TCO for small aircraft

On Jul 13, 7:59*am, a wrote:
On Jul 12, 11:47*pm, "Stephen!" wrote:



betwys1 wrote innews

VFR Cessna 150 * * * * * *$36/hr
IFR Cessna 172 * * * * * *$52/hr
IFR Cessna 182 * * * * * *$79/hr
Citabria * * * * * * * * *$54/hr
VFR Cessna 180 h/p 172 * *$64/hr

Those prices look attractive. The only prices I have seen recently in
that ball-park also need a monthly or yearly membership fee.
Is that the case at your club? How much?

* Oops... *Forgot about that part. *$80 a month but if you pay yer
membership before the 15th, $20 of that gets applied toward 'flight
credits' so it works out to $60 a month. *Still a hell of a deal.

Where is it?

The 'Sleeping Giant Flying Club' in Helena, Montana.

--
RCOS #7
IBA# 11465http://imagesdesavions.com

Your club looks like a reasonable deal for people who fly about as
much as the average private pilot. How many aircraft, how many
members?

I know of a couple of 'partnerships' where three or four 100 or 150
flight hours a year people got together and got a complex single,
charged a monthly fee for fixed costs and a per tach hour fee for
flying time --worked well for them, and each 'owned' the airplane for
a weekend a month. The devil is in the details of the partnership
agreement -- actually it was a corporation for liability reasons --
but it worked out for them. I think if the group is going to use the
airplane more than a couple of hundred hours a year it probably works
out that owning a share of the airplane instead of being a member of a
larger club works better. And you can trust me on this:

Opps -- the post got away from me

The trust me idea is, one flies a lot more gently if that pilot is a
part owner rather than a member. Billing by the tach hour has other
advantages too, one is more careful of the engine, apt to run at lower
RPMs, use less fuel, etc.