tas,
Have just recently bought into a group myself. So recently, in fact, that I haven't even been checked out in the aircraft yet! So I don't have too many personal experiences yet, but I thoguht I'd share some thoughts with you - hope you find them helpful.
Group flying vs Owning
Advantages of Group Flying:
- Much cheaper
- Other people to help out with regards to maintenance decisions, insurance, paperwork, etc - hopefully people who know more than you and I!
- Social activities - you get to know the other people in your group, fly with them from time to time, and have a beer after you finish flying
Advantages of Owning
- The plane is always available when you want it
- Things like maintenance decisions, etc, are always done "your" way
- More of a sense of ownership
Group flying vs Renting
Advantages of Group Flying:
- Much cheaper
- Better availability
- More choice of aircraft
- Easier to take aircraft away for extended periods
- More of a sense of ownership
Advantages of Renting
- No need to worry about maintenance, etc.
- Good chance of finding an alternative aircraft if there's a technical problem with your aircraft
Other thoughts: obviously inspect and take the aircraft for a test flight before buying, and if you're interested, get an engineer to check the aircraft out before you hand over any cash. Make sure you meet all the other members of the group, check that they have similar views to you on important matters (e.g. if you like repairs to always be done properly, as quickly as possible, whereas they're quite happy to defer non-essential items or do cheaper repairs, you won't enjoy flying the aircraftf). If there are lots of people in the group, find out what the availability is like - if everyone wants to fly every Sunday, there might be a problem, whereas if you're a weekend flyer but the group contains lots of weekday flyers, you'll get on much better. Also, don't rush into a purchase - wait until you find an aircraft you
really want to be involved in, rather than going for the first one you find which is just "Ok".
Can't think of anything else off the top of my head, but I'm sure there are loads more things. Good luck!
FFF
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