Owning a plane and belonging to a flight club

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MacFlier

Pre-takeoff checklist
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MacFlier
Hi all! As a renter, I'm curious to hear if you dropped a membership to a club once you bought your own plane or kept it and, if so, why you did.
 
I both owned and rented as a member of Plus One Flyers when I lived in San Diego.

I bought a 170 since I wanted to build tailwheel time and at that time there weren’t many tailwheels available to rent.

Majority of my flying was in my own plane, but I also had a ton of airplanes to rent whenever I needed a fast complex or IFR capable plane for a family trip.
 
Buy for your usual mission, rent for when you need more.

In my case I bought an RV6 and stayed in the club with a C177RG and PA32-300 so I'd have access to 4 or 6 seats when needed.

I sold out of that club (at just the right time) because the President and I had different visions for the future. So I need to find another another arrangement for missions that are more than 2 peeps. I prefer my current problem.
 
Slightly different perspective here... there was a LSA flying club that was trying to get started at my home field when I owned my Fisher and then my Starduster (both single seaters), I would have joined to have access to a two seater when I wanted to take a passenger... but by the time they actually started up (with a Champ) I had crashed the Starduster and bought the Hatz which is a two seater so I didn't need the club plane any more.
 
I continued to be a member of the club for a few years after I bought my Bonanza, but ended up dropping my membership. I maybe flown once or twice in a club plane when my plane was on annual, so it didn’t make much sense to keep paying my dues.
 
I've owned my plane since 2012, but I've also kept a flying club membership.

My plane is a 1989 Bellanca Super Viking. It's a fast IFR machine and is great for long cross country trips.

The flying club, however, has a 1979 Great Lakes open cockpit biplane and a Decathlon for just-for-fun acrobatics. They are why I keep my club membership. I can't afford to own multiple planes, so I purchased the one which fits my primary mission, and rent the ones that meet my secondary goals.
 
jimhorner said:
The flying club, however, has a 1979 Great Lakes open cockpit biplane and a Decathlon for just-for-fun acrobatics.
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Nice... just curious, what does a club like that cost? Nothing like that in my neck of the woods.
 
I'm about six months into ownership, and still a club member.

My original intention was to pursue a leaseback deal to offset the costs of the plane i bought, and still be a part of the club. The pa32 i bought would be a great step up from their all pa28 fleet.

What I've find is that it's REAL nice having my own plane, not having to deal with the scheduler, being able to tinker with it and do some of the mx, and not worry about what the last pilot did to it. If we want want to make plans on Thursday to take off on a trip Friday, we can do it. That flexibility is impossible with the club planes.

At this point, I've all but decided to quit the club. I'm going to wait to get through my first year and make sure I can afford the plane on my own. I also have a number of grass strips i want to check out that the archer is better suited to than my Lance.

If I could afford both, I'd stick with the club as well. I find the archer a little more relaxing to just fly around and sightsee or go to grass strips. I also like the idea of having something to fly while my plane is down for mx. I may explore finding a club that's more local with a 172 for those low & slow missions.
 
Yes I love having both.

I bought a fun little Cessna 140 which costs little to operate and is far more fun to fly than the Skyhawk. But if I need 4 seats I’ll go take the clubs 180hp 172. I use it rarely, but it’s there.

so for 25k out of pocket I have two airplanes at my disposal...
 
Both my airplane partner and I were members of the local flight schools. Once we've bought our plane, we haven't looked back. Unless the club/flight school offers a plane that yours can't do: i.e. single vs multi or 2 vs 4 seats, etc, IMHO I don't see the reason.
 
MacFlier said:
Hi all! As a renter, I'm curious to hear if you dropped a membership to a club once you bought your own plane or kept it and, if so, why you did.
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A good friend @texasag93, is a member of the same equity club as I am (www.metroflyersclub.com), and owner of an Archer.

It's a good set up for him as he has his own weekend warrior Archer and access to our higher performance go someplace long distance airplanes.
 
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I’m only a club member (70+ members) but there are multiple members that own their own planes. Some of these don’t even fly the club aircraft. They just joined to support the mission of the club.
 
Ravioli said:
Buy for your usual mission, rent for when you need more.

In my case I bought an RV6 and stayed in the club with a C177RG and PA32-300 so I'd have access to 4 or 6 seats when needed.

I sold out of that club (at just the right time) because the President and I had different visions for the future. So I need to find another another arrangement for missions that are more than 2 peeps. I prefer my current problem.
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I've seen that advice given here many times, but I don't think it's very practical or done very often.

For one thing, it's getting harder and harder to find a 6 seat airplane to rent. But even if you could find one to rent, the currency requirements, hourly rates, and daily minimums make using the plane very difficult and expensive.

Rightly or wrongly, most people buy for 95% of their mission, and just outsource the remaining 5% to the airlines. The marginal operating cost of a P32R for all flights over a P28R is probably less than the increased cost per hour of the rented P32R for 20% of flights and currency. Renting from an FBO or Flying club can get expensive (or at least seem expensive on the short term). When renting seems so much more expensive than flying one's own plane, you start to just abandon the idea of taking flights that require the rental.

Now if you just want multiple planes to fly, partnerships are not a bad way to go.
 
I tried to continue belonging to a rental organization but found it idiotic when they wouldn't rent to me, because I hadn't flown one of their planes in the prior 90 days.

My logs showing I'd flown my own plane didn't count.

Edit - this same business got a C-310, and for a hot moment I considered getting a multi. Until I found out they wouldn't rent the C-310 and it was instruction-only.
 
I'd been in a 182 club for a few years when I bought my 140. I had them concurrently for a while, but eventually left the club after a couple years of flying my plane every weekend but only flying the club plane a handful of times per year.
 
I belonged to clubs for 26 years. After buying my aircraft it checked all the boxes for my typical “mission” and I dropped my club membership. Now I don’t have access to more performance, glass panels and autopilots but in four years I haven’t missed that...
 
I was in a club that had a single 172 and about 15 members. I quit when I bought a Bonanza with a partner.
 
I've been thinking whether it's better to join a partnership, up to 4 members, on a nice cross country plane like a Cherokee 6 or similar...
 
MacFlier said:
I've been thinking whether it's better to join a partnership, up to 4 members, on a nice cross country plane like a Cherokee 6 or similar...
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Better than what?
 
In our 12 member club with a Dakota, one member has his own aircraft as well, flys it more than club plane, insurance renewal took a hit due to for their lack of time in type ( club plane)
 
If you can afford to own airplane (or a small partnership), do that.

Clubs are all over the board. Small clubs with a specific purpose (warbirds and alike) to 100+ members with several airplanes.

Do what you can afford and with people you are comfortable being with. My club is 16 members and we have 2 airplanes. I do not fly a lot in the club airplanes, but I do fly enough to justify the dues for now.

Your question has to be answered by you and your budget. I am sorry there is no simple answer to your question.
 
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