Question though on the commitment side, how does it generally work if I decide I dont want to be part of a syndicate any more? Would you have to wait for a buyer for your share before you can be extracted?
Exactly that - it becomes your problem to advertise and sell your share.
I've probably better sight of this than most, so here's my experience of 10 syndicates in 21 years (both parallel and serial - I'd guess my average time in each group is around half a dozen years)...
(1) Spectrum, 1/20th (2-seat 3-axis microlight), club arrangements, sold share back to the club automatically.
(2) PA28, normal syndicate 1/17th, sold the share on easily as it was a popular group.
(3) Thruster, 1/10th (another 2-seat 3-axis microlight), I was in at the formation of the syndicate, and about 7 years later when we all decided to move on and sell the aeroplane.
(4) Big 1940s taildragger, Bought share, flew for half a dozen years, group decided to sell aeroplane and break up, as it needed more care than we were up to giving it. Uncontentious, although we probably hoped for a better price than we got.
(5) AA5, 1/20th share, still flying it, we have a waiting list for shares.
(6) Blade (flexwing microlight), three of us bought it together, after half a dozen years, sold it and bought something else.
(7) Raven (the next flexwing), same three, aircraft had a ground accident, decided to sell it for parts, broke the group up amicably.
(8) Interesting aerobatic 2-seater, recently bought a 1/11th share, there seems to be an informal waiting list for this as well so shares never actually get advertised.
(9) Single seat oddball 3-axis microlight, 2 of us bought it as a wreck, had a lot of fun restoring it, flew it for a few years, sold the aeroplane to a friend.
(10) Rollason Condor (lovely little British 2-seat wooden taildragger), 1/10th share. Group hit disagreements over the future of the aircraft, which all got a bit acrimonious - a couple of people wanted out but put b*****r-all effort into actually trying to sell their shares. Ended up selling the aeroplane and breaking the group up. *Some* of us are still friends!
So, a mixed bag, which I think is pretty representative of the profile overall.
Whenever I've worked it out, I've typically throughout the duration of a share paid 60%ish of what it would have cost to rent something similar - if I could rent something similar of course, which isn't always possible with the more fun types.
G
I am Spartacus, and so is my co-pilot.