Buy A Share Or Just Hire?

[AndyGB]

Yorkshire, where a C152 from Sheffield Aero Club is £91 an hour

[Flintstone]

Thanks folks. Some of your nav skills are bloody awful though. Last time I looked Yorkshire and White Waltham are a loooong way from East Herts

XX621. Thanks for the offer, PM'd you.

[betterfromabove]

Do's & Dont's

xx621

You wouldn't mind putting up a potted version of your story, would you?

Sounds like might be a useful post!

Am also considering the same question right now. Know the club hassles, just finding out about the potential share gotchas.

Cheers
BFA

[Wibblemonster]

Flinters, you could always fit some wings to the Trevor?

[Ken Wells]

Thanks folks. Some of your nav skills are bloody awful though. Last time I looked Yorkshire and White Waltham are a loooong way from East Herts

White Walthams not that far from Panshangar. I did it in 45 mins last week! Driving M25 M4; easy peasy

[IO540]

While I like the idea of being in charge there's a lot to be said for joining an existing group. Less aggro.

Well, that is one of the major ownership tradeoffs. In life, you cannot have control without responsibility

In GA, the choice tends to be

- rent, no hassle, but the planes tend to be crap

- buy something decent, but have to look after it (and pay up when you have to)

There is no escape, unless you happen to have a modern school nearby. Unfortunately, 'modern' tends to mean the Diamond DA40/42.

The DA40 is a 2-up plane which is flown with just one hand on the controls (because the reliability of the diesel engine is so poor you fly with the other hand's fingers firmly crossed behind your back).

The DA42 is much nicer but you need a ME PPL, and it costs a fair bit more to rent.

[Justiciar]

Owning aircraft is a mixture of cost, convenience, pride and having access to the aircraft you want. i think that costs can be misleading. A look at five years accounts for a standard Cherokee 140 group I am in showed an average cost of £130 per hour. This includes everything. A bit cheaper than hiring but not much. Hassel factor of running one's own group against availability? Fear that a major failure will lead to all the group digging into their pockets! You really need to look at cost carefully.

Being in a small group is I believe the compromise. Any flying is expensive so accept it. If you want something aerobatic then accept the (probably) greater cost involved in a more powerful aeroplane. If permit stuff is for you then there are many cheap aircraft out there where there are shares available. Above all, choose something which ties in with your lifestyle and the type of flying you will do (not the type you dream about doing). I have a great permit aircraft for touring - fast and cheap to run. Trouble is I never have the time to go anywhere more than a couple of hours flight time from where it is based (and where it is based is an hour's drive each way from where I live). So, it spends most of its life in the hangar.

[S-Works]

I have been involved in a couple of groups. I now own my aircraft with a very silent partner (5hrs in 12 months) and am in a group now on a pressurised tourer.

Groups are a great way of getting into aviation and allow you to keep the costs under control. The downside is often that you have to travel to get to them and you have to work around other bookings. They also allow you to get into higher performance groups for longer distance touring, all weather etc if that floats your boat.

I have a 2 mile hard runway at the end of my drive and the relief to that 2 miles away where I keep my aircraft so I am never more than a couple of minutes away from flying it allows me to fly when I want. Not having any group members to book around means that I can fly when I want and go away touring at the drop of a hat.

You really have to decide the type of flying that you want to do and decide what suits you best.

[XX621]

Originally Posted by betterfromabove

xx621

You wouldn't mind putting up a potted version of your story, would you?

Sounds like might be a useful post!

Am also considering the same question right now. Know the club hassles, just finding out about the potential share gotchas.

Cheers
BFA

Wilco.
I'm typing it all up at the moment - should be done by tomorrow (Thur).