OurPlane in Bay Area

OurPlane is a Toronto company that manages fractional ownership for piston aircraft. They’ve been around for a couple of years, operating mostly in the East.

They will make a presentation at Palo Alto’s West Valley Flying Club on January 13 — next Saturday. Time as yet undetermined.

OurPlane’s fleet, at present, consists of new 172s, 182s, and 206s. However, in Canada, they also have one SR20 in the fleet.

For those of us waiting for our SR20/22 delivery and unhappy with rental junk, OurPlane might be a way to go. (Fractional ownership is a huge success for turbines and jets.) Buy-in ranges from $30-$60, depending on your needs. You can get your money back at any time. Kevin Moore and I recently heard the OurPlane pitch, and it sounds neat. The economics are compelling if you fly between 50 and 200 hours a year.

Moreover, if enough Cirri show interest, we might get OurPlane to add Cirrus to their mix. There’s no doubt Cessna puts pressure on OurPlane to be the exclusive supplier. On the other hand, it’s hard to ignore the built-in demand for Cirrus . . . especially in the Palo Alto area.

Er, make that $30K-$60K for buy-in.

Forgive me. I must have been thinking about the decimation of my technology stocks.

OurPlane is a Toronto company that manages fractional ownership for piston aircraft. They’ve been around for a couple of years, operating mostly in the East.

They will make a presentation at Palo Alto’s West Valley Flying Club on January 13 — next Saturday. Time as yet undetermined.

OurPlane’s fleet, at present, consists of new 172s, 182s, and 206s. However, in Canada, they also have one SR20 in the fleet.

For those of us waiting for our SR20/22 delivery and unhappy with rental junk, OurPlane might be a way to go. (Fractional ownership is a huge success for turbines and jets.) Buy-in ranges from $30-$60, depending on your needs. You can get your money back at any time. Kevin Moore and I recently heard the OurPlane pitch, and it sounds neat. The economics are compelling if you fly between 50 and 200 hours a year.

Moreover, if enough Cirri show interest, we might get OurPlane to add Cirrus to their mix. There’s no doubt Cessna puts pressure on OurPlane to be the exclusive supplier. On the other hand, it’s hard to ignore the built-in demand for Cirrus . . . especially in the Palo Alto area.

Moreover, if enough Cirri show interest, we might get OurPlane to add Cirrus to their mix. There’s no doubt Cessna puts pressure on OurPlane to be the exclusive supplier. On the other hand, it’s hard to ignore the built-in demand for Cirrus . . . especially in the Palo Alto area.

I myself went to talk to the West Valley Flying Club GM about this earlier this week; he said he would call the OurPlane CEO about it but I haven’t heard back yet. I will be away the weekend of the 13th but strongly encourage any and all Cirrus position holders who might be interested in fractional ownership arrangements to make a strong showing either by attending the meeting or by phone/e-mail. Personally I would find it VERY attractive to have a mixed fleet of well-cared for SR22s and SR20s available.

While the details of their arrangements are too much to outline here, I compared their costs (buy-in, monthly fee, hourly wet rate) for flying a new 182T to my sole ownership of the 260se/stol. I fly the 260se about 200 hr/year and it looks like it will cost about $130/hr, including all reserves, insurance, etc. Were I to switch to OurPlane and fly a new 182T 200 hr/year, I would save 10-11% annually (assuming a conservative ~7% annual pretax return on the freed-up capital).

Another incentive: I fly 1/4 - 1/3 of my hours for Angel Flight; using one’s own plane only fuel and oil is deductible as a gift to charity. However were I in OurPlane, the wet hourly rate (~$119 for a 182T, ~$99 for a 172SP as I recall) would be deductible, resulting in more tax savings.

Of course there’s no way a 182T is going to be as much fun to fly as the 260se so in the final analysis it wasn’t compelling for me. However the opportunity to own a share of and fly a fleet of sr20s/sr22s, with no maintenance and upkeep/cleaning hassles to deal with could really turn my head.

The OurPlane CEO was initially negative about including Cirrus in his fleet because there is yet no established track record of company support for planes in the field (his words, not mine). However nothing talks like a market need begging to be filled so if any of you in the greater Bay Area think you could go for this, please show up/call/go out in your front yard and shout etc.

Kevin

AirShares Elite in Atlanta is similar to OurPlane, with a fleet of new Cessnas. Rightn now they have a 206, (2) 182s, and a 172SP. I have made the point to them that having a mix including Cirrus planes would make their proposition hard for me to pass up. In the meantime I am buying block time on their new 182s.
If you are in the Atlanta area and would be interested in fractional ownership of Cirrus planes, consider giving them a call call and letting Airshares know. David Lee at 678-581-5962 is the CEO.

The meeting at West Valley Flying Club next Saturday (Jan. 13) is 2 pm.

OurPlane is a Toronto company that manages fractional ownership for piston aircraft. They’ve been around for a couple of years, operating mostly in the East.

They will make a presentation at Palo Alto’s West Valley Flying Club on January 13 — next Saturday. Time as yet undetermined.

OurPlane’s fleet, at present, consists of new 172s, 182s, and 206s. However, in Canada, they also have one SR20 in the fleet.

For those of us waiting for our SR20/22 delivery and unhappy with rental junk, OurPlane might be a way to go. (Fractional ownership is a huge success for turbines and jets.) Buy-in ranges from $30-$60, depending on your needs. You can get your money back at any time. Kevin Moore and I recently heard the OurPlane pitch, and it sounds neat. The economics are compelling if you fly between 50 and 200 hours a year.

Moreover, if enough Cirri show interest, we might get OurPlane to add Cirrus to their mix. There’s no doubt Cessna puts pressure on OurPlane to be the exclusive supplier. On the other hand, it’s hard to ignore the built-in demand for Cirrus . . . especially in the Palo Alto area.

For the full dope on ourplane check out the website at www.ourplane.com

They recently set up here at CYBW (satellite airport in Calgary). I was convinced enough to sell the option on my SR22. I am now flying a brand new 182 while I await the SR22 in 2001.

As an MD who likes to fly and occasionally gets to fly on business it was a no brainer. The best part is having “fairies” take care of all the details while you show up and do the DI in a warm hanger, then take off in your already fueled, clean, new aircraft with current maps, headphones etc provided.

You can access other aircraft in other cities on a secondary, as available basis when travelling.

It is certainly more expensive that the “rental beater” approach but way, way cheaper than solo ownership or ownership with even two additional partners. (Break even should be when you have 4 or 5 partners, depending on how much you all fly.)

You can book a one week vacation up to one year in advance. You have primary access to one aircraft and secondary access to the others in the fleet if they are less or equally demading from a pilot point of view.

Another bonus is that the management (not you) makes sure that your “partners” are proficient.

Yes, you can sell your share but like all “time shares” it will likely depreciate, not appreciate with time over the 20 years. However, with only paying 10-15% of the cost up front and sharing the maintainance costs it was a financial no brainer, especially in the land of the 65 cent US dollar!

At least one of my patients (another MD) has signed on and another (an architect) is looking at it seriously. Both are/were previous aircraft owners for many years.

I think ourplane may have some barriers to getting Cirri in the US fleet but I am confident that they will overtake the 182’s in Canada over the next 3 years.

Do you get to sell your buy-in when you leave? I’m assuming you do – but do you get to sell it for a profit? What I am trying to ask, poorly, is if you own a nice 260SE like Kevin, or a nice sr-22, odds are your plane will increase, and you may in fact get a nice return on your investment. I’m not sure how that works with fractional ownership…

Also – assume you want to take the plane to the other coast for two weeks – how does that work in terms of time?

DG

PPS - Has anyone taken delivery of a SR-22 yet?

Do you get to sell your buy-in when you leave?

Yes.

I’m assuming you do – but do you get to sell it for a profit?

Maybe, depending on what the market will bear.

What I am trying to ask, poorly, is if you own a nice 260SE like Kevin, or a nice sr-22, odds are your plane will increase, and you may in fact get a nice return on your investment. I’m not sure how that works with fractional ownership…

I asked specifically if they were interested to buy my 260se and put it in the program. The answer was no, they are only interested in factory-new aircraft. Reason: a significant contributor to their profit bottom line is that so much ofthe maintenance in the first two years is done under warranty and thus the cost is borne by the factory.

Also – assume you want to take the plane to the other coast for two weeks – how does that work in terms of time?

Supposedly this is not a problem. In addition you could instead rent a plane at one of their east coast locations for flying in that region.

DG

PPS - Has anyone taken delivery of a SR-22 yet?

Beats me. Yo, Paul?