If the high price of owning your own aircraft is beyond your reach and the fractional programs run by OurPlane and Air Shares Elite still seem too expensive, there’s a new program that can put you in an airplane for thousands of dollars less.

Let’s Fly is a not technically a fractional program. The Idaho Falls, Idaho company organizes local co-operatives with individuals as co-op owners. Each co-op runs independently, and there is no ongoing service provided for the co-op other than an online booking program that manages use of the airplane.

Each co-operative is run on roughly the same principal as buying a multiplex residential building. One person starts the co-op by buying the airplane, then sells three or four shares in the aircraft, with each owner paying the co-op founder a monthly maintenance fee of about $100, plus the cost of the airplane.

The result is obscenely low per-hour rates and pretty good monthly financing costs.

With four shares per airplane and a focus on buying used rather than new, Let’s Fly has put more than 250 airplanes into service with owners “buying in” for as little as $2,900 down, monthly fees of $400 to $500, and hourly wet rates in the range of $25.

The program is the brainchild of Eldon Corey, an airline pilot who dabbled in real estate, but decided he didn’t really like being a landlord. After owning several multitenant buildings and several different aircraft, Corey realized he could combine his two interests into a new ownership program that changes the way some people buy airplanes.

“If you go out and buy a four-plex (building), you lease three of the units out and you live in your unit that’s paid for by the other three people,” Corey says. With a Let’s Fly co-operative, “you’ve got the same advantages you do owning a four-plex; the main difference is that you can’t fly the four-plex.”

Indeed, the program runs very much like a real estate deal. Say you want to start a co-op in your area. You decide what kind of airplane you want, and get qualified for financing through Let’s Fly. Once you find out how much airplane you can finance, Let’s Fly will identify potential co-op partners in your area and help you decide what type of airplane will work for that particular group.

Let’s Fly will track down the airplane and put together the financing and insurance packages for you, advertise your co-op and help you find owners. The company maintains a database of potential co-op members through its marketing efforts, and can easily put prospective co-op founders with buyers who have a common interest in a specific airplane in a specific geographic area.

Let's Fly typically does deals with older aircraft, but new airplanes such as the Mooney Acclaim equipped with the G1000 can also find their way into co-ops.

Corey says he has developed a formula that continues to work, deal after deal. When asked about buying an airplane with poor avionics and upgrading the panel, he says that wouldn’t work because the program is based on using the airplane, not upgrading it.

As founder of the co-op, you decide whether you want to sell all four shares in the airplane and remain as an investor, or whether to sell just three shares and keep one for yourself. Let’s Fly provides an online scheduling program and co-op rules that will manage the actual operation of the airplane, leaving you free to enjoy the benefits of aircraft ownership.

If you choose to keep a share in the airplane, Corey says the other three owners will typically cover the cost of your share. If you sell all four shares, you can usually realize a positive cash flow of $400 or more per month. That might not seem like a lot, unless you own more than one airplane.

Corey himself owns eight airplanes, four of which he retains a quarter-share in so that he can fly them, and four of which are completely sold. The four sold airplanes produce a cash return, while the four he flies pay for themselves through the revenue from the other three shares.

The program costs less than most general aviation fractional programs because there are no ongoing management fees; the co-op manages its own aircraft. Also, Let’s Fly tends to focus on light sport aircraft or older aircraft—say two- to four-years-old—which have lower acquisition costs.

All costs of running the airplane—including the financing, insurance, tie-down and maintenance costs—are figured into the monthly payment, making it easy to manage the monthly costs.

But not every deal is for an older airplane. Corey says he is currently putting together a deal for a new Mooney Acclaim, which would have a monthly cost per owner of about $1,150 per month.

He says he is currently talking to all of the new aircraft manufacturers, including Cessna, Columbia and, of course, Mooney.

Joshua Simms, a civil engineer in Park City, Utah, loves the Let’s Fly program because it allowed him to buy a quarter-share of a Tiger for $649 per month plus a $92-per-month maintenance fee and $20 per hour.

Simms says the Tiger is a little underpowered for the mountains of Utah, so he’s planning to sell his share and start his own co-op with Let’s Fly on a new Cessna 182.

While he’s still crunching the numbers, he figures owning a share in the 182 will be very affordable and he’ll have no trouble finding buyers for the co-op.

“I think as far as students are concerned, even if you’re a young aviator, this is perfect. You can get your own CFI in your own airplane at $25 per hour, $600 per month, and you’re going to get it all back when you sell the airplane,” he says.

The only downside, Sims says, is selling his current aircraft. While Corey says selling individual shares is no different than selling a partnership in any other airplane, Simms notes that the Tiger is somewhat underpowered for his area of the country, so selling a share in the airplane is proving difficult.

He said it’s likely that the co-op will wind up selling the airplane outright to owners in another part of the country.

He said the company is doing well with light sport aircraft, and selling shares in those airplanes is an extremely simple process because there is such high interest in them right now.