Excellent throwback podcast Dan. The flight school I used had a flying club the I joined as a student. I am fortunate the cost is low, and the planes are maintained well. I only wish they could get a few more. Keep up the excellent work. Safe skies my friend 🇺🇸🛩️
Back in the 60s my father was in a flying club. It was the only way he could afford to fly. The club had a nice 172. Then enough of the members wanted to upgrade and voted to get a higher performance airplane - a Piper Comanche. The dues went up and my dad went out. Sure miss those flying days. I liked the high wing 172 better than the low wing Piper. As a passenger the visibility below was much better.
I recently started a non-profit flying club in an area with a population of about 150,000. It had been almost 10 years since the last flying club in the area folded. We've tried a lot to get members and have not exceeded 4 members for a C-172 in the last year. I am subsidizing the club (I bought the C-172 to lease to the club) in order to build membership. I'll give it another 12 months and if we can't even make 5 members I'll pull the plane from the club. If you are wondering, joining fee is $600, monthly dues are $150, and $96 per tach hour wet. The monthly dues cover hangar, insurance, annual inspections, and a few extra bucks for unexpected expenses. The joining fee goes mostly toward insurance. The clubs the two guests describe advantages such as an existing clientele, large population center, low cost maintenance deals, free aircraft, and deals with a supportive FBO. Take these out and things get very difficult (i.e. expensive) very quickly. Their experiences are not typical IMHO and my experience so far.
Very informative, but I'd like to know WHEN this was done b/c prices have gone up and up, so I'm not sure how relevant the stated financial info is today (Apr 2024). But I loved hearing about everything else. One thing I've been wondering about is if I acquire a plane, I know it's going to be sitting a lot, and as a new pilot it will be quite a while before I can use it to earn any money. So I'm curious about the options of leasing it to an FBO or a club simply to help cover the overhead on it. That might make a good topic for a future video -- options to offset the costs of owning a plane (if you're not rich enough to just pay cash).
![Midlife Pilot Podcast [Episode 24] - Flying Clubs](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/S3ybGubj-zk/mqdefault.jpg)
Excellent throwback podcast Dan. The flight school I used had a flying club the I joined as a student. I am fortunate the cost is low, and the planes are maintained well. I only wish they could get a few more. Keep up the excellent work. Safe skies my friend 🇺🇸🛩️
Back in the 60s my father was in a flying club. It was the only way he could afford to fly.
The club had a nice 172. Then enough of the members wanted to upgrade and voted to get a higher performance airplane - a Piper Comanche. The dues went up and my dad went out.
Sure miss those flying days. I liked the high wing 172 better than the low wing Piper. As a passenger the visibility below was much better.
I recently started a non-profit flying club in an area with a population of about 150,000. It had been almost 10 years since the last flying club in the area folded. We've tried a lot to get members and have not exceeded 4 members for a C-172 in the last year. I am subsidizing the club (I bought the C-172 to lease to the club) in order to build membership. I'll give it another 12 months and if we can't even make 5 members I'll pull the plane from the club. If you are wondering, joining fee is $600, monthly dues are $150, and $96 per tach hour wet. The monthly dues cover hangar, insurance, annual inspections, and a few extra bucks for unexpected expenses. The joining fee goes mostly toward insurance.
The clubs the two guests describe advantages such as an existing clientele, large population center, low cost maintenance deals, free aircraft, and deals with a supportive FBO. Take these out and things get very difficult (i.e. expensive) very quickly. Their experiences are not typical IMHO and my experience so far.
Very informative, but I'd like to know WHEN this was done b/c prices have gone up and up, so I'm not sure how relevant the stated financial info is today (Apr 2024). But I loved hearing about everything else.
One thing I've been wondering about is if I acquire a plane, I know it's going to be sitting a lot, and as a new pilot it will be quite a while before I can use it to earn any money. So I'm curious about the options of leasing it to an FBO or a club simply to help cover the overhead on it. That might make a good topic for a future video -- options to offset the costs of owning a plane (if you're not rich enough to just pay cash).
Boy, do I feel stupid. I thought a flying club was what Bryan uses to knock cloud residue off the wings.
👍✅ Great host 🤣good info.
Is there such thing as non pilot membership(s) and/or small business membership(s)? but after that type of membership would need a commercial pilot...
My local flying club costs more per hour than the local flight schools charge...
Chances are the planes are in better shape and less abused
First!