Club?

orange

orange

Line Up and Wait
Joined
Mar 23, 2014
Messages
807
Location
Pennsylvania
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Orange
Hey all,
I'm interested in taking a couple flights from NYC (FRG) to upstate NY, Syracuse (SYR) and Plattsburgh.

It's about 3 hours each way. At $160/hr, that's almost $1000 rental for the round trip.

I'm looking for a cheaper option. How do clubs work? I assume you pay a monthly fee of some kind (100?) and then you can take the planes out at very reduced rates?

Any good clubs at FRG that anybody knows about?

Thanks
 
Generally,

There is a cost associated with joining. And this will vary on type of club. Equity club, you are buying a share of an entity that owns assets such as the aircraft, cash in the bank, and items in the hangar. Non-equity, your cost is much less because you are not purchasing an ownership share, and the entry cost is more to cover the admin costs to get you set up in the club.

There is a monthly fee. Generally this is to cover the fixed costs. And the amount asked for will vary wildly depending on the structure of the club and their costs to operate and offer aircraft.

There is an hourly fee to rent the aircraft. This can be based on Hobbs Meter, or better, Tachometer. Rental fees can be structured as a dry rate (no fuel costs included) or wet rate (fuel costs included).

Other items to find out about is the club's policy for multi-day usage. Some might say, "For each day you have the aircraft, there is a minimum charge equal to XX hours". An example would be 2hrs per day minimum. But if you are gone four days, and your flying time for the out and back was 4 hours on day one and 4 hours on day 4 with no useage in the middle, then you still met the minimum.

Some clubs won't have a minimum usage policy. They will just ask you to not schedule a big block of time and then only use the aircraft for very little time.


Often, there will be various requirements to operate the different aircraft, especially the advanced ones. In my club, to operate the Bonanza, our insurance company requires a minimum number of PIC hours. In @Ravioli's club, they require an IFR rating to operate one of their aircraft.


But the big summary is that being part of a flying club is a very economical way to have access to good aircraft.
 
I'm don't think there are any clubs on the field. Maybe make some calls to the FBOs and see if they have a lead.
 
Find out if there are any owners on the field that "can't fly their panes enough" to keep them healthy. My mechanic flies several planes at our field for a couple hours each month. Get to know them and offer your services. Be sure they know that you will be doing more than just local flying. You may also provide other services like assisting the annual and washing/waxing the planes.
 
orange said:
Hey all,
I'm interested in taking a couple flights from NYC (FRG) to upstate NY, Syracuse (SYR) and Plattsburgh.

It's about 3 hours each way. At $160/hr, that's almost $1000 rental for the round trip.

I'm looking for a cheaper option. How do clubs work? I assume you pay a monthly fee of some kind (100?) and then you can take the planes out at very reduced rates?
Click to expand...

At 110 knots it's ~1:45-2:10 each way, fly faster. :p

As noted above there are multiple ways clubs work. Clubs can be basically straight rentals to shared ownership of the plane(s). Some have more open overnight options, others can be restrictive on overnights. Clubs with many members per plane can work well, but there can be scheduling issues depending upon how much the members fly.

What I've seen for both equity and non-equity partnerships there is a monthly cost for the fixed costs and an hour rate for the variable. Some include fuel in the hourly rate, some charge a dry rate. Then there are exceptions, which can be from upgrades to maintenance beyond the reserves. Partnerships tend to offer great availability and are great for multi-day trips.
 
Buy a plane. Go way faster than 110kts.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
I'm always curious about flying clubs on Long Island and think they are needed in more supply. The only ones I've come across is GACE out at Islip-- I know really only what's in their web site and Mid Island. I'm in Mid Island now and they have some really good deals on 172p's out at Brookhaven. Seems like our LI flying club options are real limited.
 
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