If you’re serious about buying an airplane—even thinking about buying an airplane—one of the best things you can do is to join the appropriate type club.
A type club is a collection of owners and supporters of a specific type of airplane organized to share make- and model-specific technical information and hints for owning and flying the aircraft. The club may be formally organized and professionally staffed, or it may be an online presence run by a single person or collection of volunteers. Regardless, a type club is your best resource for answers to the many questions you’ll have as you evaluate candidate aircraft and after you purchase your aerial dream machine. It may save you a substantial amount of money—and it will make you demonstrably and statistically safer. Here’s why.
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Technical Emphasis
The various type clubs offer different things, and some have more offerings than others. The common trait among all type clubs, however, is the sharing of tips and tricks for owning and maintaining the specific type of aircraft. Airplane owners in the club may be the best repository of cultural knowledge and wisdom about maintaining and modifying the type, especially if it is an older, out-of-production model.
They’ll know the shops that have expertise inspecting and maintaining the type. They’ll have informed opinions about the usefulness of modifications and how options and changes to the original design affect performance, handling, and ownership costs. The fact that these owners have banded together to form and perpetuate a club means they are willing to share their experience and knowledge with you. Technical information available from a type club typically includes things like these:
▪ Copies of manuals and sometimes even technical design data for out-of-production parts and modifications.
▪ Lists of available modifications, where to buy them, and where to have them installed.
▪ Maintenance facility and individual mechanic recommendations for annual inspections and regular maintenance.
▪ Myriad technical details not well documented in the maintenance manuals—or not documented at all.
▪ Airworthiness directives that affect the type, especially recurrent ADs that may add to ownership expense.
▪ Common maintenance discrepancies found in the make and model, and how and where to address them.
▪ Personal observations about the cost and effort needed to maintain and inspect the aircraft type, flight performance, and other operational details.
Before You Buy
From this list you may begin to see some of the benefits of joining a type club before you buy an aircraft. The answers to your questions and the information the club shares with you or has available to support your aircraft ownership may make a difference when you decide to purchase a particular model or vintage, or a specific aircraft. In addition to the items listed above, a type club will likely be able to refer you to a maintenance facility to perform a prepurchase inspection (pre-buy) and perhaps even have available a checklist for type-specific things to look for in a pre-buy inspection.
Vital but even more basic information can also come quickly by asking members of a type club. For example, will the type support my intended use? Many airplanes are very weight limited with full fuel, for instance. Often individual airplane models or model years are center-of-gravity limited against filling most or all of the seats. Some models of aircraft are good short- or soft-field performers, while others are not.
Type clubs may be able to give you access to performance charts and even entire owner’s manuals or POHs. Type club members will have personal experience that augments the information contained in the books. These are the sorts of things you’re going to want to know before you put down money on an aircraft. That you can learn the reasons you might decide not to buy an airplane you’re considering, from someone who is an enthusiast for the type, makes the type club member’s advice even more credible.
You’ll gain valuable insights into other operational considerations from type clubs as well, like whether you may be insurable given the type and your intended mission, and if so at what cost and with what (if any) training requirement. The answer to that question is very dependent on your personal flying experience, where you’ll base the aircraft, what it’s worth, and how you’ll use it, however. So although you may get a general idea from an owner, it’s best to speak with an insurance agent or broker for a firm quote. You don’t want to buy an aircraft assuming you can get insurance or that it will fit your budget only to learn otherwise once you’ve committed to the purchase. Type club members may be able to give you good leads for insurance professionals known to have success finding coverage for owners new to the type. Joining the type club for the make and model aircraft you’re considering will shortcut your research into:
▪ How and where to arrange an impartial prepurchase survey by an expert on the aircraft model.
▪ Any specific maintenance challenges or “gotchas” specific to the type.
▪ Whether the aircraft is a good fit for the way you intend to use it.
If the answers to any of those questions make you decide against buying the type, then the cost of joining the type club was well worth it compared to what you might have spent before figuring it out on your own. If everything comes together and you buy the type, it gets you off to a great start owning the new-to-you aircraft. From there, how might a type club help?
Finding a Shop
Especially in the legacy aircraft market, finding a good mechanic or maintenance shop near your home is one of the challenges of aircraft ownership. Aircraft pre-buys are usually done near the seller’s home base, not yours. So the pre-buy recommendation the type club gives probably doesn’t work for you long term. Your choice at your home field may be obvious, or you may need help finding a mechanic with the knowledge, skills, and (sometimes) specialized tools and equipment needed to maintain your aircraft type. The type club may be able to help you there as well.
Getting It Home
Often the first flight after you buy an aircraft is a long—perhaps very long—cross-country to get it to its new home. You may have experience requirements before you may legally fly the aircraft—for example, high performance, complex and/or tailwheel endorsements. You may have insurance requirements ranging from an instructor “checkout” to 10, 15, or even more hours of dual instruction you must complete before your insurance policy will cover you as PIC.
You might want to learn more even if no regulatory or insurance requirements apply. You may not be comfortable completing such a long trip on your own, especially if it covers terrain or enters airspace unfamiliar to you. You might simply not have time to make the flight yourself. Do any of these apply to you? Call the type club. It may have a list of qualified pilots who meet your insurance policy’s open pilot warranty and flight instructors that can help.
Checkout and Transition Training
Aviation studies consistently show that, almost completely independent of a pilot’s total experience, accidents are very disproportionately likely to occur when the pilot has less than 50 to 100 hours in make and model. That’s why getting a good initial checkout and transition into the type is so important—when moving down in performance as much as when moving up. Type clubs should be able to help you find the right instructor for your transition. Some of the clubs have additional resources, from books and online manuals to recommended type-focused transition syllabi to web-based training and even live training events.
- READ MORE: What a Type Club Can Do For You
If you do have to move the airplane cross-country when you buy it, and if you hire a type-knowledgeable flight instructor to fly with you, this gives you a great opportunity to learn the basic layout of the aircraft and become familiar with whatever avionics are on board. But be honest—a few takeoffs, climbs, descents, and landings do not make a checkout. Spend some time learning high-angle-of-attack maneuvers and other stick-and-rudder skills before starting the long cross-country, or before you cut the instructor loose after completing the trip. For a longer mandated transition, and for future recurrent and refresher training, use the resources the type club makes available.
Now You’re an Owner
You’ve considered various aircraft and found one you like. You got some good user input that confirmed the type meets your planned use and arranged a prepurchase inspection. You got the airplane home, located a nearby mechanic for inspections and maintenance, and logged some good instruction in the aircraft. Now you meet all regulatory and insurance requirements and are confident to fly as PIC. The type club you joined helped at every step. What do you get by remaining part of the owner community?
Camaraderie: Type clubs give you the opportunity to meet and interact with others who fly the same make and model. Some clubs have organized fly-ins or events, both social and educational. Some have a full-blown convention every year or so. Many type clubs share display and gathering space in a dedicated type club pavilion at Sun ’n Fun in Lakeland, Florida, and in the EAA Vintage Aircraft Association barn at Oshkosh, Wisconsin. Some of the larger groups have their own display space at the big events. All are places for you to meet and speak with others with similar interest in your aircraft type.
Technical advice: Going back to the common element, type clubs usually provide ongoing advice on maintaining and flying your aircraft. As you read earlier, many have websites with technical resources you can search on your own. Many include a member’s forum or phone number to interact with members—and sometimes expert mechanics and instructors—to ask the inevitable questions you’ll have over time. If your mechanic is troubleshooting a thorny issue and needs to bounce an idea off an expert or simply has gone as far as they can go without help, the type club is the place to go.
Continuing education: To fully master your aircraft, you need to keep educating yourself and refreshing your skills, even in a very simple airplane. Type clubs often have resources for you to continually improve your flying—instructors, live and online training, publications, and more.
Become the Expert
Over time, using the resources the type club
provides, you have the opportunity to help the community yourself. Become part of the next generation of experts. Not only will you answer questions, you’ll probably learn even more yourself doing so. Further, by perpetuating the support network a type club provides, you’ll help preserve the value and viability of your airplane. That’ll help you when the time comes you’re ready to sell
your aircraft.
If You Need More Convincing
Scholarly research into the relationship between type club membership and National Transportation Safety Board-reportable aircraft accidents reveals that type club members are roughly three times less likely to be involved in a mishap and 11 times less likely to be involved in a fatal accident.
In his paper “The Efficacy of Type Clubs,” available online, Naval aviator and air safety investigator Jeff Edwards freely admits that the relationship may be correlative and not causal—that it’s impossible to tell whether type clubs make pilots safer, or if safer pilots join type clubs. My interpretation is that it doesn’t matter. If you’re not in a type club, history shows you’re much more likely to crash your airplane. For safety, for help with your aircraft purchase and your transition training, as a premier resource for your ownership questions, and to help preserve the longevity and value of your airplane, be part of the in-crowd. Join a type club.
Finding Your Type Club
Search online: Simply look for “<aircraft type> association,” and you’ll probably find what you’re looking for.
Check social media: You’ll likely find one (sometimes more) groups for enthusiasts in the type. You might find the social media group answers a lot of your questions. Most will frequently refer to the type club you’re looking for.
Visit the Type Club Coalition (TCC): Organized through the Experimental Aircraft Association, the TCC includes over 30 type clubs that share operational and safety information. TCC members primarily represent personal and recreational aircraft, both experimental and type certificated. See the TCC member list and contact information at www.eaa.org.
Look at the Owner Pilots Association Coalition (OPAC): A corresponding safety-sharing group for high-end piston aircraft and single-pilot turbines and organized by the National Business Aviation Association, find the OPAC member list and contact information at nbaa.org.
Ask another owner: Frankly, most type clubs thrive primarily from word of mouth from aircraft owners. Most likely the owner you ask is a member themself or at least can refer you to the club you want.
This feature first appeared in the March Issue 956 of the FLYING print edition.
