Aerobatic Flying Clubs

[mamontb]

Several of us are working to promote the formation of aerobatic flying clubs, inspired by clubs in Britain and other countries in which general aviation is much more expensive than in the U.S. Our thought is that it's much harder to find acro airplanes to rent or instruction, but if you can find several other pilots who want to break into aerobatics, they can form a group. A club (or other group-ownership arrangement) can be as few as a handful of pilots who kick in to buy a SuperD or a clipped-wing Cub. A local IAC chapter can help. Let me know if you'd like more information. I'll cross-post this message in Flying Clubs. A problem with the acro community is that it may mostly be people who already own or have access to a ride; we want to reach those who can't afford a ride on their own or can't rent.

[asport22]

I'm interested - seems like a great idea. I've mentioned this to IAC folks before, and they seemed to think it was a fine idea, as long as somebody else did it. Robert Armstrong seems to really be interested in helping get more folks into aerobatics, but IAC really isn't a very big organization and running contests and supporting the US teams seem to be about all they have the budget and bandwidth for. A big problem for me is that I live about five hours from any major metropolitan area, and just aren't many flying clubs of any sort around here, let alone aerobatic ones.

I hope the fact that I'm the first one to respond isn't a sign that there just isn't much interest in this idea.

Warren

[WLIU]

The challenge is that flying clubs are local. They are not created by national organizations. EAA has created information and encouragement for flying clubs but for each one, a local person has to step up and organize. An EAA or IAC chapter can not also be a flying club for liability reasons. Which is to say that if some chapter members want to pool resources, purchase an airplane, and create a flying club, the EAA and IAC can offer advice and encouragement, but the motivation and management must be local and separate.

So look around your local airport and size up how many local pilots fly acro at the level of enthusiasm that they want to move beyond renting and are willing to share ownership with a group. This is where it gets really interesting. Typically the number of candidate flying club members that you will see is small. So a potential "club" might only be 2 or three pilots.

I have watched multiple partnerships in airplanes. Everyone has an opinion on how an airplane should be managed and maintained.... even if they have never owned an airplane before. And then we add "G" with aerobatic airplanes. We see folks argue over how much "G" is too much and who flys harder than the next guy. When the idea is to fly the airplane through its entire flight envelope, with the additional wear and tear that results, sharing becomes harder than it looks.

An aerobatic flying club is a great concept.

Best of luck,

Wes