Hi all,
Sam, from near Brussels. I’ve been training for my PPL with Brussels Aviation School for about a year, flying DR400s out of Namur (EBNM), and I’m looking forward to getting my licence.
Outside flying I run my own company, in ERP and business management software.
Once licensed, I’d like to keep flying without owning an aircraft outright, so I’ve been looking into share groups. I’m finding it surprisingly hard to work out how to join one, at least in Belgium: there is very little information out there. If anyone has experience of joining a group in Belgium or nearby, or lessons learned the hard way, I’d be glad to hear them.
Happy landings,
Sam
Hi Sam,
Welcome to the forum! It’s a nice and helpful group, where I have been lucky to get to know some members personally and made new friends.
Big Robin fan myself (I own a DR253.)
About share groups: obviously there are pros and cons about that. The best is to find 1-2 persons you trust and create one. Take your time to identify the correct persons. As a company owner you probably have co-founders; and you know “it’s like marriage.” Aircraft ownership is similar.
All the best for your license, let us know how it goes.
Welcome Sam, if you don’t need a lot of payload, the DR1050 variant are incredibly good value, and economical. Given the wood construction requiring expert pre buy.
You may be better off taking the plunge and buying one outright, and then forming a group yourself. I expect a DR1050 costs less than a share in a DR400,
Welcome Sam,
there is a long thread about syndicates and share groups around, I propose you read that.
If you can live with only two seats, no IFR and some other hassle, I’d much rather look for an ultralight instead of an ancient certified plane, but that’s my opinion.
For the instances where you require something bigger or fancier, you could always rent.
Thanks all, really useful.
@etn, the “like a marriage” point is the one I keep hearing. Out of curiosity, is your DR253 owned alone or with partners? And if with partners, how did you find them: club, friends, or someone you didn’t know before?
@RobertL18C, interesting idea. I keep a database of aircraft adverts across Europe and right now there is exactly one DR1050 for sale (UK, 1963, about 32,600 €), while DR400 shares in the UK go from about 7,300 € for a 1/7th to 19,000 € for a 1/6th. So buying outright and then finding partners is not that far off. For those who did it that way: was finding the partners the hard part, or agreeing on the rules (bookings, costs, who pays for what when the engine needs work)?
@Inkognito, would you have the link to that thread? The forum search and I are not friends yet.
Sam
Most of my flying has been in a DR1050 Syndicate, 1990 to 2020. The syndicate of 6 broke up due to death and illness, leading to too many shares having to be sold. I was very happy with the 3 aircraft we had, based on a hard runway airport with frequent gusty crosswinds. (We lost 2 in accidents.)
BUT: it’s a tailwheel. Have a tailwheel lesson before buying, on a hard runway. It’s trickiest in a flat calm.
You may prefer to stick to tricycle
(I did my PPL on a Jackeroo taildragger – no brakes, tailskid instead of wheel.)
@Peter, thanks, found them.
@Maoraigh, thirty years in the same group is exactly the kind of experience I was hoping to hear about, thank you. Noted on the tailwheel: so far it’s been DR400s only, so a tailwheel lesson would come first.
A few questions, if you don’t mind:
Sorry to hear about the two aircraft, and about how it ended.
Sam
samlefever wrote:
so a tailwheel lesson would come first.
Come over to ENVA – Trondheim and I can take you for some training in the Piper Cub over the fjords :-)
