Potential New Cirrus pilot- Airshares Elite info

Hi all-

I just signed up as a new member. I have been an F33A owner/driver for the last 7 years and I adore my bird. But, it’s time for new challenges. I am looking to move into an SR22.

My plan was to fly with Airshares out of KBED for a couple of years before committing. I was wondering if anyone had any experience with this. Thanks for reading.

Vincent

Look at the contract exit information very carefully to truly understand your financial commitment. Hopefully you find someone here that has done it from beginning to end. I think John Y. may have done that or maybe he got out because the plane was destroyed.

Vincent,

I was an Airshare Elite owner back in the 2004-2008 timeframe. I found that it worked for me as I could not afford to own outright. I would say that I would not buy in with a NEW aircraft as the depreciation is huge. As others have said, make sure you understand how the exit system works. In today’s market, there is a significant devalue of Cirrus aircraft. So your exit will be hit by that. Same as if you were a single owner or partner. No free lunch.

I found Airshare ran a good program. Maintained the aircraft as their contract said they would. I found the annual training requirements to be very acceptable. To my knowledge they have only had one fatal owner accident. NTSB and FAA investigated their operation and found no issues to my knowledge.

I also liked that I could use any Airshare Elite aircraft at any location. I used a FL based aircraft to go to the Bahamas. It had AC which was a nice addition. Wife liked that.

The only part of the program I found limiting was their overnight policy. I understand they have increased/modified that part now.

I’ve been an owner with AirShares since 2007 after 26 years as sole owner of an Arrow. I’ve been very happy with the program and found excellent availability, well kept aircraft (in fact I have my own parking checklist just to make sure that I leave everything just right), quick attention to squawks (and no concerns about how much it might cost), and easy scheduling away from home base when needed- e.g., sightseeing flight over NYC with no need for additional checkout- avionics were identical.

Tips- they do let you carry over some of any unused hours per year, and, unfortunately, they do have an extra fee if you use some of the extra instruction time that they provide. You can have all of the instruction that you want without the extra fee if it is within your annual flying fraction.

They do have some regular mandatory training but I’m always a fan of this anyway and it only makes us all safer. The AirShares instructor I’ve used has been first rate.

Hi Vincent,

I’ve also been curious about Airshares and fly out of Bedford. I’ve considered doing the Airshares trial program, but know already that I’ll love flying the SR22 and even the trial is only beneficial if you apply the credit towards purchasing an actual share in the program.

Any chance you’re interested in perhaps a 2-3 person partnership in a G2 SR22?

Regards,

George

Vincent, George:

I am presently training with EFA at Bedford in a Cirrus SR20. I am thinking about sharing options for SR22, perhaps a year or two down the road. I’ve been looking at Airshares, too. Understand their Bedford group is renewing next spring. I am concerned about availability, as most of my needs will be summer weekends. But would like to meet some other Cirrus pilots in the area.

Would you be interested in a cup of coffee, get to know one another? Some options to Airshares might make sense.

John

Hi John,

Cool, I’m also training at EFA in KBED and have been working on my Cirrus transition training, and doing my instrument training up at KSFM. In the process of my transition I’ve found a nice Cirrus G2 SR22 GTS that I’m expecting to close on this week :slight_smile:

Now I’ll have to do the transition training all over again in the Avidyne after being a little spoiled in the Garmin Perspective system.

I also looked a bit more into Airshares Elite since this thread, and found it to cost about 400/hr based on my anticipated usage which I found to be a little steep, but for an aircraft based at KBED I can see why it is priced the way it is between hangar space and fuel.

I’d be happy to meet up for a coffee and chat more. Send me a PM and we can figure out a day and time to meet…

-George

When I ran the numbers, on a per hour basis, INCLUDING the depreciation and re-marketing fee, it was multiples of rental cost. This was years ago, so terms may have changed a lot. It all looked good up the end…