wrote:

Does anybody out there have any experience with such a scheme? Is this
really practical? Any solid info about legal requirements, insurance
issues, maintenance and storage costs, or tips for purchasing / selling a
plane would be appreciated.


It might be difficult to get insurance for an airplane
that does not have a qualified pilot named on the policy.

Additionally, would it be wise to contract a single CFI to do our
instruction? At approximately 50 hours per pupil, they could log a lot of
time. Maybe we could get a small discount?


It might work out better for you all to buy a plane then lease
it back to the flight school so that it could be insured on
their policy... with their flight instructors so you get
a better rate.

In the end though, I'm not convinced you'll end up any better
off than if you just rent the airplane. You can spend a lot
of time running all the numbers but in the end... remember that
when you own the airplane you are responsible for repairs,
maintenance and inspections. If I was in flight training I'd
want to concentrate only on that and not about A/C ownership.