month.
 
Or just rent from a flight school. If you know which days you'll have free a few weeks ahead of time you can make sure you have a plane booked.
 
Dispatch rate will be important because you have so few opportunities to fly, so hopefully you can find/afford a cherry 172. I really like the idea of having a couple of partners to keep the costs down and hopefully enable you to find a nice version. There's something to be said about knowing she's waiting for you to come take her for a ride.
 
Think about safety. It's worth something to know that the plane is in the same condition as you left it?

Think about travel. Is it worth something to fly to a distant destination, leave the plane there for a week (something a flying club or partnership would not be happy for you to do), rent a car and drive to attractions before flying back.

Think about your financial situation. Not every choice in life has to be logical. I know bass fishermen that send as much as an aircraft owner for their hobby. The fish cost somewhere in the neighborhood of $200 a pound.

Good statement I heard recently: To show love for someone a person must sometimes act irrationally. I suppose that could be applied to a hobby, too.

And my rule, if I have provided for my family and my retirement I should spend any excess before a smart lawyer, doctor, banker or politician takes it away from me.
 
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Practicality would suggest the club. One or two flights per month doesn't quite justify the expense and logistics of owning an airplane, IMO. Also your airplane sitting 25 days between flights is not optimal. At least you should be able to consult your duty schedule and make sure you have the club airplane reserved weeks ahead of time.

I'm out of town working about two weeks out of the month for the past few years, but have a lot of free time during the two weeks I am home. I own a plane, and it sits in the hangar a little over 50% of time... I do have plenty of chances to fly on my days off, usually get up 5 or 6 times before heading out for work again.

I do hate not owning a plane- having it readily available. There have only a couple of very short periods since I learned to fly (at 17) that I wasn't an owner or partner in one.
 
A lot of these types of discussions revolve around cost primarily, sure one or two comments regarding knowing how it's maintained and available on your schedule. For me, I place a little more emphasis on the latter two. I still rent but can afford a decent maule or 182. I'm leaning toward buying with the possibility of a partnership if I find the right person as I can't just ignore cost.
 
There's a lot more to owning a plane than just having something to fly. And I mean that in a good way. No club and no partners for me.
 
Clip4 said:
Less than 50 hours a year owning? No way that will pay out.
Click to expand...

LOL.
Okay folks, hands up everyone who owns a non-revenue generating plane (that's probably the majority of us) that "paid out". Anybody?
 
MassPilot said:
Or just rent from a flight school. If you know which days you'll have free a few weeks ahead of time you can make sure you have a plane booked.
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:yeahthat:

(This is what I do)

I have been tempted to own many times but I can't at the moment because of time constraints. I'm retiring soon so I will be able to dedicate more time to the airport.

Really consider renting from a flight school, 1-2 hours a month is not a lot of time, (IMO) to justify buying outright. Stay liquid, You don't want your airplane sitting like so many out there do, when you own you have to pay fixed costs if you fly or not. When you buy an airplane it needs to be flown consistently. Airplane engine parts wear quickly when sitting because the oil is not moving among the case. Just turning the engine on doesn't help either.

If you are liquid, and rent you can also fly different airplanes as well, not only that you aren't pressured to fly. Suppose one of the days you want to fly the weather is bad? Suppose two days or three, suppose you get sick, family needs you...life gets in the way....the airplane doesn't get flown.
 
austin757 said:
If I could only fly 1-2 a month due to work, is it better to buy a plane or just join my local club?
Click to expand...

Here's my .02

100 hours per year would be the decision point for me. A more liberal number may be 50 hours per year. So let's go with that instead.

We'll just forget the acquisition cost.
I have to think hangar rent in that area of NJ is around $300 per month. There's $3,600 per year
For insurance, let's just go with an easy number like $1,000.
100LL for 50 hours at $4.00 a gallon and 8GPH would be $1,600

So at this point we're at $6,200 per year.

It would appear that around $125 wet is the going rate in that area for a 172. Which gives you $6,250 for 50 hours. A coin flip decision... although we haven't figured in maintenance or acquisition cost.

You're only going to be flying 12 - 24 hours per year. Which means you'll spend more on hangar rent than you would renting a plane.

The other (and IMO, greater) factor is the toll on not flying (a hangar helps... some). If the plane isn't flying 50 hours a year, the airplane is not happy. Stuff seems to fail more often than when it flies at an hour or two per week. That's its way of telling you it's not happy.

So (once again, my opinion only) I think based on the number of hours you're thinking about flying, renting is the clear choice over owning. You can schedule in advance so availability shouldn't be a problem.

Now here's an alternative (although it is a bit of a long shot): I had some times where I wasn't flying much. Rather than have the plane sit for long periods unused, I let one of my old instructors fly it for personal use. All he had to do was cover fuel. (he offered to pay extra, but I didn't like the potential of "rental" that could be an insurance problem). I knew him, he knew how I liked the plane to be flown and all the little idiosyncrasies about the plane. He was happy because he had access to a plane that he could use to fly and see his daughter about 2 hours away. I was happy because the plane wasn't sitting. He met the open warranty on the insurance policy but even if he didn't, it would have been easy to add him to the policy. So maybe ask around the local airports. You might find someone with a plane who would like it to fly more. I know that if I hadn't had my old instructor, an airline pilot would have been a nice alternative.

I wouldn't do a leaseback to offset the cost and keep the flying hours up though. I did that for about 3 years. No way I would do that again on a plane that I flew.
 
GRG55 said:
LOL.
Okay folks, hands up everyone who owns a non-revenue generating plane (that's probably the majority of us) that "paid out". Anybody?
Click to expand...

Of course, pigpen will tell you there no way you CANT make money on every plane you own!

To the OP, if youre flying 20 hours a month owning probably doesn't make sense to most people! But its not always a dollars and cents decision. If everything goes my way, I'll be an owner in a few weeks (working out some details) and it probably doesn't make all that much sense for me either, but its gonna be fun!
 
GRG55 said:
LOL.
Okay folks, hands up everyone who owns a non-revenue generating plane (that's probably the majority of us) that "paid out". Anybody?
Click to expand...


It flys floats or ..... you are better off renting, especially if you are not going to use it.
 
If you can afford it, buy one. It will never pay it's own way. It will always seem expensive. But, there is nothing like private ownership. It's always there when you want it, it doesn't get beat up like rentals, you can make modifications as you want, etc. If money is tight, you might want to consider LSA or experimental. That's what I did and I'll never go back. I do all of my maintenance myself and am building a hangar on my farm.
 
Hey Austin,

I am at the same crossroad as you... I am maybe a 5 hour a month guy.. $100 Cheeseburger run and instrument proficiency... I have run the numbers and a 172/PA28, etc... are not too cost effective for me... I have been looking at the two seat trainers like the 150/152, BE77, PA38 (kick myself in the "arse" for selling the one I had a few years ago) as the club is not an option where I am based...

Good Luck,

John
 
At first I read that as you only had 1-2 days off a month! Lol...clearly a club is the better way to go.
 
Thanks for all the input, guys. I figured there was no better place to go for some advice! I've come to the conclusion that ownership, at least at this point, would be more of a headache. Turns out there are two clubs at N12, both reputable and reasonable that I'm going to check out. I have more than 1-2 days off a month, but I figured that's all the time I would have after taking care of other obligations lol. Now I'll just have to go up with a CFI to get rid of the rust!
 
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