Where This Idea Came From
If you’ve been flying in Northwest Indiana — or trying to get into flying — you know the problem. The Chicago-area rental market is expensive, congested, and not exactly focused on building community. The big flight schools are production lines. The FBOs are busy. Renting a Cessna 172 for $175 an hour dry doesn’t leave much room to actually go anywhere. And if you want to own a share of something modern, capable, and well-maintained? Good luck finding it on the south shore of Lake Michigan.
That’s the gap South Shore Flyers is here to fill.
I’m a PPL student and operations/manufacturing manager from Northwest Indiana. I got into aviation the way a lot of people do — the bug bit me, I started lessons, and I quickly realized that the path from student pilot to actually doing things with an airplane was going to require either a very deep wallet or a smarter structure. I started researching flying clubs, equity models, and what pilots in similar situations around the country were doing. The answer kept coming back the same: equity-sharing clubs with the right aircraft — specifically experimental aircraft — offer a fundamentally better deal for serious pilots.
So instead of waiting for someone else to build it, I’m building it here.
The Equity Model vs. Renting
Most pilots who don’t own outright rent. Renting works when you’re a student — you need access to many different aircraft, you’re not flying enough to justify ownership costs, and instructor availability drives your schedule more than anything else. But once you have your certificate, renting starts to feel like what it is: paying a premium for an asset you don’t know, don’t control, and will never build equity in.
An equity-sharing flying club changes that equation. Here’s how it works:
- Members purchase shares in the club’s aircraft — an actual ownership interest, not just a membership fee.
- Operating costs are split proportionally among members, which drives the effective hourly rate well below what any rental operation can offer.
- Members have a say in what aircraft the club flies, how it’s maintained, and where the club goes from here.
- You know your airplane. You help maintain it, you fly it regularly, and you understand it at a level most renters never reach.
When done right, equity club members routinely fly for half the effective hourly cost of renting — and they build real aviation skills in the process.
Why Michigan City Municipal Airport (KMGC)
We’re basing the club at KMGC — Michigan City Municipal Airport — and the location is one of our best features. Situated right on the southern shore of Lake Michigan, Michigan City Municipal gives members immediate access to some of the most beautiful flying in the Midwest without dealing with the complexity and cost of operating out of a Chicago-area airport.
KMGC has a 4,100-foot paved runway, GPS and VOR instrument approaches, 24-hour Avgas, and a comfortable pilot lounge. It’s just 30 miles from O’Hare as the crow flies, but it operates without the delays, Class B airspace overhead, or tower frequencies stacked six-deep. You call ground, you taxi, you go. It’s how flying is supposed to work.
From KMGC, the flying opportunities are exceptional. The Great Lakes corridor opens up in every direction — Chicago’s lakefront is a 30-minute flight. Oshkosh is 90 minutes. Door County, Wisconsin; Mackinac Island; and Put-In-Bay, Ohio are all within a comfortable two-hour radius. The Upper Peninsula of Michigan, with its remote lakes and quiet strips, is within reach of a day trip. Flying from this airport, you’re not just commuting around a practice area — you’re at the center of some genuinely great destination flying.
Who We’re Looking For
South Shore Flyers is in its founding stage right now. We’re assembling a small group of pilots — and pilot-aspirants — who want to be part of building this club from the ground up. Founding members will have a direct voice in selecting our first aircraft, setting club bylaws, and establishing the safety culture and operating standards we’ll live with for years.
We’re focused on experimental aircraft — more on that in detail in other posts — but the short version is this: experimental aircraft give us more airplane for less money, modern avionics without certification markups, and the flexibility to maintain the aircraft ourselves under FAA rules. For a small club trying to keep costs manageable without sacrificing capability, it’s the right call.
You don’t have to have your certificate yet. You don’t have to have a lot of hours. You do have to be serious about flying, willing to be part of a community, and interested in doing this the right way.
Join the Founders List
If this resonates with you — if you’ve been looking for a real aviation community on the south shore of Lake Michigan — now is the time to get involved. Founding members get a seat at the table when we make the decisions that matter: what airplane we buy, what we pay for it, and what kind of club we become.
The Great Lakes are right there. Let’s go flying.
Add your name to the South Shore Flyers Founders List today. There’s no obligation — just the chance to be part of something being built from scratch, for the right reasons, in a part of the country that deserves a serious flying club.
