wrote:

TTA Cherokee Driver wrote:
: Yup, I went with club membership. It has almost all the advantages of
: owning but few of the drawbacks.

Biggest problem I had with flight club was no percieved cost
benefit to just renting from an FBO.

You are right. I pay about the same per hour to fly in the club as I
would with the FBO. The benefits I see of club membership over
similar-cost FBO renting a

1. The club has a fleet of 9 airplanes of three types with good
availability but the FBO only has one 172 (well did until it was wrecked
recently but they are replacing it) and one 182 with very tight
availability -- if you aren't a primary student at the FBO, forget about
it on the weekends.

2. The club's planes are better equipped (autopilot, gps)

3. If I fly with the FBO I would have to buy renter's insurance that
costs more than the club's dues, and those dues include insurance that
is better than what I could buy on my own, and also include the club's
facilities including a club hangar (that I have access to 24/7 so if I
want to fly on the spur of the moment I can even when the facility is
closed and locked up for the day) and a very nice weather downlink
briefing setup. Plus I like the cameraderie.

4. The club has 6 instructors to choose from while the FBO only has one,
see point #1 about availability

(remember the above is comparing the club to FBO renting, not comparing
it to owning

Difference is if you own it, you
only immediately see the direct operating costs (fuel/oil). For me it's
easier to justify a nice 2-hour afternoon flight after work if I can stop
by the gas station on the way to the airport and refill my Cherokee for
$20. If I had to pay $144 for 2 hours of club rental, I wouldn't do it.

This is a very good point, though it's more emotional than practical. I
do sometimes cringe when writing those large checks for long flights.
However on the flip side if I owned I think I would cringe in the months
when I would have to write large checks for all the fixed costs but I
didn't fly the airplane very much if at all. And given my flying habits
that second cringe would amount to far more money over time.

: Persoally, I can't see ever owning while the club is available to me.
: Heck, I've figured that if you GAVE me an airplane it still would cost
: me more (insurance, taxes, tie down, annuals, etc) than I pay to fly in
: the club. Btw I fly about 50-75 hours a year.

Again, for that useage, it's probably a break-even point for solo
ownership. For me it's the direct perceived cost of taking a flight that
will encourage/discourage it. Flying a 1100nm round-trip to see my folks
a month ago directly cost me $150 in fuel. For $750 club PA-28 rental,
there's no way in hell I would have gone.

I can see that view, however I would come out ahead that way because I
did not pay several hundred dollars in fixed costs for the previous
months when I only flew a few hours due to travel, weather, etc.

In fact my brother-in-law owns an Archer which he's had for a long time
and has long since paid off. I was envious, until I learned he hasn't
flown since January and the plane is just sitting there rotting because
he can't justify keeping up with the fixed costs for the flying he's
doing (it doesn't help he's been laid off and is in a tight spot).

Which brings up the other advantage of the club over ownership: it's a
lot easier to walk away if something happens medically or financially to
make flying impractical.

Of course all this doesn't mean I don't fantasize about owning an
airplane, but for me that fantasy also includes getting a windfall of at
least $100,000 first

YMMV

We agree on this, it is a wise statement indeed

Mike
--
PP-ASEL
PA28-161
http://www.wingsofcarolina.org
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