I've been involved in two groups.
The first was a large group (15 people) flying a nice, but tired
Robin. The availability was the worst point. Working 9-5 I can really only fly at weekends, which seemed to be the same for most people. If you wanted to fly on a saturday, you'd need to book up to two months in advance. Not good if you want to be a little spontaneous. Also, the a/c was a bit 'shabby' , and resembled more of a flying school aircraft. As another posted suggested, being in a group so big, you never really felf like you owned the aircraft, more like to paid a retainer, then rented it. The share price for the a/c was £2,500, with £80 p/m and £65 per hour.
Now, I'm in a group of 3 operating a virtually brand new Tri gear Europa. We don't have any rules about how long you can book the aircraft for, because we don't need to. If I booked it last saturday, but wanted it again this saturday, I'd email the other two membres to see if they had any plans. We often fly together, and we all muck in with the maintenance (I've learned an awfull lot about a/c maintenance since owning this a/c). It is kept in excellent condition, as we feel like we really do own it, and take great pride. Best of all is the cost. OK the initial share ins't cheap at £10k, but £100 per month then £25 per hour makes for really cheap flying. It's a great a/c to fly too 120kts with lots of gizmo's (efis, AP etc..)
So, my experiece says, buy a PFA type in a small group with people you get on with.
