Group flying opportunities & questions
#1810467
Hello all,

I have a 2006 UFM-13 'Lambada' microlight in Ireland. Due to Covid-19 I've put it up for lease in order to alleviate my less than ideal financial situation.

I have two serious parties interested in leasing the aeroplane. My problem is I don't know what to charge for this. Could anyone help?

What I've come up with so far is that this would be an 'insurance share' arrangement whereby the second party would pay the insurance for the plane and lease it. That's approx. EUR 800/yr at present.

Fuel burn is 14.5L/hr so say EUR20/hr.

What would be a reasonable additional amount to charge towards maintenance for every hour flown?

I spent approx. EUR 1100 or maintenance in the past 12 months.

Any suggestions welcome :D

Regards,

John
#1810585
Are you looking to mitigate your costs, completely cut the cost of ownership to zero, or to make some money?

If the the latter, then I would look at what local flying schools are charging for the hire of similar aircraft and then apply a discount to reflect the long-term commitment you're being given by the leasee.

The way I would do it if it were me, would be to run it as a non-equity group aircraft and give access to a small number of vetted pilots. I would require a deposit that's the same as the insurance deductible, and then charge a monthly and hourly fee. Say your annual costs are 2500 total (maintenance, hangarage, insurance, misc). That's 210/month. I would have thought it reasonable to charge £60-80 month per group member, and £65/hr wet, or £40/hr dry, and have them bring their own fuel cans. (apologies for the '£', I don't know where my Euro key is). If you do this across four pilots then you should see a profit at the end of the year.

If you have one or two pilots who want to remain the only users of the aircraft, perhaps for availability reasons (normally in reality availability only becomes an issue in groups of 6+) then you should increase the monthlies to reflect this. If you increase the hourlies then this is more likely to impact how often the aircraft is flown and how much it earns you. You don't want a pilot to cut his currency to cut his costs and then fly rusty and prang your money maker. Make the hourlies cheap and you'll have a safer renter in your plane.