Jay Beckman wrote:

I'm considering applying to join an area flying club and I'd really like
to get some thoughts on the subject, Positives and Negatives...

Advantages over owning:

o Diversity of aircraft
o Spreading risk (ie. one aircraft down doesn't
mean you don't fly)
o Spreading cost risk (ie. one airplane having an expensive
year can be offset by other aircraft under certain
circumstances)[1]

Advantages over renting:

o Opportunity to participate/learn more about
the care and feeding of aircraft.
o Price
o No daily minimums

Disadvantages over owning:

o Scheduling, as opposed to just "getting up and
going flying" (not valid if in a partnership)

Disadvantages over renting:

o Having to deal with care and feeding of aircraft.
o No FBO to whom one can simple give the airplane and
say "solve the problem"

In my mind, a good club operates like a large partnership. But I'm biased
in that that's how my club operates (we're all share owners, all "care and
feeding" tasks are volunteer positions, etc).

- Andrew

[1] This is a tough issue. We try to keep all aircraft paying
for themselves so as to avoid retaining an undesirable plane.
But for identical aircraft, we do pool (since there's no reason
to assume one 172 is less desirable than another identical 172).

Pooling helps...and it's a good reason in my opinion for a larger
club: so as to have more pool w/o giving up diversity. That is,
I'd rather a club with two pairs of identical aircraft and twice
the membership than a smaller club with only one of each of two
types of airplane.