Flying clubs / partnerships in the area

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kujo806

Pre-takeoff checklist
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May 6, 2013
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177
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St. Charles, IL
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kujo806
I am changing jobs and moving to the Chicago area. As a result, I just sold my share of an Arrow in Iowa, and now I need to find new wings. I will be living in west St. Charles. It looks like Dupage, Dekalb, and Aurora are reasonable possibilities near my house. Dupage is less than 20min away and the others are about 25-30min away. I was hoping to get some suggestions for flying clubs or partnerships with nicer aircraft. I plan to look into the Fox Flying Club, although I am concerned that availability may be limited. Let me know if you have any other suggestions.
 
Fox Flying Club's website looks decent. They have three nice planes and the prices aren't crazy. $95 a month dues + $104 tach hour for a 2001 well equipped 172 is good. Also says you get an additional $5/hr off if you fly enough, so there's that. That Archer looks really nice at $109 tach/hr as well. Probably the best value per mile compared to the Arrow they have.

The joining fee only being $445 is also excellent. You are risking basically nothing.

Just ask about their rules for trips and ask to see the schedule so you can get an idea of availability. With them having 3 well equipped airplanes, I'd bet availability is pretty good. At any given time, any of the three will get the job done in comfort since they all have good autopilots and WAAS GPSs.
 
kujo806 said:
I am changing jobs and moving to the Chicago area. As a result, I just sold my share of an Arrow in Iowa, and now I need to find new wings. I will be living in west St. Charles. It looks like Dupage, Dekalb, and Aurora are reasonable possibilities near my house. Dupage is less than 20min away and the others are about 25-30min away. I was hoping to get some suggestions for flying clubs or partnerships with nicer aircraft. I plan to look into the Fox Flying Club, although I am concerned that availability may be limited. Let me know if you have any other suggestions.
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I keep my plane at ARR and love it there. Don’t think there are any clubs. I did see an opportunity to partner up in a 182 recently on our pilot lounge board. I can keep an eye out if you tell me types you’re interested in.

I used to rent at DPA. IAA has a really good owner. They range from 172’s to nice SR22’s and a newer Saratoga. If I didn’t want to own, I’d still be renting there.

I have a co-worker that is part of a club at 06C. Think it’s a 172 and 182. I can get some info if you’d like.

Another co-worker is in some sort of club at Naper-Aero...again...if you’d like I can get you some details.

Welcome to the area...I guess. If you like crappy weather, goofy politics and insane taxes. If you cant tell, I’m only here because of work.:)

Let me know if you want more info or contacts for any of this. Good luck!
 
When I lived up there, I was in Fox Flying Club. I was fairly satisfied with them but it has been 2 years plus since I was a member. Give them a look.
 
Thanks for the input. I was surprised to see that there aren't clubs at ARR considering it is relatively big. IAA does appear to have a really nice set of aircraft, albeit a bit pricey. Considering the low cost of Fox plus the fact insurance is included, it might be worth a shot initially. I could see doing something different later on once I am settled in the new job. As far as types, I don't really want to take a step back after having the Arrow. Something complex with newer avionics would be preferred. Some of the newer 172s and Archers are pretty nice too though.


Radar Contact said:
I keep my plane at ARR and love it there. Don’t think there are any clubs. I did see an opportunity to partner up in a 182 recently on our pilot lounge board. I can keep an eye out if you tell me types you’re interested in.

I used to rent at DPA. IAA has a really good owner. They range from 172’s to nice SR22’s and a newer Saratoga. If I didn’t want to own, I’d still be renting there.

I have a co-worker that is part of a club at 06C. Think it’s a 172 and 182. I can get some info if you’d like.

Another co-worker is in some sort of club at Naper-Aero...again...if you’d like I can get you some details.

Welcome to the area...I guess. If you like crappy weather, goofy politics and insane taxes. If you cant tell, I’m only here because of work.:)

Let me know if you want more info or contacts for any of this. Good luck!
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My partner used to be a member of Fox Flying Club. Based on what he's told me, I would avoid them... Very sketchy on both management and safety.
 
Yes, stay away. FFC has had 3 accidents in a year and a half one was fatal.
 
flyingcheesehead said:
My partner used to be a member of Fox Flying Club. Based on what he's told me, I would avoid them... Very sketchy on both management and safety.
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The sketchy management (former club president) is gone as far as I know. He was also the organizer for that modaero airshow that was a bust. The club elects new officers every year.

The safety issues that I am aware of were of individual members and not the club itself.

avi8tor said:
Yes, stay away. FFC has had 3 accidents in a year and a half one was fatal.
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Two were gear ups in the Arrows due to pilot error, i.e. not putting the little handle in the cockpit into the down position.

The fatal crash was also most likely pilot error. The pilot supposedly had orthopedic shoes with some sort of special heel due to a leg/foot issue of some sort. One got caught in the rudder pedal causing an issue. While trying to solve that, he stalled and spun in. At least that was the story going around before I moved away. The NTSB report mentioned this possibility but stated they could not confirm it. All that is known for certain is that he told tower he had rudder issues and was trying to resolve it. Moments later he crashed.

If I were to return to the area, I'd probably consider joining FFC again.
 
SkyDog58 said:
The sketchy management (former club president) is gone as far as I know. He was also the organizer for that modaero airshow that was a bust. The club elects new officers every year.

The safety issues that I am aware of were of individual members and not the club itself.



Two were gear ups in the Arrows due to pilot error, i.e. not putting the little handle in the cockpit into the down position.

The fatal crash was also most likely pilot error. The pilot supposedly had orthopedic shoes with some sort of special heel due to a leg/foot issue of some sort. One got caught in the rudder pedal causing an issue. While trying to solve that, he stalled and spun in. At least that was the story going around before I moved away. The NTSB report mentioned this possibility but stated they could not confirm it. All that is known for certain is that he told tower he had rudder issues and was trying to resolve it. Moments later he crashed.

If I were to return to the area, I'd probably consider joining FFC again.
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The second arrow accident wasn’t a gear up landing. The pilot ran the plane out of fuel on takeoff out of ARR. He pitched the nose over and landed so hard he collapsed the gear. The club has had a long history of a lack of a safety culture. They turn a blind eye to members who really shouldn’t be flying,as in case with the pilot involved in the fatal accident.
 
How is the maintenance of the aircraft? It is probably hard to enforce safe piloting for individuals of a large club, but they should be able to maintain their aircraft. I have not had any issues in 5 years of flying my arrow (knock on wood), but I tend to be pretty conservative in my flying habits and safety margins.
 
avi8tor said:
The second arrow accident wasn’t a gear up landing. The pilot ran the plane out of fuel on takeoff out of ARR. He pitched the nose over and landed so hard he collapsed the gear. The club has had a long history of a lack of a safety culture. They turn a blind eye to members who really shouldn’t be flying,as in case with the pilot involved in the fatal accident.
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I could be wrong about that second Arrow incident. I knew that they lost power right after takeoff due to fuel but I thought they had retracted the gear before the power loss and didn't get it back down. At least that was the story at the time.

Mike, the pilot of the fatal, seemed to be a conscientious pilot and was one of just a few from the club I saw at safety seminars. In club meetings, he seemed to be one of the more reasonable and level headed members when it came to discussing the club and its future. I never flew with him though and no one ever commented negatively on his pilot skills so I really can't definitively characterize his pilot skills one way or the other.

As an A&P-IA, I will say that the aircraft were well maintained. The club CFIs also were pretty thorough on checkouts. So I cannot agree with you on the club's safety culture. But then again, I was only a member for a little less than three years. Your experience with the club is obviously different. What years were you a member?
 
SkyDog58 said:
I could be wrong about that second Arrow incident. I knew that they lost power right after takeoff due to fuel but I thought they had retracted the gear before the power loss and didn't get it back down. At least that was the story at the time.

Mike, the pilot of the fatal, seemed to be a conscientious pilot and was one of just a few from the club I saw at safety seminars. In club meetings, he seemed to be one of the more reasonable and level headed members when it came to discussing the club and its future. I never flew with him though and no one ever commented negatively on his pilot skills so I really can't definitively characterize his pilot skills one way or the other.

As an A&P-IA, I will say that the aircraft were well maintained. The club CFIs also were pretty thorough on checkouts. So I cannot agree with you on the club's safety culture. But then again, I was only a member for a little less than three years. Your experience with the club is obviously different. What years were you a member?
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Yes the aircraft were maintained very well, in fact almost to good. The A&P really took a lot of pride in his work and it showed. I was never concerned about the maintenance on the aircraft, I had no problem putting my family on them.

The safety culture changed at some point. In the old days you would have a checkride that was thorough. Near the end for me it was flying to the edge of the class delta with a steep turn to the left then a landing and you were done, hardly a checkride more like just checking boxes on a form.In the end it seemed like they would turn a blind eye to keep certain members flying.

As far as the fatal accident pilot, I won’t discuss it on a public forum, but if you want to send me a PM I’d be happy to chat more about it. To call him reasonable and level headed is laughable at best.
 
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