Taking the plunge into ownership.

When there is not
enough money in the kitty, the balance is calculated according to who is
flying the plane the most. That part seems a bit strange to me. If I fly 10
hours to florida and land twice, I don't wear the tires as much as the guy
doing touch and goes for an hour.

Here is one conventional method:

Each partner pays 1/3 of the annual insurance, parking, and annual inspection
labor. Each partner pays 1/3 of any upgrades (new avionics, strobes,
panel-mounted GPS, etc). Each partner pays 1/3 of any administrative costs of
maintaining the partnership (books, accountant, taxes, attorneys, banking).
Each partner gets 1/3 of any end-of-the-year tax benefit (depreciation) that
ownership may allow.

EVERYTHING ELSE is "consumables" (fuel, oil, filters, belts, fuses, bulbs,
tires, brakes, batteries, washing or detailing, replaceable parts and the
associated labor to install or repair them.)

Those items should be paid for based on flight time. The "type of flying" is
not normally factored, but you could argue that touch'n'gos, instructional
flight, etc might be harder on the aircraft and make an agreement to adjust for
that if all 3 partners are equally anal-rententive G.
(example: 1 hour of T'N'G = 1.3 hrs CC).

Not the ONLY method, but seems fair to me.




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