I own a Cessna 172 which I've been leasing to a flight school, and I'm interested in starting a flying club with it. I already have the aircraft registered to an LLC I created for lease purposes, and would like to use the same company for the flying club. I've looked through AOPA's resources and found that a flying club has to be not-for-profit, but would it be possible to be the president of the flying club and the owner of the club's first airplane, and still be considered not-for-profit? Or would I need to set up the club as a separate entity and lease the airplane from my existing LLC?
4 Replies
You need to ask an attorney licensed in your state (preferably with some aviation legal experience), as the answers vary from state to state (this involves state corporate, tax, and business laws, not Federal Aviation law). If you're an AOPA Legal Services Plan participant, it should cover at least an initial consultation on this.
Thanks for the reply. I do plan to ultimately speak to an attorney, but my impression has been that my only potential obstacle was an FAA reg, not a local law. I’ll see what I can find out.
Tim Lake:
...my impression has been that my only potential obstacle was an FAA reg,
I know of no FAA regulation covering this point. If you or anyone reading this can find one, I'd like to see it.
As others have said, forming, governing and operating a non-profit are covered by state corporate law, federal, state and local tax law. A club I was in even got scrutinized by the state sales tax office.