Aero Clubs??

[rostato]

So I might be moving to Macon GA. It's very close to Robbins AFB and they have a flying club with VA approved training for the instrument and commercial certificates.

Anyone have any experience with an aero club on base? Are they cheaper? What gives???

I called and left a message and emailed them but have not gotten a return yet.

Any info woud be greatly apreciated...

[rostato]

No one???

[SRA_kbad]

I didn't like flying with the aero club at Barksdale afb. It was 15 bucks a month, and the cessnas were around 65-70 an hour. not much diferent than the local fbo.

Since the aero club on was on base, you had to file a flight plan to get in and out, not only with the FAA, but also with base ops. That wasn't a big deal. What bothered me was that the club had 5 cessna's. They required that you had to be checked out in each aircraft in order to fly it. They were the same model cessna's! You had to be checked out in the daytime (obviously), but if you wanted to fly at night, you had to get a night checkout as well. And there was all the paperwork, so much paperwork. Every year members are required to take an "SOP" written test. That's Standard Operating Procedures. Every week you must attend the club safety meeting. If you miss more than two in a row, you're out of the club.

For me it was a bit overkill just to fly a 172 for a couple hours a month.

[rostato]

Thanks. Good info. That shouldnt be a huge deal for me. I will be flying every day. What is all in the SOP tests?

[SRA_kbad]

SOP is basically the rules and regulations of the club. How the club is operated. Its really a non-event kind of thing. Not very hard to take. Everybody that flew at the club was realy cool and helpful. It just wasn't very practical for me to stay. For you it'll probably work out well. I believe Warner Robbins has a nice fleet of planes as well. I went TDY there once and remember seeing quite a few.

[rostato]

Cool. I finally talked to them. They have a fleet of all pipers, alot of instructors and the ground school is one on one. So, I am really excited about flying low wings and being a little more structured than I have been before. All I need to do is find a place to live now...

[Mike Lewis]

I took ground school through the Aero Club at Griffiss. We actually had a very good Aero Club and had a number of various makes and models of aircraft. I never got a chance to actually fly there before the base closed, but I know a few people who did fly there and said it was much cheaper than flying elsewhere in the Upstate NY area.

I got tuition assistance to go to ground school, so it was basically free for me (if you don't count the active duty service commitment).

The aero club at Griffiss had a lot of aircraft. The aircraft were acquired by 1) people who were stationed at the base and allowed their personal aircraft to be used by the club and 2) the club had acquired a lot of aircraft through Federal repossessions. They had something like a Cessna 402 that had been confiscated as part of a drug bust that I know a lot of people had flown. In fact, it was the club owned aircraft that caused a problem when the base closed, and there was some issue about exactly who owned the aircraft and how they could be transferred.

I also had a friend from ERAU who was a ground radar controller but spent all his free time in Korea building hours by flying as a CFI in the aero club. He wasn't a military pilot, but after leaving the AF after 4 years, he went right to a business jet job after accumulating so many hours flying in the aero club over there.

[rostato]

sweet. I am going up there this weekend to check it out and fill out my application.