Made the Decision: Equity Partnership

[TCABM]

Because my flying goals and the goals of my local place to rent started to collide, I made the decision to buy into an equity partnership and closed the deal recently.

For me, this was a natural progression to provide insights to ownership from an economy and availability perspective while I work towards eventual CFI and CFI-I ratings.

So far, I’ve been impressed with the fiscal and maintenance status as well as the decisions with the group and hope to learn more about owner maintenance with and without A&P supervision since an A&P is involved, too.

The bird is an IFR capable C172M with a mid-time engine, GTN650, and six pack. It’s also been well kept and flies between 100 and 250 hours a year.

 

[GRG55]

If you have a good group of owners this is a great way to get experience with owning. The fixed costs of owning an aeroplane (e.g. costs, such as insurance, hangar rent and Garmin subscriptions, that are not related to hours flown each year) add up quickly and are significant. So sharing those among several owners can really help bring the cost of flying down.

 

[NealRomeoGolf]

Congrats. But you know the rules...

Pictures!!

 

[TCABM]

Congrats. But you know the rules...

Pictures!!

I’ve got a ton of detail pics from the limited pre-buy an A&P buddy helped with, but nothing of the whole plane.

I’m headed out Sunday for the checkout and will get more then.

 

[Ted]

Congrats on owning. I've always felt that a partnership with good partners was one of the best ways to own a plane. The key there is good partners, which can be hard to find. I'm sure you've done your research and that this will work out for you.

In my flying career, I've only rented planes a few times, and it's worked poorly on the whole. The clubs/partnerships and then ownership have worked very well.

 

[TCABM]

@NeilRomeoGolf pics are going to have to wait. 19KT crosswind component today.

 

[TCABM]

Installed Rosen visors today with the A&P who’s part of the club, then did the checkout and now have full usage of the aircraft. @neilromoegolf, here’s your pics.

1.2hrs on the hobbs today and yes, the ADF still receives the local AM station, but isn’t useable for approaches. That brick is coming out when we decide to redo the panel. The discussion right now is how far we want to go right now. The reasonable voices are suggesting think long term and work backwards from there. When the current GTN650, GTX345 and audio panel were installed two years ago, there wasn’t an inkling that anybody would want to go further, but now some momentum is gaining to at least get rid of the vac system when the motor is overhauled in a couple of years.

 

[TCABM]

Annual Inspection underway, everything is good except the #1 cylinder compression is at 40; after some troubleshooting, the jug is coming off to see what’s up. Mx Officer (A&P) is assisting the IA and said borescope looks good but the exhaust valve just isn’t seating fully and can’t tell why.

In other news we are going to decide next month whether to go ahead with dual G5s this year or wait until next. GI275s just aren’t worth the extra scratch since we have no AP and don’t intend to add one at any point.