Co-ownership Scheduling

wayne

wayne

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wayne
Ok, now that we've discussed co-ownership costs in another thread, what about scheduling? How do you schedule use of the plane?

I'm in my second non-equity partnership. Both have used an open schedule with an online calendar. The first used ShareZen, the second used Yahoo Groups, but we had issues with that so we switched to a Google calendar. First come first served, but everyone needs to respect that the other pilots will want to fly the plane as well.

I was working on a co-ownership for 3 or 4 and it was open, with a limit on reservations over a period of time. I thought it a bit complicated, but one person was concerned about availability. Now it's two of us so we may just keep it simple and have an open calendar, and only using a calendar so we know when the other is planning on using the plane.

I've read about some that use rotating schedules. I find that complicated as then you need to swap weeks or whatever if your week doesn't line up with when you want to take a trip. Others love it.

Like with costs you need a good match with the co-owners. You also need to think of others needs and not just your own; i.e. they too want to fly plane.

Different scheduling needs may be better for different types of planes; traveling plane vs fun plane (biplane, acro, ...). A traveling plane will often leave the base airport for days at a time. The fun plane may just be gone for a couple of hours at a time.
 
I co-owned 2 different planes with the same 2 guys for several years. We simply had a rotating schedule. Let's say 1/1/18 to 1/7/18 is my week. The next week is partner B the next after that, partner C. The 22nd is my week again.
If I want to fly during my week, I simply go. I know it's mine. It B wants to fly during my week, he only has to call me. I either say yes or no. If I say take it, and then C calls me, I tell him no, B has it.
No online anything needed. Only one person needs to be called (whoever owns that week). Worked without a hitch for years.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
On mine we had a Google schedule that you put your aircraft reservation in. I can't recall ever having a conflict.
 
There were five of us on the last partnership I had. In the 4-5 years we had the plane we didn't have one conflict. The way we did it was very simple.

We rotated months with priority. I might be January, John was Feb, Jim was March, etc. When someone wanted flight time we just put it on the schedule. First come, first served...with the only exception being that the person whose priority month it was ruled over everyone else. So if John wanted to fly January 1 and penciled it in, and I later wanted the plane on Jan 1, I got the plane since it was my priority month.

In reality, that never happened. Even with five people you'd be surprised at how infrequently people want to fly at the same time.

But with that in mind, it was a fantastic group of people. If someone had penciled in a time that I wanted, even if it was my month I'd have never over-ruled their schedule. And I flew that plane a lot.
 
how do people feel about partnerships vs sole ownership.

i'm in a great club now, but want to buy in the next 8 months. I am teetering on having a partner or not. I probably won't fly more than 75 hours a year, but kind of want my own plane.
 
We keep a white board in the plane. On the day of your planned flight, you go to the hangar and scan the QR code hand drawn on the white board with a custom app we developed for the iPhone and it gives you the current one-use password for an online calendar along with the new QR code that you draw onto the white board. (We each have a different color marker so we know who the last person was in case of drawing errors.)

Then you go to a computer to sign into the online calendar and submit your request. (The calendar won’t load in an iPhone browser, unfortunately.) Everyone else gets an email with a link to vote yes or no on your request. As long as 2/3 of the other members vote in favor, you get a text saying your flight is approved.

You have to remember to take the white board with you on your trip, because that’s how a member who didn’t get the email and goes to the hangar knows that the plane is in use: the white board is not there.
 
3 partners in the plane over 13 years, using Google calendar. All of 3 "conflicts" in 13 years, all easily resolved. Only rule is that you can take it for one week at time max, anything longer requires up front concurrence from the others (which hasn't been an issue, as it has rarely happened).

Jeff
 
I was in a plane with 4 owners. rotating weeks, Tuesday to Wednesday, on a google calendar.
if you had a trip planned on your week you just made a not on calendar so everyone knew. if no events on calendar, call and ask.

in a couple years I had 2x I would have liked to fly somewhere last minute, 1-2 days notice, and the plane was busy. I just rented instead.
 
MIFlyer said:
how do people feel about partnerships vs sole ownership.

i'm in a great club now, but want to buy in the next 8 months. I am teetering on having a partner or not. I probably won't fly more than 75 hours a year, but kind of want my own plane.
Click to expand...

Lots of posts here about lack of scheduling conflicts; which seems to be the biggest worry about being in a co-ownership. I'll add to it. In 4.5 years on a SR22 with 3 or 4 people we had only 2 "real" conflicts and those were not an issue. Someone had it and the second person did something else. Only know about them because someone asked, "Are you still planing on going?". The other conflicts were someone deciding it was a nice day and they'd go do a little flying and found another person had the plane on a trip; oh well, another day.

During that time we had 3 of the four flying 70-90 hrs/year each.

I'm two years into flying with 3 on a Baron. No conflicts so far.

Now, if multiple people want to go somewhere on a holiday it can be an issue. Otherwise, not so much. In both groups we never ran into a holiday scheduling issue.
 
Three and four person partnerships over a period of 26 years. Google calendar, first come, first served. Maximum of three uses scheduled on the calendar at any one time for any individual. Agreement of other owners required to take the plane more than two weeks including the weekends at each end (16 days). The only conflict I recall was when one owner scheduled the plane every weekend during deer season---that's when we added the 3 event provision. In that partnership we all had family in other states and had a scheduling meeting at the start of the year to divvy up holiday periods when there might be a conflict (July 4, Thanksgiving, and Christmas/New Year were the issues). We had an agreement how to resolve conflicts on holidays. It was all very amicable.

I think that 3 partners, if all are actual fliers, is the sweet spot for optimizing availability vs. cost. However, in none of my partnerships were any partners frequent users for business travel.
 
Our club uses a program that gives us telephone access to scheduling aircraft. 50 members, 3 airplanes (used to have 4). The program is so old that we can't get service and have to re-set the clock/calendar on the computer to allow continued use. But, it works. You call the number, enter your 4 digit PIN and follow the instructions. Tell it the date(s) you want a plane, followed by the tail number. It tells you if the plane is available, and if not, who has it and when. If it's available you can schedule it. If not, try a different plane. In the 18 years I've belonged to the club I have been unable to fly due to lack of an available airplane once. Maybe twice. I haven't always gotten the plane I initially had in mind, but I've been able to fly. I suspect you will have less trouble than you anticipate (which is always a good thing).
 
crash7 said:
I co-owned 2 different planes with the same 2 guys for several years. We simply had a rotating schedule. Let's say 1/1/18 to 1/7/18 is my week. The next week is partner B the next after that, partner C. The 22nd is my week again.
If I want to fly during my week, I simply go. I know it's mine. It B wants to fly during my week, he only has to call me. I either say yes or no. If I say take it, and then C calls me, I tell him no, B has it.
No online anything needed. Only one person needs to be called (whoever owns that week). Worked without a hitch for years.


+1 to this set up. Used it with 5 other partners and worked great. When it's your week you feel like you own the plane yourself!
Click to expand...
 
I guess it can’t be more than an average of 70 hours a year for those that never have conflicts. I fly a little over 100 hours a year, and I fly nearly every weekend, I can’t imagine not having a conflict nearly every weekend.
 
This is a good thread at a time I am meeting next week to discuss a purchase with another individual. One of the things on the agenda is the schedule but with two of us I doubt it will be a big deal at all. We are discussing a possible third person which would make it a little more complicated. Sounds like many of you have had three or four without problems.
 
steviedeviant said:
We are discussing a possible third person which would make it a little more complicated. Sounds like many of you have had three or four without problems.
Click to expand...

Generally I agree, but it all depends upon the usage patterns of the people. Someone like Salty that flies weekly might not match up well with many. Sounds like he flies 45-50 weekends a year, but only ~2.5 hrs each time. If that’s in one day then it might work, if that’s a short trip out of town each weekend then it wouldn’t work well for others.

The groups I’ve been in tend to fly less frequently for each person, but more hours each time; basically longer trips.

You need to find a good match in co-owners; plane type/model, dollars and time needs.
 
crash7 said:
I co-owned 2 different planes with the same 2 guys for several years. We simply had a rotating schedule. Let's say 1/1/18 to 1/7/18 is my week. The next week is partner B the next after that, partner C. The 22nd is my week again.
If I want to fly during my week, I simply go. I know it's mine. It B wants to fly during my week, he only has to call me. I either say yes or no. If I say take it, and then C calls me, I tell him no, B has it.
No online anything needed. Only one person needs to be called (whoever owns that week). Worked without a hitch for years.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Click to expand...


Sounds like a major pain. You have to get ahold of someone if you want to use the plane.

We just use Google calendar.
 
We use the “Time Tree” app.
 
Same as a few others and we use a Google Calendar. Don't do any rotations or call in, pin codes etc. That seems like a hassle, if there's a conflict then be adults and work it out.
 
Google Calendar works, but we ended up going to Sharezen in order to make billing for tach hours a little more straightforward. Will probably stick with that for the next partnership.
 
I've owned my plane for 21 years and just ask myself if I want to fly or not..:rolleyes: I know I'm being a jerk, sorry..:)
 
scottfromboston said:
Google Calendar works, but we ended up going to Sharezen in order to make billing for tach hours a little more straightforward. Will probably stick with that for the next partnership.
Click to expand...

I looked at the Sharezen site and it looks interesting. BUT they don't "share" their pricing. [laughing to myself]

Any idea what their price point is for 2 planes and 14 people?

Thanks.
 
Ravioli said:
I looked at the Sharezen site and it looks interesting. BUT they don't "share" their pricing. [laughing to myself]

Any idea what their price point is for 2 planes and 14 people?

Thanks.
Click to expand...

We paid 100/year for 1 plane and 4 people. I suspect that it’s that amount per plane, though, knowing the software, it may not be the best solution for a group that large. I would spend the money for FlightschedulePro.
 
scottfromboston said:
We paid 100/year for 1 plane and 4 people. I suspect that it’s that amount per plane, though, knowing the software, it may not be the best solution for a group that large. I would spend the money for FlightschedulePro.
Click to expand...

How did your scheduling work out with 4 for one plane? Many conflicts?
 
BrianNC said:
How did your scheduling work out with 4 for one plane? Many conflicts?
Click to expand...

There are numerous variables at play in that equation (software not really being one of them), but generally we didn’t have issues. People tend to adapt.

Try to find partners with other addictions (garage full of expensive bicycles, kids, businesses, grad school, etc...). Has worked for me so far. :)
 
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