airplane partnership

looking for advice on airplane partnership. Looking at starting a airplane partnership. Looking for advice on what to do and what not to do. When getting things started.

dont do it...

one of you will get screwed...

as you have to share expenses but one of you will fly it a lot and the other will not....

It most certainly will not work out long term.

I am involved in a partnership with a Cessna. My advice is make sure you have solid partners that can afford their share. Be ready to buy out a partner should they become unemployed, divorced, etc.

Get a lawyer and get it on paper. Will save you trouble down the road.

Send me $10,000 and forget the partnership. We will both be happier in the long run.

A friend of mine belongs to a club that owns a a few planes. He's happy with the arrangement; sounds easier to get in and out of than a partnership.

I have the plane and it is paid for. airport expences,and up keep make it a expensive toy. Seems like there are a lot of people that want to take you for a ride whan it comes to this type of stuff. looking for a good way to find honest parteners and keep things honest

Doesn't appear to me to be much different than being in a partnership on an Outlaw sprint car, which I once was with a cousin of mine. It lasted two years.

Whenever major, unexpected expenses came up, it seemed to always catch one partner at a bad time, so the other partner got honked. Then the other partner had a he11 of a time catching back up.

Then there are simple misunderstandings. I once set an engine block in my cousin's shop in case we needed it. Then a month later I needed it myself for a project of my own. My cousin thought I'd donated the block to the partnership and assumed he owned half of it. We settled it amicably and I got my block back, but it was still an uncomfortable situation.

After two years, we mutually agreed that the partnership was a bummer. I liked it better when I was sole owner of my late model stock car. My driver got a percentage of the winnings, and I was responsible for everything else, win or lose, with nobody else to answer to.

If you do go into a partnership on the airplane, make sure you have an attorney draw up a contract of about ten pages of whys and wherefores, contingencies, if this happens, then that results, etc. I'd personally avoid it like the plague.

Dave,
I was in a partnership for 5 years. I was sole owner for 5 years prior to partnership. It was always a 3 way partnership. During that time one of the partners sold his share to another pilot.In my case everything worked very well. We split all the expenses evenly 3 ways and each partner paid a small per hour fee to pay towards covering, overhaul etc. I would say that we were all of the same mindset on maintainence. Everyone was also very accommodating and flexible with the other partners. It was a simple partnership on a simple (1950 PA-20)airplane and I would do it again. The partnership definably reduced the cost of flying!

Been there, done that. Bad side of a partnership.
1.You both want the plane the same weekend.
2.You fly a few hours he flies a lot of hours. How will you split the cost of repairs and overhauls?
3.He wants hanger storage. You want to tie down outside.
4.When you do the preflight you find problems that he never reported.
That is just the begining of what can go wrong.
The good side.
1. You can save money splitting the cost of operation.

Put the agreement in Writing !..Similar circumstances in my neighborhood Worked Very Well for 40 yrs on CESSNA 172 because the personalitys Always put Their Best Foot forward and never complained loudly if they were Shortchanged ,, just a simple reminder to the other parties on Reconciling Days kept the Greatest Generation Frienship Going til They all were grounded for health reasons , , And YES,,ALWAYS be Ready to buy the other guy ot because of LIFES INCONVENIENCES...Friends and Family and I flew with 2 parners of 4group ,,at least 30 times over the years , they taught me to land and Take off and encouraged Me to Actively take Lessons ...But the More I knew about Flying THe MORE DANGEROUS IT BECAME TO ME .. wisely I realized that Personally I am a slacker for Detail and routine , And seemedto push the limits of anything mechanical . and because of those weaknes , I was not SAFE pilot material .. but i could Land that Winged critter if I had to , and thats a nice feeling ...

Never done a partnership on an airplane.
I did try a partnership with a fellow who owned a couple of airplanes. On his wife. (At her behest I must add.)
It wasn't very succesful and I've never done it again.

I know there are lots of partnerships like you are suggesting. Most seem to work out well. It would pay to spend some time getting to know prospects and ask around about them. The community is pretty small actually. The big thing is like has been said to be prepared to buy the other person out if need be. I would actually rather help a young pilot out or several and have them chip in a hourly fee and just keep majority ownership myself. I Have two airplanes and my wife and I both fly them alot. (We probably put total of 60 hours per month on them). So we don't really have need or availiablity for partners. For us it works better to own by ourselfs. Good luck though if it will help you keep your plane.

While you are talking about getting into a partnership, you should also decide how you will dissolve it. Worked with my cousin decades ago when we bought a combine together.

I was in a corporation as a part owner once and sold out. Used to be a good deal until certain insiders changed the bylaws to their benefit. Now they are short on people wanting to buy in. Cheaper to rent than get involved in another deal like that.

Dave, join the AOPA. Pay the extra fee for an aviation attorney assistance. The AOPA has all the information, both legal and insurance wise, that you need. Has to be set up right to avoid being a carrier for hire. And once you add more pilots, the insurance skyrockets. The only way those deals work for someone is if they really fly a lot of hours. Those are hours shortening the life of your plane and engine. Good luck.

I've known guys who made it work, but it's tough. The partnership needs to be well-funded, so if there's an unexpected expense you have money in the bank to handle it. Each partner should be paying "rent" into this fund based on the number of hours they fly each month. Additionally, each partner should be paying a fixed amount each month to cover fixed expenses like hangar rent, insurance and annuals.

How are you going to work out things like purchasing radios? One partner may do a lot of IFR and will want a full panel with the latest gear, while the other is happy with a 30 year old single navcom.

What happens if a partner loses their medical or otherwise wants out? Can he sell his share?

Had a partnership on a boat once; the advice I was given AND which I would pass on--Have a written agreement and noterize it. The agreement should cover the responsibilities of each partner, i.e. you going to do what maintainance, what each will do after use, when and what each will pay for and finally what happens when a partner wants out of the agreement.
We covered all that in our agreement and what I discovered was that my partner would do EXACTLY whar was in the agreement and NO MORE. So everything not spelled out I ended up doing.
At the end if we hadn't spelled out how it would be handled I would have been screwed.

Keep this dying tradition alive! 40yrs ago formed Newbirds Inc. with 7 others with the defined purpose of getting our tickets. solid agreement, AOPA guidance. 'Want to attitude' absolue requirement. Great experience. All got licenses and then sold the plane.

Excellent way to reduce the overallexpense of an expensive hobby! Write by-laws first and find "honest partners",
I had a partner in a cherokee 6 once. Called him with "good and bad" news. He said he couldn't stand any bad news right then, so what is the good news, He asked...I said, My three cylinders are good!

I'm looking at doing it with a Piper clipper was hopeing to find a 3 father son or daughter groups that want to get thier ticket.