A week ago I became a new co-owner

On 7-Apr-2005, "bdl" wrote:

Only two drawbacks that I can see, and so far they haven't been a
problem. 1.) the airport is 30 minutes from my house, but its only 5
minutes further than where I was renting from so it's not that bad. 2)
with 4 partner's scheduling may be an issue. 2 of the partners fly
little based on their previous years activities, so hopefully it won't
be an issue.


Congratulations, Brian.

Regarding scheduling, I think you will find that even with 4 co-owners it
will work much better than renting from FBOs. However, it is important to
develop a scheduling system that meets everybody's needs (at least as
closely as possible. I recommend one of two possible approaches.

The best (in my opinion) is to maintain an on-line schedule on which any of
the partners can reserve the airplane. Such tools are available from a
number of vendors, but if you have a website available to host the schedule,
and you or one of your partners are adept at such things, you should be able
to "roll your own" fairly easily.

A second approach is to assign the airplane to a "primary user" week-by-week
on a rotating basis. Most find that defining the "week" as
Thursday-Wednesday works best for personal (as opposed to business) use.
The deal is that the primary user for the week can use the plane any time
without consulting with the other owners. Any of the other owners can use
the plane that week by first clearing the schedule with that week's primary
user. Of course, owners can swap weeks or make other deals to meet their
scheduling needs.

--
-Elliott Drucker

Just talked to a guy today in a 4 way. He said scheduling isn't a problem
until one partner starts to take advantage of the usually available plane
and does not communicate his need for the plane on someone else's time. One
just takes it w/o asking. "It hasn't been a problem before!"

They just reminded him of the arrangement (usually very flexible) and that
was it. Good partners make a good partnership.

Guess that's why my wife & I get along so well.

--

Thx, {|;-)

Victor J. (Jim) Osborne, Jr.

VOsborne2 at charter dot net
wrote in message
news:iTi5e.5261$B12.4929@trnddc09...


A second approach is to assign the airplane to a "primary user"
week-by-week
on a rotating basis. Most find that defining the "week" as
Thursday-Wednesday works best for personal (as opposed to business) use.
The deal is that the primary user for the week can use the plane any time
without consulting with the other owners. Any of the other owners can use
the plane that week by first clearing the schedule with that week's
primary
user. Of course, owners can swap weeks or make other deals to meet their
scheduling needs.

--
-Elliott Drucker

Yeah, I'm not expecting too many problems. Otherwise I wouldn't have
agreed to sign on. We all have done a few "social" gatherings already.
Discussing our uses of the plane, styles of flying, dinner, drinks,
etc. So I'm not too worried about it. Even if I fly less than I did
while renting, I'll consider it education enough on the aspects of
"owning". Until you actually have to deal with some of those issues
you just never think about them.

Brian

Thanks for the suggestion Elliot. The second method is what we have
employed, although we have an online calendar (using a Yahoo Group)
that allows someone to document their plans as well.

So far its worked, but I haven't gotten "my" week yet, either. Renting
at the FBO was getting more difficult (one of the reasons I bit the
bullet). Seems like there were more and more people getting their
initial flight training. Combine that with the airport where I was
renting likely to close sometime in the near future (with price
increases likely no matter where the FBO went) and it all seemed to
make sense to buy in at this time.

I also want to take longer cross-countries, without having to worry
about turning around right away because the plane is "due back". Or
paying the 3hr minimum.

Brian