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How do you manage fuel with a shared plane

pa38112

Well Known Member
My buddy and I just went in together on a plane. We keep it at an airport with no fuel. Anyone have experiance or suggestions for managing the fuel? I was thinking we each keep 2 fuel cans that we are responsable for filling ourselves, and we keep the plane at a pre-determined level. - when we get back from flying, we fill it back to that level. BUT, what happens when someone returnes it above that level? What happens when the other partner uses the plane before you get a chance to get gas and refill it? ect...
 
Cherokee flying club

I'll share my experience with the Cherokee flying club that I'm a 1/12 member of.

We each pay a set per hour cost of about $90 per hour. It varies a little based on each years of fuel cost and maintenance.

We're supposed to fill it up, after each use, but invariably, it needs to be fueled before a flight. Then each member can put in the amount of fuel as needed. The club pays the fuel bill directly. (there is a fuel card with the plane).

It is averaged out at about 10 gals per hour, but the reality is that it is probably burning closer to 8 gals per hour. The difference is helping to fund the maintenance or upgrades.

If we fuel up at a different airport using our own money, then we get a discount off the rate of that amount.
 
My buddy and I just went in together on a plane. We keep it at an airport with no fuel. Anyone have experiance or suggestions for managing the fuel? I was thinking we each keep 2 fuel cans that we are responsable for filling ourselves, and we keep the plane at a pre-determined level. - when we get back from flying, we fill it back to that level. BUT, what happens when someone returnes it above that level? What happens when the other partner uses the plane before you get a chance to get gas and refill it? ect...

Here's how I used to handle it when I had a partner. If fuel was over a predetermined level after flight, next pilot gets a windfall advantage (some free fuel) based on the other's inaccurate planning. If plane has not been refilled to predetermined level prior to next flight, we'd let the last flying pilot know how much it took (in gallons and cost) to get to that predetermined level, then the pilot who left the fuel "low", would reimburse (Venmo) the other pilot the extra cost of a fill up.

At the end of the day, as long as you both agree on a "system", it should keep either of you from feeling "abused".
 
I had an Archer with a partner with a similar situation - no fuel at the airport. We just always returned the airplane to the airport with tanks recently filled. It was 8 miles to fuel. Never had a problem in 9 years. Incidentally, we also charged ourselves an hourly fee that we put into a joint checking account we used for maintenance. That way, the one flying the most was paying the most for maintenance (oil changes, tires, etc.). YMMV
 
Same situation that you have. We keep it very simple. We have a log book in the aircraft. We record the times, fuel at startup and shutdown from the totalizer and fuel added. Each of us started with a zero balance. If I fly and at startup the aircraft has 40 gallons and land with 30 gallons my total is now -10. If the next time I fly at startup there are 20 gallons and I refuel and finish the flight with 40 gallons I am now at plus 10. As a courtesy we text each other quantity after landing to use for future flight planning. We don’t worry about fuel cost as it’s up to each pilot where he wants to refuel and what he pays. We both make a point of anticipating fuel needs. If my partner mentions he is flying to FL for the weekend I will try and leave it topped off.
 
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In our club, we have a designated tank level, and a designated place, or range you can refill at. So, it needs to be full, or it needs to be short by the distance of the designated place. If it's any less than that, you owe the next member money when they fill it and determine how much that is.

Plane has to always be returned full or that much short. So, that's one of the downsides of shared ownership, you just have to calculate that last fuel stop into any trip before pulling in for the day, just part of the deal.

How it gets the correct level in it is up to the member, so maybe you do cans, maybe your partner makes a last fuel stop. But, I wouldn't micromanage that part of it, cause the day will come when it's short fuel, and the cans are empty, and now you're angry...

It can end up being a real point of contention, and I have found the best way to handle it is what I stated above (plane must always be hangared after any flight at X fuel level), and to address it right away if it comes up short, otherwise it encourages slouchiness and pretty soon other things start coming up.

Bring in the old saw about "Who would want 2 spouses, when 1 is trouble enough...". Your spouse is one spouse, the airplane is another, and now you have another one with your co-owner :D Do you already get in arguments about who drove the car last without putting gas in it? :mad::D
 
Similar to Bimmer1980. We pay a fixed hourly rate that we figured to cover fuel, oil, brakes, other predictable wear items. Whoever flies is responsible for topping it off. We deduct fuel receipts from our monthly tab. That way if I buy 20 gallons but only burn 10, I deduct the cost of the 20 gallons I bought and pay for the hours I flew. It works out well for all of us, plus we're able to take advantage of whatever credit card perks we may get.

There are three of us and we have a pretty good relationship (and a very detailed operating agreement). So far no one has had any complaints or felt they were getting the short end.
 
How good a friend is he?

My situation might be unusual, but my buddy and I just went with the honor system. We put gas in when we started feeling guilty or the plane was running low and didn’t worry about the details. Not for everyone, but worked for us.
 
We have a 4 way partnership with our Bonanza. We just jot down what we burn based on the fuel computer. It’s very accurate, probably less than a 2% variance between what is burned and actually pumped. If there is a problem with the fuel computer, we use a standard fuel burn of 16.5 gph. It’s a 300 hp IO-550 and that number is pretty accurate at 75% power. Fuel price is based on the home base fuel price. Fuel bought elsewhere gets credited based on gallons burned at home base price. If you happen to get it cheaper elsewhere you do well, if you pay more, you eat the extra cost. We always leave the airplane full unless there is a special request for a lighter fuel load.
 
Fuel

Wow! I thought it was bad with my kids. They always returned the car empty. No guess work. Start the car and needle pointed to "E".:D
 
There was a pump on the field. Leave the plane full, or estimate how much it would cost to fill and leave the cash for the next person who did fill it. Four of us, worked fine.
 
We kept a Log book in the plane. At the end of the month fuel and hours flown was totaled. Each pilot was charged a flat hourly rate and an hourly rate for fuel less any they put in “on the road”.
We also kept a calendar made out in advance with a name on each date. Your name your day to fly. If you wanted to fly on someone else’s day just call them and ask. Never had a scheduling problem.
 
Same situation that you have. We keep it very simple. We have a log book in the aircraft. We record the times, fuel at startup and shutdown from the totalizer and fuel added. Each of us started with a zero balance. If I fly and at startup the aircraft has 40 gallons and land with 30 gallons my total is now -10. If the next time I fly at startup there are 20 gallons and I refuel and finish the flight with 40 gallons I am now at plus 10. As a courtesy we text each other quantity after landing to use for future flight planning. We don’t worry about fuel cost as it’s up to each pilot where he wants to refuel and what he pays. We both make a point of anticipating fuel needs. If my partner mentions he is flying to FL for the weekend I will try and leave it topped off.

If I had a partner, I would set up a plane fund with reserves used for fuel and maintnence-funded equal by partners on a regular basis) and fuel would be paid for by the fund - separate card. Pilots would log totalizer beginning and ending numbers, along with hobbs numbers. Flight costs would be related to fuel used and hobbs hours and credited to the pilots account. Monthly or annual pilot amounts payed to the reserve would be based upon some calculation of these numbers.

In an RV, there is no good way to know fuel quantity outside of the totalizer counts. The fuel gauge simply don't register the top 20% of the fuel and the gauges don't reference that well when on the ground, so no good way to know how much fuel is left in the plane.

Larry
 
Wouldn’t it be easiest to just have a credit card left in the plane for all expenses and then split the bill by hours flown? Maybe there is a downside to that or people that are too picky to the last penny to do it that way but maybe they are not worth partnering with?
 
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Similar to Bimmer1980. We pay a fixed hourly rate that we figured to cover fuel, oil, brakes, other predictable wear items. Whoever flies is responsible for topping it off. We deduct fuel receipts from our monthly tab. That way if I buy 20 gallons but only burn 10, I deduct the cost of the 20 gallons I bought and pay for the hours I flew. It works out well for all of us, plus we're able to take advantage of whatever credit card perks we may get.

There are three of us and we have a pretty good relationship (and a very detailed operating agreement). So far no one has had any complaints or felt they were getting the short end.

This is the way the flying clubs I have been members of do it. It works well, and is very simple and fair.
 
I'm in 2-way partnership for a C-172. We have a joint checking account and each of us has an ATM card. We pay ourselves $100/hour by depositing the hours used into the account. If one person flies 90 hours a year and the other only flies 10, the person who flies the most pays the greatest amount of the maintenance/annual cost.

On big-ticket items like the panel and paint, we split that as it affects each of us equally. Paying more than the operating cost per hour gives a nice reserve that covers most of the annual cost.

-Marc
 
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