Practical essays on running a flying club, an aircraft co-ownership group, or a small rental business — written by a pilot and aircraft co-owner with 15 years of operating experience. Expect plain-spoken pieces on the things that actually move money and time: Hobbs versus Tacho billing, per-booking versus per-flight settlement, maintenance forecasting, and the soft trade-offs that come up when several people share an airframe. We also publish behind-the-scenes notes on Pilot-Next itself — including the built-in MCP server that lets Claude, ChatGPT, and other AI assistants talk to your club directly.
Longer pages that each answer one set of questions clubs and co-owners ask, with tables you can check against the vendors' own sites.
How an aircraft leaseback to a flight school or club works, what 9 programs pay owners (70–80% splits, net rental, a $1,199 monthly fee), and when it actually pays.
How a UK flying group (syndicate) owns and shares an aircraft, equity vs non-equity, and what 10 groups charge: share price, monthly fee and hourly rate.
What the FAA says a flying club is: nonprofit, members only, no rental or charter, rules for instruction and maintenance, and what an airport can ask for.
Damage and deductibles, Hobbs or tach, daily minimums, fuel and no-show fees: what 12 flight schools, FBOs and clubs put in the rental agreement renters sign.
What flight schools, FBOs and clubs require of pilots who rent their aircraft, and what renter's (non-owned) aircraft insurance costs in the US, UK and Europe.
Yes, a private pilot can rent a plane. The steps: licence and flight review, picking an operator, the checkout flight, insurance, and staying current.
How to join a flying club, from the clubs' own bylaws and fee pages: who approves you, what joining costs ($100–$1,000 plus dues), the checkout and insurance.
Hourly rental rates at 20 flight schools and FBOs (US, UK, Germany, Netherlands) for a Cessna 172, PA-28, DA40 or SR20, and what the hour costs the owner.
Can you learn to fly at a flying club? Yes, as a member. The FAA minimum costs $5,176–$9,250 at six clubs and $6,860–$11,900 at ten flight schools.
How 17 flying clubs insure their aircraft: liability limits of $1–2 million, what a member pays after damage (up to $500–$5,000), and AOPA's premium examples.
What flying club bylaws contain, from 11 clubs' own documents: membership, leaving and refunds, dues and unpaid dues, assessments, voting, damage, dissolution.
Booking rules 22 flying clubs publish — open bookings, days away, no-shows, daily minimums, currency, paid-up accounts — and which ones an app can enforce.
The FAA checklist for every annual and 100-hour inspection (14 CFR 43 App. D), the engine run-up, EASA's minimum programme, and whether a 50-hour is required.
Flying club, partnership or your own Cessna 172: the cost per hour at 25 to 200 hours a year, and from how many hours owning or sharing beats renting.
The flat rates 12 US, 2 Canadian and 2 European maintenance shops publish for the annual or 100-hour of a Cessna 172, 152, 182, PA-28 and SR22, and what comes on top.
When the FAA's 100-hour rule applies to club and rental flying, how the 10-hour overrun works, and why on EASA's minimum programme the flight does not matter.
The 21 points AOPA says a co-ownership agreement should cover, in four groups, and what equal shares or a split by hours flown cost each owner of a Cessna 172S.
Yearly and hourly cost of the Cirrus Vision Jet, TBM 960, PC-12 PRO, Piper M600, HondaJet, Citation M2 and Phenom 100, and what sharing a Vision Jet saves.
A wet rate includes fuel, a dry rate does not. What fuel costs per hour in a Cessna 172S, what 17 flying clubs charge wet or dry, and how to compare them.
How to start a flying club in six steps, and the budget for one Cessna 172S: the hourly rate it needs and the dues per member at 10 to 30 members.
What owning a Cessna 172S costs per year, per month and per hour flown, worked out line by line — plus eight types from a microlight to a jet, and what sharing does.
Dues, joining fees and hourly rates at 17 flying clubs, read on their own pages — and what an hour really costs at 25, 50 or 100 hours a year.
What the Model Context Protocol is, what Pilot-Next exposes over it, and how to connect your AI assistant to your club's aircraft data.
Aircraft operations is not pilot record-keeping, flight training or airworthiness management. Why the scope stays tight, and what to use instead.
The practical difference between Hobbs and Tacho time, which engine-wear measure your club should bill on, and why Pilot-Next lets you configure both.
Why splitting costs at the booking level beats logging every leg — and what changes when your operations tool stops caring about where you flew.
A short introduction to why we're starting a blog — and what to expect from it.