AOPA Pilot Magazine - February 2019 - 44

PILOT BRIEFING
YOU CAN FLY |

Flying Club primer
How to get help starting a club

ONE OF THE MANY GRATIFYING THINGS

about flying clubs is how eager members
are to help each other. The staff of AOPA's
You Can Fly Flying Clubs initiative finds
that members of one club are more than
happy to talk to members of other clubs, but
sometimes they don't know how to initiate
the contact or what help they might offer.
If you are searching for help, reach out
to the staff at You Can Fly or the AOPA
ambassador in your area (www.aopa.org/
community/flying-clubs). As well as helping start new clubs, the You Can Fly flying
clubs team works with existing clubs on
topics such as operations, budgeting, strategic planning, and more. Staff members
are in contact with clubs nationwide, so
they may know a club that could provide
some advice.
An example of this happened recently
when an officer of a 60-member club asked
for help on better ways to track maintenance of its fleet of five aircraft. The flying

clubs team pointed him to the TSS Flying
Club in Gaithersburg, Maryland, which is
similar in size and fleet, and its maintenance officer shared the methods it uses
to track maintenance.
Another way to find clubs is to use
the AOPA Flying Club Finder tool (www.
aopa.org/flyingclubfinder). This mapbased tool lets you search for a flying club
by using key words such as airport ID,
club name, ZIP code, and a state abbreviation. Information in the finder includes
the number of members and aircraft, the
facilities that the club offers, and contact
information for club officers.
If you are not already a member,
consider joining the AOPA Flying Club
Network Facebook page. It is a closed
group, so you will have to request access,
but then you'll be able to post information
and requests. Use the page to post notices,
photos, club news, or inform the community about an upcoming event.

Many clubs post detailed information on their own websites and/or
Facebook pages. You may be able to
view and download copies of bylaws,
operating rules, aircraft checklists, and
perhaps see a social calendar, which
could give you ideas for events to hold
at your own club.
Once clubs contact each other, the
relationship often grows into one of
mutual mentoring and help. The You Can
Fly team recently held the first Flying
Club Workshop at the AOPA You Can
Fly Academy in Frederick, Maryland-
an event designed to foster interaction
between clubs.
Club members who attended the
workshop have remained in contact, providing insight and advice to one another.
AOPA plans to organize more workshops
in different parts of the country in 2019.
Come along both to learn from other
clubs and to share your own experiences.

program supports flying clubs, encourages best practices in flight training, gets lapsed pilots back in the air,
brings AOPA's resources and expertise to pilot groups across the country, and helps high school students learn more about
careers in aviation. AOPA's You Can Fly program and the AOPA Air Safety Institute are funded by charitable donations to the
AOPA Foundation, a 501(c)(3) organization.
www.aopafoundation.org
AOPA'S YOU CAN FLY

44 | AOPA PILOT February 2019

http://www.aopa.org/flyingclubfinder http://www.aopa.org/community/flying-clubs http://www.aopa.org/community/flying-clubs http://www.aopafoundation.org

AOPA Pilot Magazine - February 2019

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of AOPA Pilot Magazine - February 2019