Canandaigua Airport – D38

Why Not a Flying Club for Canandaigua?

Flying Clubs advance the interest in general aviation by combining the benefits of a superior pilot training program, a wide variety of quality aircraft, an innovative, cooperative aircraft management program, and stimulating membership activities and benefits. Most importantly, a flying club creates an affordable option that allows ANYONE to enjoy flying without the need to own a plane.

 If you are interested in the formation of a Canandaigua Flying Club…

Check out: http://www.canandaiguaflyingclub.com

If you are interested in getting the conversation about a flying club going, register online at:

http://www.canandaiguaflyingclub.com/Register_Today.html

How to Start a Flying Club

First, you need to find some friends or community leaders who are serious about flying and form a committee, yes probably meet for coffee and come up with a decent mission statement, with goals and objectives.

Next, you need to establish Bylaws and form a legitimate Legal Entity and find aircraft owners willing to go for a Tax Strategy, where their aircraft becomes a piece of “business” equipment for them or collect monies from the members to buy a few used aircraft. Of course, you will need to create release of Liability Forms, Aircraft Owner Rental Agreements and establish a Tentative Fee Structure.

Starting a flying club makes sense as you can “Capitalizing on the Economies of Scale” by working-out special prices for fuel and recruitment of an FAA Certified A & P or AI mechanic. You will also need Certified Flight Instructors that are looking to build Flight-Time to log more hours. With these economies of scale you can Negotiate Special Rates and make highly Discounted Fees for Aircraft Owners which are also needing instruction.

It is best not to compete directly with the local Fixed Based Operators, but rather develop a working relationship with the FBO. You must also keep the aircraft clean and find Aircraft Washers to Trade for Flight Time and you will need Ground School Instructors, perhaps you can establish a Aviation Course, as that will help to recruit local talent or FBO Sponsorship. You will also wish to negotiate Tie Down Fees.

No serious club is without rules and you will need Rules for Pilots and other types of members.

Flying is serious business and so is safety, so you will need to make sure the pilots are proficient and also want to learn how to actually land the aircraft. So they will need Pilot Proficiency Check-out Flight. Club members should also vote who gets to join. Club Votes on New Members 85% to join and then the members need a CFI Checkout and Verification of Ground School Completion. Later on you must insist that there are additional Check-outs for each Aircraft.

You need to make sure there are no incidents or accidents to keep the insurance low for your new Aviation Club.

What’s Next

We would like to hear from you about forming a flying club. We want to see what level of interest there is to forming one. The Canandaigua Airport is ripe for more of the general public to get involved in aviation and a flying club is an asset to any airfield. Private financial backing is critical to build a great club. What do you think? If you are interested in forming a club or can help with being a founder, please email in confidence d38@ows.net.