This Is the Most Important Decision We’ll Make
Everything else about South Shore Flyers — the bylaws, the dues structure, the scheduling system — is downstream of one decision: what airplane do we fly? Get this right, and the club has a foundation it can build on for years. Get it wrong, and you spend every maintenance day second-guessing yourself.
We’re approaching this with a scoring framework rather than a gut feeling. The founding members will make the final call, but they’ll make it with clear criteria in front of them. Here’s what we’re evaluating.
The Scoring Framework
Safety Record and Community Support
A design’s accident history matters — but so does the type accidents. Builder error, pilot currency issues, and maintenance lapses look different in the data than fundamental design problems. We want designs with large operating fleets, transparent accident records, and active communities that have worked through the learning curve over decades. The Van’s RV series, the Long-EZ lineage, and the Glasair family all meet this test. Obscure one-off designs do not, regardless of how impressive the specs look on paper.
Useful Load
A flying club aircraft needs to carry real payloads. Two pilots, bags, and full fuel should not require a spreadsheet negotiation at the fuel pump. We’re targeting a minimum useful load of 500 lbs, with a preference for aircraft that carry 600 lbs or better. This matters especially for cross-country trips where you want full fuel, a passenger, and actual luggage — not just a toothbrush.
Cruise Speed
One of the genuine advantages of experimental aircraft over standard certified trainers is speed. A Cessna 172 cruises at 120 knots. The experimental designs we’re looking at cruise at 140–180 knots or better. That’s not vanity — it’s the difference between a 90-minute trip to Oshkosh and a 2.5-hour grind. For a club whose members have jobs and families, speed is utility.
Fuel Burn
Speed is meaningless if you’re burning 10+ gallons per hour to achieve it. We’re looking for aircraft that cruise in the 6–8 gph range, which keeps operating costs manageable and gives us genuine cross-country range without fuel stop math dominating every flight plan.
Hangar Fit at KMGC
KMGC’s runway is 4,100 feet of paved, well-maintained surface — more than adequate for the designs we’re considering. All target aircraft have demonstrated field performance well within that envelope. Hangar space is available at the field, and all candidate designs fit in a standard T-hangar footprint. No complex ground handling required.
IFR Capability Potential
Not every founding member will be instrument-rated from day one, but the club should fly an aircraft that can carry IFR-capable avionics and be legal for instrument operations when flown by instrument-rated members. This significantly expands the club’s utility for cross-country flying in the Great Lakes region, where summer convection and fall IFR conditions are facts of life.
Total Cost of Ownership
Acquisition cost matters, but so does everything that comes after. We’re evaluating:
- Annual condition inspection cost (experimental vs. certified annual)
- Parts availability and cost
- Engine TBO and overhaul cost
- Avionics upgrade paths
- Insurance for the likely pilot population
Why Cross-Country Capability Matters Here
KMGC is not a training airport. We’re not building a club to fly laps around the practice area. The whole point of being based on the south shore of Lake Michigan is that you have remarkable destinations in every direction:
- Chicago lakefront: 30 minutes. Fly the shoreline, land at Midway or Meigs-era alternatives, or just sightsee above one of the world’s great cities.
- EAA AirVenture, Oshkosh: 90 minutes. The world’s greatest airshow, and we’re practically in the neighborhood.
- Door County, Wisconsin: Two hours. Peninsula State Park, fish boils, and a beautiful lakeshore airport at KSBM.
- Mackinac Island: Two hours. No cars. An island airport. Worth the trip every single time.
- Put-In-Bay, Ohio: 90 minutes. Island destination on Lake Erie with a grass strip that’s been a pilot favorite for decades.
- Upper Peninsula of Michigan: Two to three hours depending on destination. Remote lakes, iron range country, and airports where you might be the only airplane in the pattern all day.
These missions need an airplane that can handle real cross-country flying — IFR approaches in fall weather, meaningful useful load for overnight trips, and cruise speeds that make a weekend trip actually feel like a weekend rather than a full day of flying each direction.
Two to Four Seats: Right-Sized for Our Goals
We’re targeting a two-to-four seat aircraft. Two seats is the sweet spot for cost and performance — most of the experimental aircraft that deliver the best performance-per-dollar are two-seaters. But we’re open to three- and four-seat designs, particularly the Cozy series, if the founding group concludes that member utility warrants the additional complexity and cost.
What we’re not building is a six-seat club hauler. The designs we’re evaluating are pilots’ airplanes — capable, efficient, and rewarding to fly well.
Founding Members Make the Call
We have candidate aircraft in mind — and we’ll publish dedicated posts on each one — but the final decision belongs to the people who put their names on the founding list and commit to the club. That’s intentional. The right airplane for South Shore Flyers is the one that best serves the pilots who are actually going to fly it.
Join the South Shore Flyers Founders List and be part of the conversation. Your vote on our first aircraft is one of the most tangible benefits of getting in early.
