I belong to a flying club with 10 members who each have a equal equity share in the plane. Plane is a Cessna Cardinal C-177b.
One of the members is trying to sell his share and found someone who is interested. This person has not flown in 20 years.
I've been in the club for over two decades and we have had good pilots in the club without any major incidents except for a accident
around 5 years ago where a new member who was new pilot.  On his first flight after getting checked out ( we required a 5 hour checkout in the Cardinal )
he had a hard landing and bent the firewall and had a prop strike. Plane was almost totaled but we had it repaired.

So when I heard of the prospective new member that hadn't flown in 20 years, I was thinking that I would like to see him get checked out by a local FBO and then rent their planes for 5 hours or so and then we would consider him for the club.

Wondering what you folks thought, thanks.

I wouldn’t consider that to be an unreasonable request, make sure it’s in your clubs bylaws if you want to go that route.

The thing I’d be most concerned about I his longevity. My experience is guys like that are a flash in the pan. Initially getting back into flying sounds great until they remember all the reasons they stopped flying in the first place.

Sure,,As long as all of those stips are well spelled out and signed off on by the membership when club was formed/joined.
If not and club member wants/needs to sell?..you are out of luck

Maybe the other members can each buy a porion of the sellers membership but otherwise he has every right to sell jis membership without your approval

Yeah it isn't in our bylaws about what I proposed but i did bring it up at the meeting we had recently and 2 others members agreed with me.
And you need to have every members to vote yes, to approve a new member. That is in our bylaws.

He had a little over 100 hrs 20 years ago. Not sure in what aircraft.

OP,,,I have over 3000 hours and an instrument ticket
I haven't flown in 10 years or so. I would CERTAINLY have zero issue with your group wanting me to meet some requiements before being handed the keys.

Seems very reasonable and will save on problem

I hit a thirty year dry spell and did a one hour check out and was offered a jjob

It’s all about attitude and of course keeping up. I kept my CFI renewed (every 2 years) wich helped.

But yes, have a member with him since you are also testing his compatibility with your clubs ideals.

Increase hull coverage exponentially and profit.  
100 hrs is not much but your on the right track.

Thanks for all the replies.

If he does a one hour checkride with each of the other nine members, and they all vote him in, everybody should be happy, right?

This.

Insure for max value and don't let anyone ride with him!

I have about 150 hours and had not flown in 20 years until last year when I wanted a drone license and found that getting current was the best option.
I passed the BFR without any trouble and nailed all phases of flight including the landings.

If I were planning to keep flying regularly, I would want quite a few more hours of practice with an instructor for my own peace of mind, much less for someone sharing a plane with me.

I find nothing wrong with requiring him to get more time/checkrides.

I know someone in that situation.  He joined a local flying club after 20 years off and had about 80 hours.

He did his BFR to get current and thought that was not enough.  He sought additional training.  He got checked out in the club's entry level aircraft and was super conservative on all of his flights.  And he flew a lot the first couple of months in the club, a lot of which were training flights.  He also spend a lot of time interacting with other club members and flying with other pilots.  He has a true desire to learn and achieve a higher proficiency.  He is now training for more complex airplanes.

That guy is a 100% yes in my opinion.

If your new member is that guy, then I say go for it.  If he just wants to fly for a hamburger every 6 months, I would have concerns.

And I have to ask.

Did the new pilot who damaged the aircraft remain in your club after that incident?

If so, how is that pilot now doing?

Yep he's still in the club but never flies.  He needs to go through a five hour training refresher and a brf, One of our members is a CFII  and he may fly with him maybe an hour every
six months.
We have a couple of other people the never fly or hardly ever fly. But they stay in the club and pay the dues. We pay $200 a month which includes one hour wet, each additional hour is $100 wet.

We have build up a nice cash reserve which is allowing us to upgrade our panel. Were trading in the non waas Garmin 430 for a GTN 750, new audio, transponder, ADS B compliant.

Sounds like a nice airplane and good upgrades.  Those Cardinals are pretty cool.

My perspective is skewed because I have 50 hours in 5 months because of my PP training.  But averaging the 12 hour weeks for the 0 hour weeks, I can easily see still flying 10 hours a month after I get my certificate.  Heck, three 3-hour round trip flights will get me there.  All of these skills are so perishable for me at this moment.  It is better than it was when I started, so if I haven't flown in two weeks it's not the end of the world but I don't want to go beyond that.

But if this new guy wants to pack in the hours and is serious about having the license to learn, then he is probably in a better position than some of your low hour pilots.

Make sure he gets his BFR and an instructor checkout in the airplane.
Good luck and let us know what happens.

We had a flying club meeting last night to meet the prospective new member.
I try and not let myself jump to conclusions about things and people but sometimes i guess I still do.
When I first heard that he had not flown in twenty years I  thought the worst.

Well after meeting him i was impressed that even though he hadn't flown 20 years, he had kept up on things going on in aviation. Still a AOPA member, did the rusty pilots seminar.
Took training though the FAA wings program, watched many video's on GA safety and training. Also did the MazeroA ground school course recently.

When he was flying, he had gotten his high performance endorsement and has around 10 hours in a Mooney. Did aerobatics and spin training in a C152 Aerobat.
Also flew Warriors and Sundowners.

Reason he put flying on hold was a common one.  Got married, kids. Now middle age has the time and finances to get back into flying.
Seems very safety conscious. And when I told him that I would be fine with him doing our standard 5 hour checkout, he said if it takes more that's fine and that he wants to be a safe and
competent pilot.

Good to hear, he should be a great addition to the club!