Single seat Club.

[rwanttaja]

I'll let Zaitcev give his own information, but here's how the clubs here worked:

If members are paying dues to fly these airplanes what about when they are down for repairs from such events.

The dues were for the routine expenses of the airplane, just like owning. If the plane didn't fly, the hangar rent, etc. still had to be paid. The Story's situation is probably the better one (and the most typical): The club members owned the aircraft. If one's airplane is broken, the local airport does NOT let you stop paying hangar rent. Thus, all members were incentivized to help get the plane flying again if it broke down.

What kind of contract should be drawn up? What about in case of a fatal accident?

The contract was real similar to the aircraft partnership agreements that make the rounds. Let me see if I still have my old one.

Never had anyone killed in either airplane, though one pilot managed to flip upside down in deep snow at an unattended airport.

If a death *did* happen, it would be a mess. Partnership (e.g., the dead pilot being part owner and thus partly responsible for its condition) would probably be the way to go. In any case, there were no "deep pockets" in sight.

Only except pilots or those flying in type?

It's a long wait, looking for prospective club members who just happened to have flown one of the two Story Specials in existence. :-)

You need assurance that the guy is current in taildraggers, preferable something roughly equivalent to the club airplane (e.g., Champ or Cub time was considered good for the Story and Fly Baby). In my case, I had earned my Private flying a Citabria. Hadn't flown either for a while, but a local CFI signed me off after an hour-long checkout in a local Champ. One of the fond memories I clutch to my heart is him exclaiming, as he paged through my logbook to make the signoff for my checkoff, "You mean you hadn't flown taildraggers for EIGHT YEARS?????!" Seems that the hand had not lost its cunning, even after all that time.

Interviewed one guy for the Fly Baby club, once. He was all eager to get a taildragger checkout and join the club. So he could teach himself aerobatics, in the Fly Baby. I managed to dissuade him from joining...

Joining fee's how does one come up with this amount?

For the Story, it was (relatively) easy: The estimated value of the airplane, divided by four. $150 in 1954, $1500 in 1995.

For the Fly Baby, the joining fee was $500 (in 1985). Don't recall why that amount was picked, other than the hope to put some sort of a maintenance kitty together. Paying the fee did *not* buy a portion of the ownership of the Fly Baby. Pete Bowers retained it.

I hope these are not stupid questions.

Absolutely not, glad to help.

The biggest issue, I think, is most folks get tired of flying a small single-seater and get the urge to move up. Single-seat airplanes are difficult to sell, and part-ownership in them isn't any different. The other problem is folks who dodge the ownership responsibilities, such as washing the plane and helping with the annual inspection.

Ron Wanttaja

[1600vw]

Ron I thank you so very much for this info. I would like to retain the ownership of these airplanes and maybe buy more. But I would like to share them with a club like you describe. I dream of having 4 or 5 flying single seat airplanes and maybe a two seat tail dragger to do a check ride in with new members.

The expenses at where I am at are not nearly what you had to pay, hangar rent 45 bucks per airplane. But the big hurdle will be if the airpark owner, will he let a club form here. We talked about a regular club centered around a 172 and he was not open to that. He may not be open to this type of club either. Nothing to loose in trying.

I like this idea and this type of club. Now if everything lines up maybe this can happen. I already have a couple people interested in this style of club in my area.

Thanks again Ron. I am sure I will have more questions.

Tony