I’m curious about those Pilot’s Associations; you know, where six or seven pilots each contribute, say, $5,000 and buy a used airplane.
Who pays the insurance bill on these? Do you just pool your money the same way? Also, do you have to go through a lot of red tape if you want to use the plane? Does your association have a “president” with whom you have to clear permission? Or do you just go to your hangar and hope it’s there?
TIA
Disclaimer: I am not a pilot, nor an airplane owner. Just someone that wants to be all of the above.
My impression is that the details of this sort of thing are whatever the owners decide it to be. You and your fellow pilots work out the costs of ownership and usage (monthly payment to the bank, fuel, insurance, maintenance, annual inspections, overhaul, hangar space, yada, yada) and decide what you think is a fair way to divide it up. Maybe each contributes $X to pay insurance, hangar and payment, whether you fly or not. Then every hour of flying costs $Y, which goes towards maintenance, something for the eventual overhaul, annual inspections and so on. Maybe if it’s getting used enough, you pay $Y+ per hour, and that covers all of the above.
The same goes for scheduling. You decide - Does Joe get the bird on the 1st weekend of the month, and Mary the 2nd? Does it go to the first one to reserve it? What if someone wants it for a long holiday weekend, but that’s Fred’s time? You as a fractional owner have to work it out.
Speaking from no personal experience whatsoever, if I was in such a group, I would want a president, or manager, or whatever you want to label them, as being the person who schedules maintenance, oversees the fund, etc. This would be an experienced person who knows what is involved with owning a plane, IMHO. Maybe such responsibility would allow extra flying time for just the cost of fuel, or first choice for primo weekends (Fun 'n Sun or Oshkosh come to mind…) Oh, and I’d want this all down on paper, including how you bring a new owner on board, how one sells his share, what minimum training or licensing is required of each owner, etc. I see a lawyer involved in all of this, I think.
I’m not a pilot, but I play one on TV. . .
I chartered a plane with a few friends once. I was really surprised to see that the cost of a Cessna 152 was about $66 per hour.
Now keep in mind that this charter included Gas, “Mileage”, and the Insurance Coverage. So, when you charter an airplane, you pay part of the cost of insuring it.
I believe (correct if wrong) that insuring a private airplane is the same as an automobile. Just call up an aircraft insurance agency and take out a policy. Just pool the cost like ya did the purchase price. . .
Tripler
But I know tons about runways. . .
I am a pilot/owner.
I pay all fees. Or my insurance covers these.
We have a sign-up sheet/phone-call procedure to cover needs.
The details vary over the gamut.
With traditional operations, a phone call, sign up, first come first served operation is standard.
Most operations are not, and have no dependency on the owner/s.
Yeah that’s something else I forgot to mention in the OP. If I wanted rent a plane to take Mrs. Rastahomie to Disneyworld for one of the Star Wars weekends in May (and who wouldn’t? 
), the bird would be in the air for about 7 hours each way, but I would have the bird in my posession for quite a bit longer. Do I just get charged for the amount of time the bird is in the air?
The place I went to only charged for engine time - that is, only the time the engine is running (you know, “hours”). So, you could taxi for 30 minutes and fly for 6 1/2 hours, or if you are at Teterboro, taxi for 6 1/2 hours and fly for only 30 minutes.
Tripler
I can fly. I just don’t have the little piece of paper that says I’m legal . . .
Be careful. The hours are measured by a “Hobbs meter”, which is a clock that measures accumulated hours and tenths of hours. In the helicopters I fly, the Hobbs is connected to an oil pressure switch that activates it only when the engine is running. But I’ve been in airplanes that have the Hobbs meter wired to the master switch, so it’s running as long as the master switch is turned on. I’ve heard of people who forget to turn off the master and record a lot of extra hours. If you’re renting, you’ll have to convince the FBO that you just left the switch on and were not flying. One way to do this is to record the tach time before and after you fly. Or if your ship has the Hobbs wired directly to the master switch, just remember to turn the master switch off.