FLYING CLUBS WORK

The beauty of a flying club is that it allows the cost of owning, storing, and operating an aircraft to be shared among the club members. If there are 10 members in the club, then each member becomes responsible for one-tenth of the fixed costs. In theory, this means that nine other people may want to use the club airplane at the same time as you, but the reality is quite different. We have found that a very workable ratio of people to aircraft is around 10:1—and even then the aircraft will spend most of the time in the hangar  

Example: An experienced pilot with more than 1,000 hours total time owns an older Cessna 172 valued at $40,000. Liability and hull coverage for this pilot is priced at $875 per year. The XYZ Flying Club with 10 flying members, two of whom are student pilots, leases a similar Cessna 172, and contracts for similar insurance coverage. Their policy is priced at $3,200 per year. While it might appear the club pays significantly higher insurance costs, when calculated on a per-pilot basis, it comes out to just $320 per year per pilot. This means that a student pilot flying the club airplane pays less for insurance each year than the experienced pilot who personally owns and operates an equivalent aircraft