"a" wrote in message
...
On Apr 3, 2:50 am, wrote:
We are considering starting up a Los Angeles area flying club based on
1/10 ownership of a classic vintage 172. The club would be based on
greatly reducing the cost of flying, whether for private pilots or
students looking to reduce their training costs. Initial figures
indicate a buy-in of $3995 which includes club membership AND a 1/10
share in the 172.

I am asking for TWO things from this newsgroup post:

1) Does anyone know the web locations of newsgroups, chatrooms, or
other online resources for Los Angeles area pilots, so I can post this
in the specific area where we would be doing the club and not have to
bother people from other areas?

2) Anyone in the Los Angeles area that might be interested in a super
low-budget flying club is welcome to contact me at victorbravo (at}
sbcglibal [dot] net

Others in different parts of the country would, I am sure, be
interested in how this works out. Keep accurate accounting and share
the information, please.

Someone pointed out shareholders would get 5 weekends a year -- that
actually might not be too bad. I wonder how many of us actually do
weekenders more often than every other month. What would concern me is
if 10 pilots are sharing ownership, it's likely not many of them are
doing lots of flying, so staying current and proficient (those are NOT
the same thing) could be an issue. I hope your economic model works
in reality.

I've been in a similar arrangement and it's not too bad, really. I didn't
really have much trouble getting the plane when I wanted it. You can set up
the rules such that many problems can be worked out. Of those 10 people,
you will have some that won't fly much. You can include 1 hour of flying in
the monthly dues to encourage people to fly, and only allow them to "bank" a
few hours so they are either forced to either fly regularly or contribute
more money to the group.

You can also arrange the scheduling rules such that no one can capitalize
the plane. At least in the group I was in it wasn't that often that people
took the plane for an entire weekend. Also some will want to fly in the
morning and some in the evening, so it wasn't unusual to have 2-3 different
guys getting a shot at the plane on a weekend. With 10 people you will also
inevitably have a mix of retired folks and/or those who work weekends and
prefer to take the plane out during the week.

An older 172 in good shape can make the perfect club plane. They are simple
and cheap to maintain and the insurance costs are relatively low. Naturally
the insurance costs will be considerably higher than if 2-3 guys owned the
plane, but spread out over 10 it's not too bad. At the buy in rate I'm
assuming there will be no note carried on the plane which means cheaper
monthly costs.

I would suggest forming a Delaware corporation and making the plane an asset
of the corporation and registering it in that state. Instead of a share of
the plane, each person would own a share of the corporation. That might get
them out of paying some of the taxes in CA.