Pil,
Been involved in groups and outright ownership. Groups can work very well or thay can be a millstone.
The first and most important thing is to decide on the aim of the group. I joined a large group of 11 people very soon after passing my PPL. The aim of this group was to fly as cheaply as possible, and because the standing costs were split so many ways and the risk of a major bill was also split, it worked very well. I was able to use the aircraft for my IMC and availability was much better than a club machine. The maintenance on the aircraft was high and the group was run by three people who had to keep it all together. We wrote a set of group rules, but I think there are now a number of templates for this on the web. I eventually left after about five years because I needed access to a more capable aircraft, and better availability.
If we look at the financial case for a group it looks something like this.
Based on a typical CofA group aircraft and averaged over a year the fixed costs look like this.
Insurance £1500
Hargarage £2000
Maintenance £2500
Total £6000
So if you share the aircraft with one other person you will save an average of £3000 per year. If you share with 10 then you save less then 5400 because of increased maintenance, but still a substantial amount. When I started I was struggling to afford to fly so I went for the big group, as things improved I went for the two people option, with better availability. The down side of this is that if the engine failed, the group would be looking at a typical bill of about £8000, which will be split two ways, which is much better than outright ownership, but would still hurt most of us!
The big variable in the above numbers is the maintenance costs. If you get a group with good mechanical sympathy it can make a surprising difference to the amount of things, which come of in people’s hands, and hence the amount paid out. Big groups suffer more from this than small ones.
The ideal partner is someone who never fly’s the aircraft, pays all bills on time, and always turns up to wash it!
On a more cautionary note, my syndicate partner recently persuaded me to allow a friend of his to fly the aircraft, with him, to a big flyin in Germany. The friend crashed the aircraft, an AA5B, in Belgium. The initial estimate is £11500 of damage, the aircraft has been languishing in the back of a hangar for 4 weeks, and although the insurance company has agreed to pay up, this is not going to be a good summer!!
Hope the above is helpful.
Rod