Cost of buying a share

[Genghis the Engineer]

Almost certainly, yes it would - the big question is whether a syndicate wants an hour builder. Some will, some won't.

Also bear in mind that once you have your hours, you still have the share. That may be great as you can just keep flying it as you wish for recreation or currency, or may be a millstone you can't get rid of without discounting it quite a lot. That basically comes down to what you want.

What's not often talked about is that the "price" you pay for your cheap syndicate flying is occasional prolonged downtime whilst some problem or other is resolved, and being expected to put some time into things like providing unskilled support to maintenance, or cleaning the aeroplane. As a serial (and often parallel) syndicate owner, that's always been fine with me, but you need to go into it with your eyes open. Also look at both the useage of the aeroplane, and the characters and behaviours of the existing syndicate members - in particular getting stuck in a syndicate with a few problematic personalities can be a complete pain in the backside (whilst with a good syndicate, pretty much any aircraft problem is solveable).

I would suggest if you are going commercial that you buy a share in something with a half decent avionics fit, as that will provide you with something useful as you get into instrument and night flying and want to build particularly relevant experience. The C152 is a good basic training aeroplane, but you may find other types that will be more futureproof for your needs.

G