I recently discovered that there is a flying club that operates out of Buttonville. According to their website they have over 100 members.
The membership fee is $30 (for students) for a year. This club does a lot of trips, some of the bigger trips on the list for this year:
Apr 4-10 – Sun ‘n Fun in Lakeland Florida
May 12-14 – Washington, DC. Visit the Smithsonian museum and sight see the U.S Capital to be preceded the week before by a meeting on procedures if required by first timers or VFR pilots
Jul 24-30 – Oshkosh Airventure (a really popular airshow)
You dont have to own an airplane to go along on the trips. They call it a “have a seat/need a seat” policy. If you have spare room on the plane, and you’re a member, you’re welcome to come along as a passenger.
It could be a great opportunity to learn outside of the lessons i’m taking now.
I’m a little weary of becoming a member. I dont want to join if its nothing but a bunch of old school ex-military fighter pilots (those who actually use “roger wilco” on the radios) trying to re-live their glory days. That said, I’m still going to try to attend one of their meetings. Just have to figure out when it is..
Is anyone else out there a member of a flying club? Why did you join? What advantages does your club offer?
In the U.S., a flying club is often a group of people who get together to own and operate a plane or two together. In Canada, flying clubs (e.g. Ottawa, Brampton, etc.) are more often large, not-for-profit FBOs that rent planes, offer flying lessons, provide discount fuel and parking, etc. I don’t know if that’s what the Buttonville club is like, but $30 isn’t much to risk to find out, even for a student (one extra-large pizza with tip, I think).
The cross-country trips are definitely a good idea. There’s a lot that the ground school lessons and the maneuvers in the FTM don’t cover, and real cross-country trips, even in a passenger seat, would be a good way to experience it.
I just browsed the site (albeit from my Blackberry, so I might have missed it?) but do they not have rentals as part of the club? It looks to me that its more of an “owners association” as opposed to a bunch of people sharing ownership or operation of a small fleet.
Yes, you could get some free rides and very valuable experience flying with someone else (as well as social time, which is great!), but once you are done training and are looking for a cheap rental to buzz about in, I’m not sure how much a club like this will benefit you in that specific regard.
It does look like a way to hang out with other GA pilots, mostly owners I think. Their About Us page says “Guests Welcome!”, so I’m sure you can attend a meeting before deciding on joining.
From this page:
http://lists.buttonvilleflyingclub.com/mailman/listinfo/bfcnews
“BFC meets on the second Wednesday of each month at 7pm in the club lounge, northwest corner of Hangar 15 at Buttonville Airport. Guests welcome!”
Let us know what you find out!
Brian,
Thanks for the info! I discovered their meeting date a little while after I made this post.
I wont be able to attend for the next little while because it conflicts with my school schedule.
I have class Wednesday nights from 1830 to 2130.