Andrew Gideon wrote:

Michael wrote:

The result is that when you want
to do something fun and challenging, you find it's against club rules.

Can you provide an example of something fun and challenging that is against
some club's rule? That seems rather against the idea of a club (as opposed
to an FBO).

In general, I would expect a club to have less restrictive rules than an
FBO, but they'll still have rules. Nobody wants other club members to
be reckless with the airplanes, and it is inevitable that within any
group of people, there will be different opinions on where "fun and
challenging" leaves off and "reckless" begins.

I'm trying to picture this. For example, I do know that at least one of the
FBOs where I've previously rented prohibited landing on grass. But the
club to which I belong merely requires a "grass field checkout".

My club used to have no rule about grass at all. A few years back,
somebody brought our Arrow back covered with grass stains. A discussion
ensued, and we ended up passing a rule forbidding landing any of our
retracts on a non-paved runway. Oddly enough, we don't require any
special checkout for grass.

Most rules come about because at one time in the past, somebody did
something which other people considered unacceptable and they wanted to
try and prevent it from happening again. Congress does this, the FAA
does this, FBO's do it, and there's no reason to be surprised when clubs
do it too. It's the way life works.

I would certainly urge anybody who is thinking of joining a club to read
all the rules carefully before joining. If they forbid or regulate
something you want to do, you'll either have to forgo your particular
desire, or find another club. But a lot better to know the score up
front than to get a nasty phone call from the club president informing
you that you've broken the rules after the fact.