BOSTON AREA REAL WORLD PILOTS READ HERE

[Guest lawyerpilot]

As an instrument rated pilot (soon to be commercial/CFI by Oct 31) and businessman in the Boston area, I have begun an altruistic endeavour. I am beginning a flying club that will service the entire Boston area and outerlying airports. I know from previous posts, that there are many real world pilots that sim, like I do, and many cannot spend the 80-100 an hour for simple 150 hp 4 seaters. I have devoted my life to the business and law of aviation, and look forward to achieving this one goal: making flying dramatically cheaper for those that are not training for a rating, and do not need to fly with, or at, a flight school. Call it the Walmart of flying. But, we will have excellent equipped aircraft, (many if not all will be IFR equiped), and you will likely not be competing for an aircraft as you would at a flight school. Plus, as a member run club (although membership will be a one time $100), hopefully, the pilots' pride will help to keep up the planes' appearance and wellbeing. Anyway, in summary, email me at cbraun1@hotmail.com. I look forward to helping out anyone I can and to the possibility that this could become a club that would span the New England area, not just Boston. I have heard from many of you in the past two years on RW issues, and I look forward to hearing from you if you are interested in flying for 50-60 an hour, and perhaps under 50 for 152's and piper 140's. Remember, this IS NOT 50-60 an hour SPLITTING TIME. THIS IS 50-60 an hour for PIC TIME.Christopher Michael BraunP4 2.81024 DDRAM800 Bus36 gig SATA hardrive80 gig harddriveATI Radeon 9700 ProCH yoke/pedalsElite Multi quadrant19" inch monitor-Soundblaster PCI 512Win XP2nd system 1.8, 768, 80 gig, 40 gig, 19 inch monInstrument rated ASEL -270 hoursAOPALawyerPilots Bar Association"Men without dreams are never free, twas thus this way and thus will ever be."

[Guest Twister]

Hi Christopher,What can I say...I am stuck in the Middle East ! We can only dream of offers like this one.The average price for an antiquated and badly maintained C-172 is around 160 $ per hour...Maybe in my next life...Best of luck with your project !Twister

[Guest]

Hi Chris I used to work in a Maintenance division for one of the bigger(biggest?) flying club here in the San Francisco Bay area. We had over 1200 active members and averaged 60 aircraft. I have to make fun of you on this comment."hopefully, the pilots' pride will help to keep up the planes' appearance and wellbeing"Dont we all wish! What I noticed is a basic treatment of aircraft as if it were rental cars. Most pilots are considerate and clean out the plane when finished, wipe off dripped oil, and confess minor mistakes like flat spotting a tire on landing. However, They did not go above and beyond. Most pilots will squawk things and expect maintenace to take care of it. Things like "no rag in plane" "no extra oil in plane" "aircraft dirty" "trash left in plane from previous flight", these are not squawks. A squawk is a pontentially airworthy issue. Instead of squawking these items a member/pilot could stop by the front office or MX and replace that missing rag/oilor stop by the washrack on the way back to parking and spray the plane off if its dirty. I really hope things go well with your buissness, we need more FBO owners like you, intent on reducing the cost of flying rather than trying to make a quick buck. If you have any questions Ill be happy to help. You can check out West Valley Flying Club at www.wvfc.orgCheers Chris

[Guest lawyerpilot]

Chris, I appreciate your post. Amazingly enough, I have been looking at your site for some clues. Nice layout, great operation! Well done!You mind if I ask you a couple of questions via email or phone? Let me know!ChristopherP4 2.81024 DDRAM800 Bus36 gig SATA hardrive80 gig harddriveATI Radeon 9700 ProCH yoke/pedalsElite Multi quadrant19" inch monitor-Soundblaster PCI 512Win XPInstrument rated ASEL -270 hoursAOPALawyerPilots Bar Association"Men without dreams are never free, twas thus this way and thus will ever be."

[Guest]

you can email me at tractorking@hotmail.comI recently left there to persue my CFI and will probably end up back there instructing soon. Im happy to answer any questions and can maybe also give some insight into mistakes they have made as well as positive things. CheersPS: be sure to make a clear subject ie: FBO/AVSIM/Questionsjust so i dont accidently trash it with other junk mail the first time.

[woodreau 0]

I haven't seen too many flying clubs in the few areas I've flown: New England, Texas, California. Although they do exist in Texas and New England, the clubs tend to be small and very hard to get into. So you end up renting from flight schools, etc.In California I fly with Plus One our webpage is www.plusone.org it's a typical California flying club, we have around 30 aircraft and about 800 members between 3 different airports. At the primary airport, we have 6 172s 4 152s, 3 BE-76s, 5 PA-28-180's 4 PA-28-160s a 182, 182RG, 172RG, 170, a Katana, Cibatria, a Mooney, Tobago.All are member owned who affiliate them with Plus One, which is merely "a scheduling service" About half the aircraft in the club is owned by one guy, so he is kind of raking in the bucks I guess.Dues are $24/month so about $270/year plus whatever we fly, ranging from $50/hour for a 150/PA-28-160 to $150/hour for a BE-76.Don't know if this would help in giving you another place to start.Woodreau / KMVL

[Guest 747drvr]

Great idea! But I never get anywhere near Boston :(