Aztec Driver
Line Up and Wait
I was reading with interest the story of Jesse's incident with his club. I have a similar story, although the club is less "defined".
The club is arranged in a rather unique manner:
4 "investing" club members
6 "non-investing club members"
The club is set up as a corporation, which owns the airplane. One club member is the sole person in the corporation.
The original understanding was that "non-investing members" would pay monthly dues, and per hour flight costs at a slightly higher rate than that of the "investing members".
"Investing members would pay no monthly dues (in echange for making no interest on their investment), and pay about $5 less per hour for flight costs. They would get their investment back within a certain time frame when they quit the club.
The "owner" was not making any money on this deal, he was just sharing the costs of flying with several of his friends.
Doing the math, I decided to "invest" in this club, as it allowed me to fly a nice Tiger for around $65-70 per flight hour wet, not including the interest I was losing, which, at the time, wasn't a lot anyway. And many of the club members did not fly much anyway, which allowed me to fly quite a bit.
Soon after joining the club, two members dropped out due to illness and age. Nobody ever joined the club during the next couple of years, and there were several major maintenance expenses. The owner kept complaining that we needed to get two more people so the fixed costs would be paid, or he would have to charge the "investors" some to make up the difference. He never did make any decision on those issues. He was also a terrible paperwork person, sometimes not billing everyone for their flight costs or their monthly dues for months at a time. Suddenly, he comes up with the solution, he would charge the investors $1500 for "their share" of the monthly dues dating back four years! The date went back to just before I joined the club, which is when he says he first started talking about making the investors pay something. He was also charging us a nearly full monthly rate ongoing.
After several months of emailing and talking back and forth, to no avail from my point of view, I terminated my membership and purchased my own plane. I still have several months before I can get my money back, because the negotiations went past my "contract" date. I am quite sure he will deduct this amount, as well as another year's worth of monthly dues from my initial investment, if he even pays it back at all.
Lessons learned:
1. Don't trust anyone, not even a "friend"
2. Have EVERYTHING spelled out in writing, including all of the "what-ifs."
3. There are no really great deals in aviation.
The club is arranged in a rather unique manner:
4 "investing" club members
6 "non-investing club members"
The club is set up as a corporation, which owns the airplane. One club member is the sole person in the corporation.
The original understanding was that "non-investing members" would pay monthly dues, and per hour flight costs at a slightly higher rate than that of the "investing members".
"Investing members would pay no monthly dues (in echange for making no interest on their investment), and pay about $5 less per hour for flight costs. They would get their investment back within a certain time frame when they quit the club.
The "owner" was not making any money on this deal, he was just sharing the costs of flying with several of his friends.
Doing the math, I decided to "invest" in this club, as it allowed me to fly a nice Tiger for around $65-70 per flight hour wet, not including the interest I was losing, which, at the time, wasn't a lot anyway. And many of the club members did not fly much anyway, which allowed me to fly quite a bit.
Soon after joining the club, two members dropped out due to illness and age. Nobody ever joined the club during the next couple of years, and there were several major maintenance expenses. The owner kept complaining that we needed to get two more people so the fixed costs would be paid, or he would have to charge the "investors" some to make up the difference. He never did make any decision on those issues. He was also a terrible paperwork person, sometimes not billing everyone for their flight costs or their monthly dues for months at a time. Suddenly, he comes up with the solution, he would charge the investors $1500 for "their share" of the monthly dues dating back four years! The date went back to just before I joined the club, which is when he says he first started talking about making the investors pay something. He was also charging us a nearly full monthly rate ongoing.
After several months of emailing and talking back and forth, to no avail from my point of view, I terminated my membership and purchased my own plane. I still have several months before I can get my money back, because the negotiations went past my "contract" date. I am quite sure he will deduct this amount, as well as another year's worth of monthly dues from my initial investment, if he even pays it back at all.
Lessons learned:
1. Don't trust anyone, not even a "friend"
2. Have EVERYTHING spelled out in writing, including all of the "what-ifs."
3. There are no really great deals in aviation.