Joined a flying club!

azpilot

azpilot

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Jul 27, 2015
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azpilot
I have now graduated from rental pilot to club pilot. I'm pretty excited about it! The FBO I was flying at was kind of going through a downturn, and I've been seriously considering joining the club for a while. The club has an Archer, two 182's and a Comanche. I'm looking forward to paying tach time for flying instead of hobbs time. Plus, the planes are hangared, I don't pay sales tax, and since I am technically a 'part owner', I don't have to pay for insurance.

My wife and I will be doing a interstate flight next month together in the Archer. We're flying from Chandler, AZ to Henderson, NV (KCHD to KHND).

I do my initial checkout with the club instructor this Friday!
 
Congrats! But how do u 'not pay insurance'?
 
Congrats! I've been playing with the idea of joining that club as well! I'm just not sure how often they rotate the planes through DVT, which is right down the street from me. That Commanche has been calling to me though!!

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eman1200 said:
Congrats! But how do u 'not pay insurance'?
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You don't explicitly pay insurance. To be a member of the club, you pay $125/month to cover fixed costs like hangar rental and insurance.
 
AmazonChitlin said:
Congrats! I've been playing with the idea of joining that club as well! I'm just not sure how often they rotate the planes through DVT, which is right down the street from me. That Commanche has been calling to me though!!

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The club splits the planes between KCHD and KDVT. They keep two planes at each airport at all times. Right now we've got the Archer and a 182 and KCHD and the Comanche and the other 182 at KDVT.

You would always have the option to fly a 182 and the Comanche would be available half the time.
 
azpilot said:
You don't explicitly pay insurance. To be a member of the club, you pay $125/month to cover fixed costs like hangar rental and insurance.
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The club I am in functions like this... monthly dues covers recurring expenses like hangar, insurance, databases, inspections, routine maintenance, etc.
 
AggieMike88 said:
The club I am in functions like this... monthly dues covers recurring expenses like hangar, insurance, databases, inspections, routine maintenance, etc.
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Pretty much the same here.
 
FlyBoyAndy said:
Is a club or an individual require to have insurance? I realize the reasons why I have insurance.
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I am not aware of any governmental requirement to have insurance. If you have a loan on an aircraft, I'm sure the bank would require it.
 
I joined a club not too long after getting my PPL. Renting was a PITA, too expensive for overnights, with minimum flying time each day to ring up costs. The club really opened up our flying and was a great introduction to ownership. I took part in all the annuals and avionics work, it opened my eyes as to what it takes to own. We eventually bought our own plane and it's been a blast. Take advantage of the club for the learning opportunities.

Good luck!
 
Congratulations. This is probably the best and cheapest flying you will ever do. Get involved, stay involved.
 
GMascelli said:
I joined a club not too long after getting my PPL. Renting was a PITA, too expensive for overnights, with minimum flying time each day to ring up costs. The club really opened up our flying and was a great introduction to ownership. I took part in all the annuals and avionics work, it opened my eyes as to what it takes to own. We eventually bought our own plane and it's been a blast. Take advantage of the club for the learning opportunities.

Good luck!
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Everything you described here is exaxtly what I'm a hoping to get out of my club experience. Thanks for sharing!
 
evapilotaz said:
I'm going to join the same club soon. I know what fbo your renting at and I'm done with it.
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Pretty sure I know too. Have they gone downhill? I think last time I was there was in 2012 or 2013. I moved to north phoenix and now fly put of Deer Valley

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azpilot said:
I am not aware of any governmental requirement to have insurance. If you have a loan on an aircraft, I'm sure the bank would require it.
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Which seems odd as we are required to have liability insurance if we drive but not if we fly.
 
I did my club checkout in the Archer yesterday. It went pretty well! I'm going back up today for another local 'practice' flight.
 
GMascelli said:
Renting was a PITA, too expensive for overnights, with minimum flying time each day to ring up costs.
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How often does/did your club let you take a plane overnight? I have inquired locally, and they said maximum of once every 2-3 months. That kinda bummed me out, I get it, if you have 27 members and two planes, you have to limit people "hogging" the plane... but once you've burned a sufficient amount of holes in the sky, and done every day trip you can think of doing, a guy wants more.
 
StevieTimes said:
How often does/did your club let you take a plane overnight? I have inquired locally, and they said maximum of once every 2-3 months. That kinda bummed me out, I get it, if you have 27 members and two planes, you have to limit people "hogging" the plane... but once you've burned a sufficient amount of holes in the sky, and done every day trip you can think of doing, a guy wants more.
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It's going to depend on the club. I'm in a 10 person equity-partnership/club and we have no rules on that. About 4 of us actually fly with any regularity and the plane is almost always available. The other club across town has ridiculously restrictive rules (and wet rates) that make me wonder why anyone would pay to join it.

I was in another club a year ago (now dissolved because someone cut the grass with the prop) that only allowed one overnight a month, but that was because it was a beat up Cherokee 140 that was only $60 an hour and was really meant for training/time building (I used it to build time and for short fun). It could not be sitting on vacation for a week and remain solvent and we all understood that.

Personally, if I'm paying 4-8k to buy into an equity club with an actual cross country plane, I better be able to take it overnight a reasonable amount of times a month/year or they aren't getting my money.
 
Our club dues include insurance but we encourage members to carry a non-owned policy as well. For me it's easy since my RV is well insured.

For scheduling, we ask that members don't take consecutive weekends, and seek majority vote or BOD approval for "more than two trips 7 days or longer in a calendar year" and "any trip over 10 days." Not aware of disapproval of any request.

With two planes and 14 members it seems to work out.
 
We had four pilots and two never flew, one maybe once a month. We scheduled multiple trips and overnights with no restrictions.

Once a new pilot joined he and I needed to schedule carefully. He and his wife had a cottage in Ocracoke, and he wanted overnights friday through Sunday's.

Needless to say we were pretty spoiled but our schedules meshed pretty good. What soured me was he brought the plane back with sand everywhere inside and never cleaned the plane.

I gave notice and we bought our Sundowner.
 
StevieTimes said:
How often does/did your club let you take a plane overnight? I have inquired locally, and they said maximum of once every 2-3 months. That kinda bummed me out, I get it, if you have 27 members and two planes, you have to limit people "hogging" the plane... but once you've burned a sufficient amount of holes in the sky, and done every day trip you can think of doing, a guy wants more.
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My club has fairly generous rules about overnight trips. You can schedule the plane for up to 16 days, and can have up to three reservations scheduled. When you take the plane overnight you have to pay at least one tach hour. The club has an Archer which gets taken around for local flights the most, and it is booked pretty frequently for short/local flights. There are also two 182's and a Comanche which are not booked as frequently, but are typically booked for longer time periods.
 
StevieTimes said:
How often does/did your club let you take a plane overnight? I have inquired locally, and they said maximum of once every 2-3 months. That kinda bummed me out, I get it, if you have 27 members and two planes, you have to limit people "hogging" the plane... but once you've burned a sufficient amount of holes in the sky, and done every day trip you can think of doing, a guy wants more.
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That's where the ownership discussion starts IMHO. Clubs are great in spreading the costs, but once you cross over into about 75+ hours a year flying, my preference turned over to sole ownership. Makes last minutes decisions on trips (even day trips that are only 1 hour flight time, but all day affairs) so much easier. I'm flying about 150-200 hours a year, so it makes sense to own for me. Not that owning ever really makes any sense... ;)

Not everyone's the same and I do like the flexibility large clubs have with aircraft types that might be available. Having an Archer to just burn holes in the sky, two C182's (aka SUV's), and then a Comanche's speed and efficiency for longer trips is really nice! Only down side I can really think of is trying to stay current/proficient in all three aircraft models.

Cheers,
Brian
 
AKBill said:
Wondering what it cost to join and what they charge for flight time.
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$4,500 buy in up front
$125 / month for fixed costs
The archer I fly is $99/hr tach time wet. For comparison, to rent an archer at the same field is $126/hr wet Hobbs. For local flight you can figure 1 Hobbs hour =. 7 tach hours.

I hope this doesn't cross any boundaries, but since you asked, here is our club faq page.

http://www.phoenixflyers.org/FAQ
 
Once I build up some decent time, that's the club I plan on going with. They appear to have some nice birds at fair rental rates.
 
evapilotaz said:
AZPilot I'm interested in how often that Archer is available for scheduling. I guess you will have a better Idea after you been with the club.
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Umm... that's kind of difficult to say. The Archer gets flown the most... I think. I will say that on Friday evening, I decided I wanted to take it up for a quick spin on Saturday. I checked the schedule, and one person had it scheduled for two hours in the morning, so I took a two hour slot in the afternoon.

The club has a monthly meeting. Check it out on the web page. This coming Tuesday the meeting is up North. Next month it will be down South. Let me know if you'd like to come sometime.
 
Looks like a pretty well setup club. I would be all over that Comanche!
 
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