I was a member of the Bay Area Aero Club in Houston, first at Houston Gulf Airport and then after its closure, at Clover Field (now Pearland Regional).
In this particular instance I felt the club was superior to a flight school, for numerous reasons. And I must state this was a true non profit club, not a flight-school-run entity that also uses the fleet for flight school instruction.
First was the aircraft. The club was 100% leaseback, and was somewhat picky about planes on the roster. We required 100 hr inspections even when they were not being used primarily for instruction, and while not required by the FAA, we also insisted the engines be below (or changed out at) TBO.
The owner was completely responsible for maintenance, at a mechanic of their choosing, at a location of their choosing. There was no maintenance scam going on, as may happen with lease backs to school owned flying clubs with in house maintenance. The panel contents likewise were the sole discretion of the owner. Some planes had two KX170's in them, and some planes had dual 430's. Most were somewhere in the middle, some with old GPS's and some pretty nifty ones in them.
The plane had to fly enough to justify its insurance premium. The club paid for the tiedown, or applied it toward hangar rent if the plane was hangared. The club provided in motion insurance, and I believe the owner provided hull. If a plane was constantly being squawked, and not addressed, or just in general barely getting by, the members voted with their feet by flying other planes, and after 2-3 months of not justifying its tiedown/insurance, we would drop a plane from its rolls. That being said, we had some long time birds on our roster.. A very pristine 150 that was kept clean enough you could eat off the engine. A 172 that wasn't pretty, but a solid performer. Full Silver Crown stack, flew 100 hrs a month and was on its fifth or sixth TBO'd engine with the club when it got its tail twisted by Hurricane Ike and she was scrapped. Why that plane wasn't flown away I will never know. The 170 had special checkout requirements, and was never groundlooped while it was in the club.. a rarity for rental taildraggers.
We had 200 members on the rolls, of whom half were 90 day current in club aircraft and about 15 of whom flew more than 10 hrs a month. We required 90 day currency in the most complex aircraft you intended to fly in our fleet, if you wanted to be covered under insurance, otherwise you went for a hop with an instructor. You went with one of our instructors every year as well, and it met the requirements of a BFR, and most members logged it as such. We weren't draconian about our application process, but we DID call your references, and we DID ask questions about your habits - responsibility, safety mindedness, paying bills on time. If someone was blatantly unsafe, or had disregard for the rules, they were booted - which was a very very rare event. BAAC billed monthly. Once you had established yourself as responsible, it was not uncommon to incur $1000-$1500 flying bills in a month (we are talking about when an Arrow went for $80/hr wet and avgas was under $3). We did not use credit cards at the time. Another "flying club" I was involved with had you pay by check by the flight, which I think was a better arrangement.
Our fleet varied from 4-10 aircraft. At various times we had a 150, 152, 2 172's, Pa 28-161, Cessna 170, Pa-28R200, M-20E, S35, an AA5B, a TB9, a 177B and a 177RG. I logged time in every one but the bonanza, which was gone (due to maintenance or lack thereof) by the time I was qualified to fly it. Membership consisted of an initiation fee and then about $30-40 a month dues. Aircraft were rented wet. You saved receipts if you fueled out. They reimbursed you at no more than the fuel cost at home, which was encouragement for finding cheap fuel. This was not a "buy in" member ownership type of situation. Wet rate was recalculated quarterly at a minimum, so the rates tended to stay close to the current fuel price, as incurred by the folks currently flying the plane.
Club instruction was by club instructors only, when in club aircraft. Someone tried to push that rule, and they were removed from membership immediately for having an outside instructor in the plane, then refusing to show their logbook regarding the flight. (We dont have the authority to demand your logbook like the Feds, but we sure don't have to let you use our fleet either..) We had one or two guys who would be available to be semi full time instructors but they were never the 20 year old timebuilders you see at flight schools. We had a half dozen guys who taught part time.. either semi retired or after their day job. My flight instructors were a retired owner of the 170, and his 170 partner who was a CFII, A&P IA, who was a retired aerospace engineer who used to work on the B2 long ago. He taught cause he liked it, not cause he needed the money.
We had some rules in place regarding long term rentals, and in the years I was in the club it only came into effect once, and was waived on request - an engineer took 3 weeks vacation and flew around the country.. logged 48 different states I believe.. but for the most part, any member could sign out any plane for up to a week.. when the fleet was short, long trips were discouraged. When the fleet was full, it wasn't uncommon for 3 of our birds to be at OSH. Because we weren't a flight school, 3 aircraft being gone over a week wasn't a big dent in the bottom line, and wasn't discouraged.
I took the arrow to Osh from Houston, I took the Tiger to Cleveland Ohio, and I flew various planes all over Texas and Lousiana, on trips that would have not been as welcome at flight schools intent on slamming out the engine and instructional hours. I worked nights at the time, and on my nights off (or if I got off early) I would rent the birds and take off after 10 pm and knock out some night cross country. I have about 150 night hours as a result, and its some of the best flying time I've ever had. Got stuck once or twice by a tight spread and had to wait til it burned off, but I took that as a learning experience
The downside? Politics. A power hungry chief instructor. Occasional ****ing contest between the board and owners (which resulted in two of the best planes ever in the fleet being taken down the road to a flight school and leased back from there).
The cost was very competitive for what you got - clean planes, maintained for the most part quite well, available 24/7/365 and managed by people who loved to fly.
There was a flight school nearby that undercut the prices significantly (and used mogas and had owner maintenance from someone who appeared to have pencilwhipped his A&P), but the squawk list and incident rate caused a lot of raised eyebrows, as did those incidents not being reported to insurers or the FAA. He didn't last too long, and his reputation follows him.
