At a meeting held at the Lebanon Airport, 18 people pledged to start a new flying club. Matt Bucy presented preliminary financial projections and models for the club. Next steps are to incorporate the club, set up banking, standard operating procedures and choose an initial slate of officers.

A survey that was circulated among the 42 people who responded to our post card netted 26 responses. These figures are being used to project the club’s rates and will be presented at an upcoming meeting.

• 26 respondents
• 18 willing to join immediately or in one month
• The rest some time in the future
Of those that are interested in joining up right away:
• Average Hours of Flying Expected Per Year: 40; Median: 40
• Median Experience: 175 Hours
• Most think $1000 is an appropriate joining fee (more than I expected)
• Planes (immediate members): 150 (5); 172 (14); 182RG (11); Piper (7)
• Total Hours Expected: 714
• Total Spending Expected: $93,000 (Using hours above, computed average total cost of $130/hr).
• Types: High Wing (8); Low Wing (7); Taildragger (8); Aerobatic (6); High Performance (11); Complex/Retract (6); Seaplane (4); Multi (4)
• Everyone was willing to donate some time: Total (143 hours/month); Average (9 hours/month)

The first inquiry about starting a flying club at the Lebanon Airport resulted in 42 responses out of 300 post cards mailed to registered pilots within a 30-mile radius of the airport. That’s not bad. Of those 42 about 25 showed up for a meeting at the former flight school. We’re hoping with this much response that a flight club will be possible. Future meetings will determine what people are looking for and how members would like to see a club form.

To determine how many local pilots might be interested in a flying club at the Lebanon Airport, we sent out 300 post cards to registered pilots within a 30-mile radius. We’re hoping to get at least 12 members to start the club with the goal of growing it to around 30 so that we can add a taildragger to the mix of planes available.