Club Management Issue

It would be fair in my view to charge him the hours for the return trip only
if you deducted the cost of his other transportation home.

Still, as a man who rents an airplane out, I would not charge him for diddly
unless I thought he may have been responsible for the failure.

You kill the battery, foul the plugs, pop the otherwise good tires, etc. and
you are on the hook. If its something that is not usually caused by loose
nuts behind the yoke, then I will treat you like a customer ought to expect
from a vendor.





"John T" wrote in message
ws.com...
"Mike Rapoport" wrote in message
k.net

Are you saying that the original renter should be responsible for the
rent on the return flight? It is not his fault that the airplane
broke.


Are you saying that the club should be responsible for the rent? It's not
their fault the plane broke.

While it's not the pilot's fault that maintenance was required, he would
have paid the return rental time if the breakdown hadn't occurred, right?
Every club agreement I've seen has covered this with something along the
lines of "pilot is responsible for the cost to return the plane." This
does
not necessarily include time on the ground doing run-up tests or circuits
around the distant airport to test repairs, but the air time between the
airports would have been incurred by the pilot in any case.

Now, if the previously stranded pilot had volunteered to fly/drive out to
retrieve the plane, I'd be more willing to entertain the option of the
club
covering some or all of the cost of retrieval. In this case, he was
unwilling or unable to do that so I think the club would be fair in
charging
him the cost of retrieving the plane as well as the roundtrip rental for
the
plane flying the replacement pilot (if that had been necessary).

--
John T
http://tknowlogy.com/TknoFlyer
http://www.pocketgear.com/products_s...veloperid=4415
____________________

"Dude" wrote in message


Still, as a man who rents an airplane out, I would not charge him for
diddly unless I thought he may have been responsible for the failure.

You kill the battery, foul the plugs, pop the otherwise good tires,
etc. and you are on the hook. If its something that is not usually
caused by loose nuts behind the yoke, then I will treat you like a
customer ought to expect from a vendor.


If the relationship between the club and the pilot is one of vendor and
customer, then I generally agree with you. However, the equation may change
depending on the finances of the club (IOW, how expenses are handled) and
the membership agreement.

In my current club, each member owns an equal share of the planes. In my
last "club", I was nothing more than a privileged renter. The difference
between the two relationships highlights the differences in perspective than
can be applied to the OP's question.

--
John T
http://tknowlogy.com/TknoFlyer
http://www.pocketgear.com/products_s...veloperid=4415
____________________

Dude wrote:
It would be fair in my view to charge him the hours for the return trip only
if you deducted the cost of his other transportation home.

Still, as a man who rents an airplane out, I would not charge him for diddly
unless I thought he may have been responsible for the failure.

You kill the battery, foul the plugs, pop the otherwise good tires, etc. and
you are on the hook. If its something that is not usually caused by loose
nuts behind the yoke, then I will treat you like a customer ought to expect
from a vendor.

Bingo! I was hoping someone would say that. I've owned an aircraft that was
leased to a flying club, and that would have been my reaction. I wouldn't do it
as a matter of written policy, but in a case like this where there is a dispute,
I would have stepped in and offered to cover all the costs (while hoping that
some of the other parties would say "awww, that's OK"), and considered it just
good customer relations... then I would have talked to the club about getting
the policy nailed down. This is way too little money to get upset about measured
against the scale of aircraft ownership expenses.

Dave
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