Plane "sharing" experience?

I'm currently in "ground school" and hope to begin my actual flight
instruction soon. I will need to keep a close eye on the costs involved.

Some classmates are tossing around the idea of us purchasing a plane as a
group, doing our training, and then selling the plane. When our training s
completed, we would either sell to a "third party" buyer or allow some group
members who want to keep and share the plane to "buy back" shares from other
members at a discount.

Does anybody out there have any experience with such a scheme? Is this
really practical? Any solid info about legal requirements, insurance
issues, maintenance and storage costs, or tips for purchasing / selling a
plane would be appreciated.

Suggestions as to appropriate "training" aircraft (beyond the Cessna 150 /
172) would also be appreciated.

Additionally, would it be wise to contract a single CFI to do our
instruction? At approximately 50 hours per pupil, they could log a lot of
time. Maybe we could get a small discount?

Craig Slein, Houston, Texas

Suggestions as to appropriate "training" aircraft (beyond the Cessna 150 /
172) would also be appreciated.

A Cherokee 140 is an excellent and inexpensive trainer that can (in a
pinch) carry four people. It also has the advantage of having the
wing on the proper side of the fuselage...

;-)

Additionally, would it be wise to contract a single CFI to do our
instruction? At approximately 50 hours per pupil, they could log a lot of
time. Maybe we could get a small discount?

Sounds like a good idea -- if you can keep everyone in line and on
schedule.

If you can keep a bunch of student pilots focused and organized,
you've got two great opportunities to save money. In my experience,
however, organizing pilots is a lot like herding cats, so you'll have
your work cut out for you...
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

It also has the advantage of having the
wing on the proper side of the fuselage...

The outside?

Jose
--
You can choose whom to befriend, but you cannot choose whom to love.
for Email, make the obvious change in the address.

wrote:

Does anybody out there have any experience with such a scheme? Is this
really practical? Any solid info about legal requirements, insurance
issues, maintenance and storage costs, or tips for purchasing / selling a
plane would be appreciated.


It might be difficult to get insurance for an airplane
that does not have a qualified pilot named on the policy.

Additionally, would it be wise to contract a single CFI to do our
instruction? At approximately 50 hours per pupil, they could log a lot of
time. Maybe we could get a small discount?


It might work out better for you all to buy a plane then lease
it back to the flight school so that it could be insured on
their policy... with their flight instructors so you get
a better rate.

In the end though, I'm not convinced you'll end up any better
off than if you just rent the airplane. You can spend a lot
of time running all the numbers but in the end... remember that
when you own the airplane you are responsible for repairs,
maintenance and inspections. If I was in flight training I'd
want to concentrate only on that and not about A/C ownership.

Jay Honeck wrote in
:

Suggestions as to appropriate "training" aircraft (beyond the Cessna
150 / 172) would also be appreciated.

A Cherokee 140 is an excellent and inexpensive trainer that can (in a
pinch) carry four people. It also has the advantage of having the
wing on the proper side of the fuselage...

;-)

Additionally, would it be wise to contract a single CFI to do our
instruction? At approximately 50 hours per pupil, they could log a
lot of time. Maybe we could get a small discount?

Sounds like a good idea -- if you can keep everyone in line and on
schedule.

If you can keep a bunch of student pilots focused and organized,
you've got two great opportunities to save money. In my experience,
however, organizing pilots is a lot like herding cats, so you'll have
your work cut out for you...
--


Yeah, maybe you can hire in some mexicans to do the hard work for you.


Bertie

kontiki wrote in
:

wrote:

Does anybody out there have any experience with such a scheme? Is
this really practical? Any solid info about legal requirements,
insurance issues, maintenance and storage costs, or tips for
purchasing / selling a plane would be appreciated.


It might be difficult to get insurance for an airplane
that does not have a qualified pilot named on the policy.

Additionally, would it be wise to contract a single CFI to do our
instruction? At approximately 50 hours per pupil, they could log a
lot of time. Maybe we could get a small discount?


It might work out better for you all to buy a plane then lease
it back to the flight school so that it could be insured on
their policy... with their flight instructors so you get
a better rate.

In the end though, I'm not convinced you'll end up any better
off than if you just rent the airplane. You can spend a lot
of time running all the numbers but in the end... remember that
when you own the airplane you are responsible for repairs,
maintenance and inspections. If I was in flight training I'd
want to concentrate only on that and not about A/C ownership.


I know some guys who did just this, but they were all going right
through and getting all their ratings ( excluding multi) on the one
airplane. It worked out well for them and they figured they saved a
fortune.



Bertie

On Dec 16, 2:42 pm, Jay Honeck wrote:
Suggestions as to appropriate "training" aircraft (beyond the Cessna 150 /
172) would also be appreciated.

A Cherokee 140 is an excellent and inexpensive trainer that can (in a
pinch) carry four people. It also has the advantage of having the
wing on the proper side of the fuselage...

;-)

Additionally, would it be wise to contract a single CFI to do our
instruction? At approximately 50 hours per pupil, they could log a lot of
time. Maybe we could get a small discount?

Sounds like a good idea -- if you can keep everyone in line and on
schedule.

If you can keep a bunch of student pilots focused and organized,
you've got two great opportunities to save money. In my experience,
however, organizing pilots is a lot like herding cats, so you'll have
your work cut out for you...
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

Four people in a Cherokee 140? Are you serious?

Is this a flight school for ants?

Dan McCormack
http://trainingforcfi.blogspot.com/

" wrote in
:

On Dec 16, 2:42 pm, Jay Honeck wrote:
Suggestions as to appropriate "training" aircraft (beyond the
Cessna 150 / 172) would also be appreciated.

A Cherokee 140 is an excellent and inexpensive trainer that can (in a
pinch) carry four people. It also has the advantage of having the
wing on the proper side of the fuselage...

;-)

Additionally, would it be wise to contract a single CFI to do our
instruction? At approximately 50 hours per pupil, they could log a
lot of time. Maybe we could get a small discount?

Sounds like a good idea -- if you can keep everyone in line and on
schedule.

If you can keep a bunch of student pilots focused and organized,
you've got two great opportunities to save money. In my experience,
however, organizing pilots is a lot like herding cats, so you'll have
your work cut out for you...
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

Four people in a Cherokee 140? Are you serious?


Hey, an even dozen if you pack 'em tight and they're light!

Bertie

wrote in message
...
I'm currently in "ground school" and hope to begin my actual flight
instruction soon. I will need to keep a close eye on the costs involved.

Some classmates are tossing around the idea of us purchasing a plane as a
group, doing our training, and then selling the plane. When our training
s
completed, we would either sell to a "third party" buyer or allow some
group
members who want to keep and share the plane to "buy back" shares from
other
members at a discount.

Does anybody out there have any experience with such a scheme? Is this
really practical? Any solid info about legal requirements, insurance
issues, maintenance and storage costs, or tips for purchasing / selling a
plane would be appreciated.

It works if you have the right people. My dad always had partners...

Talk to an attorney about setting up a corperation to actually own it and
defining how to dissolve it when you are done, or someone decides to bail,
or someone doesn't hold up their end.

Expect that a minority of the people involved will do most of the work and
most of the flying.

--
Geoff
The Sea Hawk at Wow Way d0t Com
remove spaces and make the obvious substitutions to reply by mail
When immigration is outlawed, only outlaws will immigrate.

You've gotten some good advice so far. You should all join the AOPA
and take advantage of their legal plan, then sit down with a lawyer to
set up a non profit corporation. The capt's reply about this was very
accurate. It gets sticky when you want you're initial money
back..... If you plan on doing all this and then selling the plane at
the end, I think renting is the way to go. If you are setting up a
long term situation, take the time to form a club, and do it right.

Doing it the wrong way, or with the wrong people will guarantee a
costly and bad experience. FWIW, and no offense intended, as students
you will be beating up your "own" plane. Hard landings etc. It might
be better to rent until you are landing without having the CFI
questioning their choice of vocation.

Doug