gibbons said:
I'm in the VERY preliminary stages of thinking about putting a flying club together. I've read various bylaws and rules of operation for clubs on the internet, but thought I'd tap those of you who are members for some direct info.
If I do this, I'd like to have two 172's, a Citabria, and a cross country/complex airplane - maybe a 182 RG. I can see the potential for 20 or 30 club members, but not more than 50 in any case.
The biggest initial question is, should the club members own the airplanes (as in, stock in the club) or should they simply have access to the airplanes? Any thoughts about any of these topics would be welcome also:
- What is a reasonable monthly fee amount?
- What's the best way to let people join and leave the club?
- What's the best way to structure the club so someone can be kicked out if required?
etc, etc, etc.
Thanks for the input.
IMO ownership is definitely the way to go. First it seems most everyone takes better care of equipment they own as there's often some "pride" invested as well as money. Second, by particpating in the capitalization the members stand to gain/lose financially as the value of the airplanes change over time. You don't need the members to put up all the capital, but I'd suggest at least half comes directly from member share value. Finally this tends to stablize the share price since it's at least partially tied to a tangible asset.
Since that means a substantial investment by each member in the club I also believe you should set it up with a guaranteed buy back at a discount. The discount could range from 25-50% depending on your confidence in the appreciation of the equipment and the level of financing (the guarantee shouldn't inlcude much if any of the financed portion).
IMO, monthly fees should should be established to cover all fixed costs plus some extra for the "rainy day fund" and upgrades (no small issue itself). That means the amount will depend on your debt maintenance, insurance, hangar fees and annual inspection costs (unless you go with 100 hr inspections) as well as how close the planes are avionics wise to what you want.
One other big issue I feel strongly about is operational control of the club. IME it's pretty much a given that any group larger than 5-7 people cannot agree on anything of substance and therefore you need to restrict control to a group of about that size or nothing will get done in enay reasonable time frame. That means having an elected board of directors who have total control within the bylaws and articles of incorporation. And those articles should address expelling bad members (financially or operationally irresponsible), acquiring additional and/or replacement assets, disposing of unwanted assets, and adjusting the fee structure, scheduling rules etc.
The club I used to belong to was set up that way and it was considered one of the best run flying clubs in the country when (not because) I was a board member. That club carefully adjusted the hourly (tach based) charges to account for fuel, maintenance, and engine reserves, and occasionally but much less often adjusted the monthly "dues" when interest and hangar rents changed.
In that club we found time and time again that the best ratio of pilot's to aircraft was between 12 and 13 to 1. The scheduling rules were fairly simple and quite fair. Each member could have no more than two short term (less than a full day) blocks and two medium term (something like 1-7 days) on the books at any given time with no annual or monthly limit on such trips beyond the two per. In addition, one or two trips of up to two weeks were allowed per year. Exceptions were sometimes granted by the board under special circumstances. There were penalties for overbooking and a minimum charge was levied if a plane was scheduled but not used unless there was an excuse acceptable to the board such as weather. There was also a rule that if a member found a plane in the hangar more than an hour after the beginning of a scheduled use the plane was considered to be available for the remainder of that scheduled period.
I haven't been involved in that club since I acquired the Bonanza but it's still going strong and I might be able to get you a copy of their current AoI and rules if that would help.
