Shared Ownership 1987 Mooney M20J

I am not flying my plane enough and would like to consider a
partnership arrangement for the aircraft. I plan on having the aircraft
based on the west coast. I hope to start a partnership with 1/4 shares
at 22500.00 I am new to the dynamics of sharing ownership and flying
costs. Just curious if there is anybody that can share experiece with a
shared aircraft arrangement.

"Steve B" wrote in message
oups.com...
I am not flying my plane enough and would like to consider a
partnership arrangement for the aircraft. I plan on having the aircraft
based on the west coast. I hope to start a partnership with 1/4 shares
at 22500.00 I am new to the dynamics of sharing ownership and flying
costs. Just curious if there is anybody that can share experiece with a
shared aircraft arrangement.

Hi Steve,

Where on the west(left) coast.
I have no direct experience with shared ownership. I have however read a
couple articles about ownership plans. One in particular was written a
couple years ago by one of the editors of Flying Mag. In that case the
airplane was shared by owners NOT all in the same geographic location. Well,
two of them were and the other two weren't. In order to share, the
airplane's home base was changed periodically. As I recall, that scheme
worked well enough for the sharing to work for four years or so. The editor
pulled out because he wanted to step up to a higher performance craft.
I'm not suggesting that is the way to go, but you can think about it.
At this time, I'm in an "association" with four other pilots. I can't
really call it a partnership because, in this case, one of the pilots is the
outright owner of the airplane. The other four have no equity in the
airplane. And it is not under any mortgage.
The five of us operate under a set of mutually agreed upon rules pretty
much the way a club would operate. The aircraft owner keeps all the records,
pays the bills, etc. At the beginning of each year, the owner tallies up the
cost of operation, and projects (guesstimates) what it will cost for the
coming year to put money in the kitty for insurance, airport fees, etc. and
that divided by 12 and 5 becomes the monthly dues. The cost of maintenance
(cleaning the plugs, changing the oil and filters, annual, etc.) is divided
by the number of hours the airplane was flown and that becomes the hourly
rate. Each pilot is expected to top off the tanks after each flight so the
next person on the schedule starts with full tanks (minus a gallon or three
now and then, but it is not a big deal).
The informal arrangement works pretty well for us. We have an on-line
calendar for scheduling and I haven't seen any conflict in the year or so
I've been in the gang. The airplane went to Osh this last year and was gone
from home for ten days. Nobody seemed to care. I've warned in advance that I
plan on doing a two-week junket around the western states next summer and no
one is griping. I have the luxury of being self-employed and the airplane is
almost always available to me Monday through Friday for two and three day
trips. I leave the weekends for the rest of the guys unless I have a
pressing need.
I hope this gives you some ideas.

Regards,

Casey Wilson
Freelance Writer
and Photographer

N2310D wrote:

At this time, I'm in an "association" with four other pilots. I can't
really call it a partnership because, in this case, one of the pilots is the
outright owner of the airplane. The other four have no equity in the
airplane. And it is not under any mortgage.

How do you handle insurance?

That agreement sounds like the owner is renting the aircraft to you,
without officially and legally stating that's he's actually renting.

I would think this might get interesting, in a very bad way, if the
airplane gets bent.

"B A R R Y" wrote in message
. ..
N2310D wrote:

At this time, I'm in an "association" with four other pilots. I can't
really call it a partnership because, in this case, one of the pilots is
the outright owner of the airplane. The other four have no equity in the
airplane. And it is not under any mortgage.

How do you handle insurance?

That agreement sounds like the owner is renting the aircraft to you,
without officially and legally stating that's he's actually renting.

I would think this might get interesting, in a very bad way, if the
airplane gets bent.

The owner lists all five pilots on the policy. The pilots pay an equal
share of the premium cost. The insurance company is happy with the
arrangement.

N2310D wrote:

The owner lists all five pilots on the policy. The pilots pay an equal
share of the premium cost. The insurance company is happy with the
arrangement.


That makes sense.

It's also less informal than I originally would have thought, because
all of you ARE listed together on paper somewhere.

B A R R Y wrote:
N2310D wrote:

The owner lists all five pilots on the policy. The pilots pay an equal
share of the premium cost. The insurance company is happy with the
arrangement.


That makes sense.

It's also less informal than I originally would have thought, because
all of you ARE listed together on paper somewhere.

You have to be. For a pilot to be covered under the open warranty he
has to be restricted to "causal" access to the aircraft. Rule of thumb
in the industry is that if the pilot has his own set of keys then its
probably not "casual access".

-Robert

Steve B wrote:
I am not flying my plane enough and would like to consider a
partnership arrangement for the aircraft. I plan on having the aircraft
based on the west coast. I hope to start a partnership with 1/4 shares
at 22500.00 I am new to the dynamics of sharing ownership and flying
costs. Just curious if there is anybody that can share experiece with a
shared aircraft arrangement.

For Mooney it comes out to about $40/hr dry plus $500 month, assuming a
$60/month tie down (which you would divide). That doesn't include
insurance or GPS updates though.
That does include annual property tax.

-Robert

Steve,

I am a co-owner of a '79 Mooney 201 and have been for over 2 years now.
Before buying the plane my partner and I had only rented and been in
clubs so we were VERY green at the aircraft owning thing. In our case
it might have been a little easier because since we didn't already own
we knew that all the expenses would just be split down the middle.

We found a plane that we both liked and then bought it (paid too much of
course but that is another thread altogether). The way we work our
partnership is that we have a Limited Liability Corporation that "owns"
the plane and we own the corporation.

As far as expenses go we start off the the month with an equal share of
fixed costs that include the note on the plane, hanger rent, insurance
escrow and XM weather for the month (gotta have that!!). Then we
decided on an hourly wet rate that will include fuel, engine and prop
reserve, and an escrow for the annual inspection.

Any maintenance or upgrades gets split right down the middle and paid at
the end of the month that the expense was encountered. I keep the books
and send out a bill at the end of the month with the expectation that
the money be deposited sometime in the week after the the bill was sent.

I feel extremely fortunate to have found a great guy for a partner.
We've never had an issue with money or availability of the aircraft, and
I think these are the two biggest things that can kill a partnership.

We would even entertain the possibility of one last partner but 3 would
be the most we would do before availability could start to cloud the deal.

Good luck and my opinion is that unless you have a LOT of extra
disposable income, then a partnership is a great way to afford and fly a
nice aircraft.
Jon




Steve B wrote:
I am not flying my plane enough and would like to consider a
partnership arrangement for the aircraft. I plan on having the aircraft
based on the west coast. I hope to start a partnership with 1/4 shares
at 22500.00 I am new to the dynamics of sharing ownership and flying
costs. Just curious if there is anybody that can share experiece with a
shared aircraft arrangement.