EAA Flying Club Initiative
By Cory Puuri, Membership Development Manager, EAA
November 2015 - If you blinked, you probably missed the brief article we ran in eHotline back in August of 2014, introducing EAA’s Flying Club Manual: Establishing a Non-Profit Flying Club.
But we hope you read about and/or participated in the Give Flight build at EAA AirVenture Oshkosh 2015, where more than 2,000 people helped build five sets of aircraft wings to be donated to EAA chapters. Chapters that received a set of wings agreed to complete and use the aircraft to launch an independent flying club.
For some EAA chapters, these two initiatives raised more than a few questions because it was always EAA’s stance that EAA chapters were prohibited by their charter from operating a flying club. So what’s new? EAA believes flying clubs are critical to reducing the cost of flying for all members and to increase and extend an individual’s flying activity. As a result, we’re taking steps to help collect and develop resources to help EAA chapters form independent flying clubs.
The key word is “independent.” EAA investigated a model in which flying clubs could be organized under EAA chapters, but the costs would have been prohibitive. A more cost-effective model for flying club creation is to establish the flying club as an independent, nonprofit entity. And while such entities could not be organized as EAA Flying Club No. XX, they can be organized by EAA members, co-located in an EAA chapter hangar, include EAA chapter members, and even use aircraft built or restored by an EAA chapter!
Over the next few years, you’re going to see the following developments to resource and support flying clubs:
- EAA Flying Club Resource Center —www.eaa.org/flyingclubs
- Educational webinars
- December 8, 7-8:30 p.m. CST—Financing a Flying Club Aircraft
- December 15, 12-1 p.m. CST—Flying Club Insurance
- Articles and publications
- Exclusive discounts on aviation products and services
If you have other ideas on how EAA can help you in the formation or development of a flying club, I invite you to send me an e-mail.
