Somehow, MedEwok, aircraft costs are a dichotomy. They can really look quite expensive when everything is put on paper, but once you’re in it, owning, somehow, it doesn’t feel as bad. It’s one of the world’s conundrums. One of the reasons for that is that you don’t do all the repairs all the time, and pay upfront for them like when you’re renting. Renting is simply this: worst case scenario maintenance and reserve costs paid upfront. Owning, you can defer stuff, you can repair and exchange. There are ways to get by cheaper if you put a little effort into it. All those options are removed from you when you rent.
Don’t be afraid of ownership. If you chose wisely, it won’t be as bad as you think.
@AdamFrish +1. I couldn’t have said it better. Especially as a “tinkerer”.
AdamFrisch wrote:
Renting is simply this: worst case scenario maintenance and reserve costs paid upfront.
That is not (necessarily) true. As chairman of an organisation that provides about 1000 flight hours of aircraft rental every year, I can say that we do not charge for “worst case scenario” (whatever that is), but expected case scenario given many years of operating experience. Of course we have reserves and if the worst case should happen we would have to increase prices. Also having several aircraft in the fleet helps as it is unlikely that more than one gets a worst case situation at the same time.
As Adam says, ownership is a world apart from renting. Some previous threads: here here here etc. It does wonders for your flying. You are in control, and the cost of flying one extra hour is, ahem, just the cost of flying one extra hour. Whereas if you are renting the cost of flying one extra hour will be that plus all the front-loaded fixed costs associated with the plane, plus the cost of repairing all the stuff which other renters have smashed up, plus a profit/margin/contribution-to-reserves/other-things-you-aren’t-allowed-to-call-it-if-it-is-a-club for the owner/school/club. Also quite possibly the plane can be on a certification or maintenance regime which is cheaper than what would be required for a rented-out asset. You would probably not want to rent a plane which is maintained – even just the 50hr checks – by a private owner 
That’s why I can fly my TB20 for one more hour for about half the price it costs to rent a PA28-161 around here. And this is not a disingenuous argument based on me spending 50-100hrs/year working on it myself, unpaid.
I simply wouldn’t be able to fly much. There are only few planes available for rent, most belong to a flight school, and when students need them, charter clients get kicked out.
I wouldn’t learn to fly IFR.
If it wouldn’t have been by sheer luck that when I was looking someone offered to sell half of his Bonnie, I would have bought something else eventually. Perhaps a PA28, or a C172, or a Robin, or whatever. If you want to fly and aren’t in a club with plenty of planes, thats the only way to go.
A group of 2 seems a disagreement waiting to happen. 3 at least has a possible majority. 6 is good if, as likely, several actually have overestimated how much flying they’ll do.
I know of some groups of 2 which have worked long term but in all cases the individual members could have afforded it alone.
Otherwise I agree. One problem is that disagreement is not infrequent on financial matters.
We have other threads on syndicates (do a search on the word) and there is great advice there.
The more people, the less freedom. There’s no rule and no general truth. It works or it doesn’t and that’s only dependent on the people.
If they don’t get along, no paper will help. If you feel there’s a paper necessary to regulate flying hours, don’t even think about entering the partnership.
We have one rule, in case there’s a conflict, even weeks me, odd weeks him, and we never even once needed it.
There’s a whatsapp group, is all. We both are free and can adjust our business meetings depending on our needs. No pressure.
Maoraigh wrote:
A group of 2 seems a disagreement waiting to happen. 3 at least has a possible majority. 6 is good if, as likely, several actually have overestimated how much flying they’ll do.
Sometimes the apathy in a group of 6 can be frustrating!
AdamFrisch wrote:
Renting is simply this: worst case scenario maintenance and reserve costs paid upfront.
It’s “worse” than that IMO. It’s also the cost of the next plane paid up front. It could also be after, depending how it is financed, but it doesn’t really matter in the end. A club won’t get a loan of €1-300k or more, unless it can show a real income supporting it. A club has to live longer than one aircraft. On the other hand, the utilization is high, could easily be 1000 h per year, so this will push down the cost per hour to a value that would be impossible flying 50-100 h per year in the same aircraft, usually even without any capital cost baked into it. For older, special and less utilized aircraft, it becomes a bit different, mostly because the aircraft does not need to be replaced with a new one within the foreseeable future. The cost is just maintenance, hangar, insurance etc. plus fuel divided on the hours flown. High hour per year aircraft are money making machines, low hour per year aircraft breaks even, at best – in a club setting, even though the per hour rent is roughly the same.
On a private basis, I’m more in line with Silvaire. Why keep track? what could the purpose possibly be? My cost per hour flying is low in any case, I don’t pay anything towing gliders, and for the other flying, plus aircraft, tool etc, it doesn’t matter as long as I can afford it and have the spare time. Book holding for no reason is a strange concept IMO. I know many people keep track on every single hour they use building homebuilt aircraft also. Insane 
AdamFrisch wrote:
Owning, you can defer stuff, you can repair and exchange. There are ways to get by cheaper if you put a little effort into it. All those options are removed from you when you rent.
Getting involved in the club, they certainly aren’t removed, but the effect is also divided on a lot more hours. It makes more sense to get newer aircraft, and sell them once the repair costs get too high, because each hour getting repaired on the ground, is one less hour in the air making money. On low hours aircraft, that will be different again.
