Private Pilot Reimbursement

Right now I'm picturing a world where one needs 1500 hours of dual and a part 135 certificate to carry a passenger in a Cessna 150.
If that's what you're picturing based on the existing regs and interpretations, you are probably also wearing a tinfoil hat to protect your brain from mind-control rays from Mars. C'mon, Jim -- get real. What the FAA is trying to stop is Private Pilots getting paid for providing either air transportation or pilot services. Every time someone comes up with a new dodge to circumvent that intent, the FAA will plug the hole that this clever person found. Take the money out of it, and a Private Pilot can, like John Travolta, take his/her non-paying friends out for a ride in his/her own Boeing 707.
 
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Take the money out of it, and a Private Pilot can, like John Travolta, take his/her non-paying friends out for a ride in his/her own Boeing 707.

Although someone sufficiently nitpicky could make a case that given the multitude of business relationships with his 'friends', there is a goodwill benefit he is trying to gain from his 707 joyrides.
 
If that's what you're picturing based on the existing regs and interpretations, you are probably also wearing a tinfoil hat to protect your brain from mind-control rays from Mars...

The part I put in bold is looking a whole lot like a straw man.
 
Although someone sufficiently nitpicky could make a case that given the multitude of business relationships with his 'friends', there is a goodwill benefit he is trying to gain from his 707 joyrides.
Doesn't matter if no money changes hands. Without the quid, there is no quid pro quo (if you'll pardon a bit of a British pun).
 
If that's what you're picturing based on the existing regs and interpretations, you are probably also wearing a tinfoil hat to protect your brain from mind-control rays from Mars. C'mon, Jim -- get real. What the FAA is trying to stop is Private Pilots getting paid for providing either air transportation or pilot services. Every time someone comes up with a new dodge to circumvent that intent, the FAA will plug the hole that this clever person found.

The 1500 hours may have been exaggerated, but the 135 certificate is not, based on this thread.
 
If a friend lets me fly his airplane, and out of gratitude I give him some homemade calamari, would that be a squid pro quo?

-Rich
 
Doesn't matter if no money changes hands. Without the quid, there is no quid pro quo (if you'll pardon a bit of a British pun).

No money changed hands between whatshisname and the county health department, still the FAA found that flying other people around in hopes of garnering future business from them is a no-no.
 
No money changed hands between whatshisname and the county health department, still the FAA found that flying other people around in hopes of garnering future business from them is a no-no.
Not sure what cause you're talking about, but in the one about which I'm speaking (Administrator v. Murray), the people paid for the ride as part of a party package deal.
 
Not sure what cause you're talking about, but in the one about which I'm speaking (Administrator v. Murray), the people paid for the ride as part of a party package deal.

Different one. Guy tries to get a 135 going, offers free rides to the county health department to fly their staff around. No money changed hands, yet the expectation of future business was enough to get him busted. I'll have to dig for the name.
 
Different one. Guy tries to get a 135 going, offers free rides to the county health department to fly their staff around. No money changed hands, yet the expectation of future business was enough to get him busted. I'll have to dig for the name.
Giving free rides to public officials in hopes of a contract? I'd be more worried about the press and the state's attorney if that got out than the FAA -- bribery of a public official is generally a criminal offense.
 
Different one. Guy tries to get a 135 going, offers free rides to the county health department to fly their staff around. No money changed hands, yet the expectation of future business was enough to get him busted. I'll have to dig for the name.

The lack of common purpose for the flights and the expectation of future business ( good will) by the pilot seems consistent with other FAA enforcements.
 
The lack of common purpose for the flights and the expectation of future business ( good will) by the pilot seems consistent with other FAA enforcements.

What if he accepted a job as a pilot for the county at the salary of $1.00 / year? Wouldn't he then, as a pilot employed by the government, be exempt from... well, pretty much everything, and the world be a safer place again?

-Rich
 
What if he accepted a job as a pilot for the county at the salary of $1.00 / year? Wouldn't he then, as a pilot employed by the government, be exempt from... well, pretty much everything, and the world be a safer place again?

Haha. Nicely played. Even saves the taxpayers money. ;)
 
What if he accepted a job as a pilot for the county at the salary of $1.00 / year? Wouldn't he then, as a pilot employed by the government, be exempt from... well, pretty much everything,
Only if it's the county's airplane.
 
In this example I wonder if the IRS would question hours accrued by the pilot as barter-related income and therefore taxable.
 
I'm still waiting for a chuckle from my calamari scenario. I thought it was pretty amusing. "Squid pro quo." That's funny... no?

Then again, I was somewhat inebriated at the time... but still.

-Rich
 
I'm still waiting for a chuckle from my calamari scenario. I thought it was pretty amusing. "Squid pro quo." That's funny... no?

Then again, I was somewhat inebriated at the time... but still.

-Rich

I had co-workers wondering if something was wrong when I read it, I just didn't reply!
 
I'm still waiting for a chuckle from my calamari scenario. I thought it was pretty amusing. "Squid pro quo." That's funny... no?

Then again, I was somewhat inebriated at the time... but still.

-Rich

I groaned pretty loudly. And then got hungry.
 
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