ShareMyAircraft.com (SMA) was created to help connect like-minded pilots seeking access to an aircraft, for either business or pleasure, to aircraft owners offering to share their aircraft.
This can be a simple rental situation (private or and FBO) or an equity share offer as we allow a pilot to advertise their aircraft, no matter the type, with pictures, video and details, to an inherently interested audience – pilots seeking to fly their aircraft. Then, via our geo-location feature, SMA displays relevant listings in the user’s immediate area, with full search and filtering capabilities. Once connected, the pilots can utilize our Share management platform to schedule the aircraft on a shared calendar (COMING SOON), insure that all pilots know everything needed to know in real time.
More than 225,000 aircraft are registered with the FAA in the United States. Based on percentage of utilization, these planes sit on the ground 97% of the time. When these assets aren’t in use by their owner, they can be shared with other pilots willing to pay a competitive hourly rate, in advance, for access to that aircraft.
In a typical private rental share, three or four other pilots will share an aircraft and scheduling conflict will be rare. To that end, sharing will much more resemble aircraft ownership and access to the aircraft of your choice will be stress-free and easy. Indeed, since the average pilot flies 3.3 hours/month, this allows ample time for sharing without conflicts.
Finally, when pilots are carefully screened for experience, aircraft owners can rest assured that their valuable asset is safe and in good hands during use. To be sure, all owners always have final say regarding access to their aircraft, and all sharing pilots must meet insurance and other important prerequisites like a high-altitude or high-performance endorsement or an instrument rating.
Sharing an aircraft is fun to be sure, but it also makes sound economic sense, and ShareMyAircraft.com is committed to facilitating quality pilot / owner relationships leading to a beneficial aviation experience for all. IT JUST MAKES SENSE!
In 2007 I bought a used Cirrus SR22, but like most pilots, I was only flying about 4-6 hours a month (FYI, according to the FAA, the average general aviation plane sits on the ground 94% of the time, with the average pilot flying just 3.3 hours/month). However, in spite of only using the plane for this small amount of time, the expenses did not stop Garmin 430 updates, monthly subscriptions, insurance, hanger fees, routine maintenance, and then came the dreaded annual. I was spending about $15,000/year, or $350/hour to fly my own plane! I decided to try and find another experienced pilot to share my plane, so I posted flyers on the bulletin board at my local airport with no luck, and then finally listed the partnership on the Cirrus Owners website (cirruspilots.org). Here is my original post from 2008:
To my surprise, I quickly got a number of calls from local highly-qualified pilots (instrument ratings and high time-in-type) and settled on two pilots who were signed-off by my local flight instructor, added to my insurance (at no additional charge) and who paid me 10-hour blocks in advance to fly the plane.
The plane was flying and happy and well kept, I was flying and happy, and best of all, I was making valuable money to cover my fixed expenses and then some. This dramatically changed the aircraft ownership equation for me. It was a win/win and the best part was even with all three of us flying all we wanted, there were few, if any conflicts, easily resolved! I was getting $185/hour dry and this was awesome. My wife Jill said to me, “hey there might be something here – this is really needed and could be great for a pilot and general aviation overall.” – as I explored this further, I found that many pilots already shared their planes, but the process of finding other pilots was difficult and inefficient. General aviation airports bulletin boards are littered with flyers from pilots looking for airplane shares, hanger shares and ownership partnerships, and there was no single website where one could post or find a share, but there were many fragmented owners’ sites, where shares were posted in forums, only to be lost, when the next post was added.
There had to be a better way and so came the idea of - SHAREMYAIRCRAFT.COM. SMA was shelved for a number of years due to the economy, until we finally decided it was the right time – so about in late 2016, we started working on SMA – and now everything is lining up to make this the best time for SMA! Why?