Single-Engine Partnership vs. Used vs. Flying Clubs

Bingo! Yes, I know that if there is a problem after a flight, I can
have it fixed before the next time I fly and that only my partner and I
will be flying it before a trip. I'm planning on flying down to Mexico
next month. I know leading up to my trip the condition of my plane and
that any maintenance items need to be done sooner in order to avoid
conflicting with my trip. I also know that the plane isn't going to be
used much between now and my trip. You just can't get that type of
reliability when you have dozens of people flying the plane. You just
can't be as sure that the plane will be ready to go when you show up
with your family to fly to Cabo.

-Robert

"Peter R." wrote in message
...
wrote:

In general, how do aircraft partnerships work? Do partnerships exist
for singles? Are they a good idea vs. purchasing a used aircraft
outright? What about flying clubs - do they typically offer good
multi-day rental rates or have aircraft available for scheduled use?

Simplistically, you can get a feel for it by understanding this:

1 = low 10= high

Operating costs (hourly and monthly)
==================
Owning: 10
Partnership: 7
Flying Club: 3


Aircraft Availability:
======================
Owning: 10
Partnership: 6
Flying Club: 3




How many people operate their business via club aircraft?

Try covering an area 700 miles by 900 miles in your typical club aircraft!
:~) (I did it for our first two years and wore my wife and I ragged.)

Before you think too hard about it, remember that there are as many ways that
partnerships work as there are partnerships.

: In general, how do aircraft partnerships work? Do partnerships exist
: for singles?
Quite common

Are they a good idea vs. purchasing a used aircraft
: outright?
Often it reduces the cost considerably. The more an airplane is flown the
happier all of its systems is. Non-flying is the biggest cause of expensive
maintenance requirements like permature engine overhauls. Single-owners rarely can
afford the time or fuel-costs of running an airplane as much as it would like.... at
least 100 hours/year, but preferrably a good bit more. Partners spread that out...

What about flying clubs - do they typically offer good
: multi-day rental rates or have aircraft available for scheduled use?

Depends on the club.

: I'm trying to get my head around all this - I'm no where near joining a
: partnership or purchasing an aircraft (gotta get my PP first), but I've
: noticed some websites devoted to these topics and it's piqued my
: interest. I'm looking for people who have first hand knowledge of these
: topics.

Although it's a big leap of faith, buying, partnering, or joining a club
*WHILE* working towards a PP is usually more cost-effective than renting and then
buying/joining. Pilots often find trainer-class planes limiting in usefulness (speed,
range, load carying capability, avionics, etc) so they often want more shortly after
earning the PP. Clubs can help in this upgrading. It's more commitment than an hour
or two of rental, but less than outright ownership.

-Cory


--

************************************************** ***********************
* Cory Papenfuss *
* Electrical Engineering candidate Ph.D. graduate student *
* Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University *
************************************************** ***********************

On 12-Jan-2006, wrote:

In general, how do aircraft partnerships work? Do partnerships exist
for singles? Are they a good idea vs. purchasing a used aircraft
outright? What about flying clubs - do they typically offer good
multi-day rental rates or have aircraft available for scheduled use?


From the tone of your question I suspect by "partnership" you may be
referring to the "fractional ownership" programs offered for sale of new
aircraft. These are popular for turbine airplanes, and are available for a
few popular singles as well. Probably works out pretty well if you really
want a new plane but can't make enough use by yourself to justify the very
high purchase and operating costs.

Clubs vary widely in terms of costs, available aircraft, aircraft-to-member
ratio, and minimum daily usage policies. The best bet is to try to get
contacts for the various clubs that operate in your area and check them out.

Co-ownership (the official term for partnership) of a used airplane is also
an option, and one that works well for vast numbers of pilots who like the
idea of ownership (or who feel overly constrained by the limitations of
clubs or just renting) but who don't fly enough hours to make sole ownership
economically practical. In my experience (co-ownership of three different
airplanes over 30 years) a good 2 - or 3 -way partnership with a total of
150-200 hours of use per year can reduce total per hour costs to the point
where they are below rental rates and competitive with club rates. At that
utilization, scheduling conflicts are very rare, particularly if you use a
good scheduling system.

--
-Elliott Drucker