Crazy Club Rates?

[flyingcheesehead]

My dad and I currently own an Arrow that we fly regularly. Occasionally, I'd like to have access to a larger plane (6 person) for trips but I'm having trouble finding one to rent locally. (KFOD) I have a friend in a club that has a Cherokee 6 that would work perfect for me. Just out of curiosity, I asked him what the club rates were. He told me that there was a buy in but he wasn't sure how much it was. Then he told me that their monthly dues were $575/month and the Six had an hourly dry rate of $170/hour.

I said thanks but no. I thought this was extremely high but since I've never been in a club before, is this about right? For that kind of money I could upgrade our Arrow to something really nice and be sole owner.

Ok I got a little more info. The Cherokee six is the only plane they have but they want to buy another plane, possibly a twin. The six at least has a good 430w and adsb.

Edit - I forgot to say that there is only 3 or 4 younger members (40-50ish) and they just built a new hangar. I think I'll pass.

I was going to say, maybe with 2-3 people this could be justified, if it's also paying for the loan on the airplane, in which case the buy-in should be low.

However, the hangar is probably what's doing it. I've tried over and over again to justify building a hangar, but I just can't. Renting is too cheap. I've never paid more than $300/mo to hangar an airplane, with electricity included. Even on a 20-year note, with no maintenance/leasing fees and no electricity bill, that's only a bit over $50K to build the hangar. And who wants a 20-year note on a hangar?

But, look at fixed costs for a moment. With 3 people at $575/mo, they're bringing in $1725/mo. Probably $225 of that goes toward insurance. That leaves $1500 to pay for loans on the hangar and the airplane at a minimum. Take off another $100 if they include the inspection portion of the annual as a fixed cost. That buys you a pretty nice airplane (sounds like it is) and a pretty nice hangar (sounds like it is).

$170/hr dry is definitely on the pricy side, but figure that it's very easy to eat up $60/hr in maintenance on a bird like that, $25/hr in engine reserve, plus a defined upgrade reserve. I would normally expect a wet rate around that amount, but if they're trying to do something like pay for ADS-B, pay for other panel upgrades, or pay for that twin they want, that's one way to do it.

Not up on the FAA rules, but my instinct is no; my club (non-profit) does not rent outside the membership. Otherwise, it'd be a business, I think. . .

Nothing illegal about that. There are quite a few FBOs who have a "flying club" that means you pay them a monthly fee in exchange for lower rental rates. There are also flying clubs that are businesses, with full time employees and everything. West Valley Flying Club in the Bay area is one such example.

If you're not an FBO, and you don't want to have to do 100-hour inspections, just don't provide any flight instructors. Aircraft rental is not, in and of itself, a commercial operation.

It sure grinds my gears when they call it a "club" though.