Joining a group.

I agree with Propstrike

I hope it isn’t bad etiquette on this forum, but this is a question that gets done more frequently and in more depth over on the FLYER forums (forums.flyer.co.uk). You needn’t join to get the answers you want, the search facility will point you at the many previous threads on the subject.

neal H started a thread on groups entitiled ‘some advice/help please’ which is currently on the third page of this forum, with the last entry March 1st.

Most of the aviation mags grind out a ‘group flying’ article every couple of years and they always conclude it is a ‘Good Thing’ , which it is. Unless you are utterly loaded, or flying fewer than, say, 15 hours a year, a group is a sensible way to go.

I have been involved in three, and they have all been great. The key is to join people you like, and feel you can trust. If a member crashes the machine, and it turns out (for instance) his/her medical is not valid, then the insurers will not pay out. On a Evans VP1 perhaps you can live with that, but with a £10k share, it becomes a bit trickier. The simpler the aeroplane, the simpler should be the group, but like any aviation enterprise, it will cost you money.

The key is do you homework, and be clear on the kind of flying you want to be doing for the next few years. Shares can be pretty hard to shift sometimes, and the market is generally depressed, but that does mean there are great bargains out there.