Fly more, spend less, learn how

Almost anything can be classified into pairs. Go ahead and try it. It works.

For instance, there are two types of people in the world: Those who fly and those who don’t.

Sure, it’s a massive generalization, but it’s also more or less true. One group is almost undeniably cooler and more awesome than the other. That’s subjective, of course, but I side with the former, as you might imagine.

By taking that same line of thinking, there are two types of airports in the United States: Privately owned airports and publicly owned airports. The privately owned fields outnumber the publicly owned variety by a fair margin. They range from a simple grass or gravel strip to a fairly complex layout with private homes and commercial businesses added to the mix.

Current estimates put the number of privately owned airports in excess of 14,000.

Being private, the owners can do pretty much whatever they want. The airports are paid for and maintained without the benefit of government funds. That being the case, the owner or manager can make rules or establish procedures for rentals and ground operations on a whim.

Maybe they close at noon on Wednesday to go fishing. Or they serve ice cream sandwiches with the purchase of five gallons or more of fuel. Or they decide to let Farmer Dan from down the road store his classic Ferguson-Brown tractor in a hangar on a full-time basis for almost nothing, even though he doesn’t own an airplane and never plans to buy one.

They can do that.

A publicly owned airport has a few more strings attached to its operation for the simple reason it is using our money — funds derived from taxes and fees — to pay for the facility and its maintenance.

Should that publicly owned airport accept federal dollars to expand a runway, build new taxiways, add hangars, put in shiny new LED lighting, or pretty much anything else, the constraints get a bit tighter.

These strings are known as grant assurances. In short, you took the money, so that requires airport owners to abide by the rules the FAA lays out for airport operations.

Sometimes there are flies in that ointment. A bit of confusion you might say.

One of my favorite areas of misunderstanding can be found in the Airport Compliance Manual (an official FAA document) in Chapter 10.6 Flying Clubs.

After more than a decade of working with individuals and groups to help establish and manage flying clubs, I’ve bumped into more than my share of airport managers who are less than accommodating when approached with the idea of housing a flying club. Believe me, I get it.

Flying clubs haven’t been nearly as popular or prevalent in the U.S. as they have been in Europe. But flying clubs have their place. They lower the cost of accessing an aircraft, sometimes by a substantial amount. They provide for a social structure that can promote flight safety and proficiency. The list of benefits goes on, which may be why flying clubs are growing in number across the country.

Yet often an airport manager is unfamiliar with the appropriate FAA reference material. They misunderstand what is being asked of them. And it is through this misunderstanding they can inadvertently put their publicly funded field in a tight spot. Unintentional as that lack of familiarity may be, an airport manager does not have the authority to deny a flying club the right to exist.

Let me expand on that.

A flying club is a business. More specifically, it is a non-profit business. That’s an FAA requirement. It’s stipulated in the first sentence of the FAA’s definition.

As a business a flying club is required to file Articles of Incorporation with the state it is in, along with bylaws to establish the method of management the club will follow.

Some flying clubs take the extra step of filing for an IRS tax exemption, typically a 501(c)(7) exemption that is specifically intended for social organizations.

That being the case, a properly formed and managed flying club has already been deemed worthy by the state and potentially been given the official IRS seal of approval in the form of a tax exemption. So, it stands to reason, that when a group of one, two, or 35 people approach the local airport manager about locating their flying club on the field, they aren’t asking for permission to form a flying club. They’ve already done that.

What they’re asking for is a tie-down spot, a hangar, or a space to hold periodic meetings. Those are all questions of space availability, cost, and terms of a lease. They are not — and I cannot stress this enough — asking for permission to operate as a flying club.

One of the great benefits of the flying club model revolves around the FAA’s dictate that a flying club qualifies as an individual under those previously mentioned grant assurances.

That means a flying club with 100 members and three aircraft can only be required to meet the same standards as any other individual on the field. It cannot be required to carry a commercial insurance policy, or rent a specific number of square feet, or have full-time staff. Those are all hallmarks of a commercial lease. The flying club has been prohibited from conducting commercial operations by that same FAA.

If you’ve got questions, I’ve got answers. And I have peers who specialize in the formation and management of flying clubs. I would be happy to put you in touch.

Our guidance comes at no cost to you and it is entirely based on FAA and IRS best practices.

Whether you’re an airport director, an aircraft owner, a pilot with a hankering to have ownership-like-rights in an aircraft, or just a curious individual who wants to know more, drop me a line. I can help. My peers can help. It’s what we do.

Let’s all get on the same page to stave off future misunderstandings, hurt feelings, and dwindling opportunities to access aircraft at an affordable rate. And we can do it with the full blessing of state and federal governments.

I look forward to hearing from you.