wrote:
posted this just now in rec.aviation.piloting, but now thinking this
might have been a better place, apologies for the dup posting

I'm a new plane owner, and in an unusual stroke of luck I own the plane
outright. The problem is that financially I'm not in a position to
maintain it (or own it for that matter...), so I'm looking into various
partnership setups to help offset costs such as fractionals,
co-ownerships and leasebacks.

That's the right idea.


Thought I'd post "yet another question" about which of these
partnerships might be more viable than the others given my ownership.
most of the reading that I've done thru this group and in various other
articles thru out the web seem to be geared towards a partnership where
the plane is still being paid for by the partners. I'd assume that a
partnership where the plane is already paid for would allow for a more
attractive buy in given the possibility of a lower buy in price to
cover the operating expenses, as well as a lower cost per hour to the
partner.

If I form a partnership where the other partners pay some amount in to
a general fund as the seed money how would my share get paid in? I'm
not interested in putting X grand into the pot since I'm placing the
plane into the partnership with a paid in full status and wanting to
keep my share of the valuation - how would this work?

The right number of other partners is, IMO, one. Each additional partner you add
reduces your expenses by a smaller amount, and the amount of communication
required among the partners goes up as n-squared.

Find a partner with similar ideas about how the plane should be used and
maintained.

Form a corporation and sell the airplane to the corporation. Sell stock in the
corporation. If you have just one partner, you'd want to sell him or her half
the stock, you retain the other half.

Keep in mind that your ability to sell is affected by the partnership. Unless
your partnership agreement says something different, you're probably going to be
limited to a local market to sell your share, whereas you have a global market
for selling the whole airplane. Consider selling this plane and using the
proceeds to buy into an existing partnership.

Another possibility is leasing to a flying club while you retain full ownership,
or forming a new flying club around the plane. I did this for a few years and it
worked out nicely for me. If you have doubts about your ability to soak up the
shocks of highly variable maintenance costs, this is not a good idea.

IMO a lease to an organization where the lessee will perform maintenance is also
a bad idea. "Leasebacks" to FBOs are often structured like this. You want to
stay in control of maintenance.

Scour the AOPA website for partnership suggestions. I think they have
boilerplate partnership agreements on the web site.


these questions and more I'm sure, thanks in advance