Charity Flights and Fees

spiderweb

spiderweb

Final Approach
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Anyone with experience with charity flights, I'd like to draw on your experience.

I will be transporting some clergy to and from LGA this summer, for religious seminars. Any advice? Do fees get waived? Partially?

(Note: I have flown into LGA before, but just on a private flight, and had to pay those amazing fees.)
 
Are you doing as a part of an organization or just giving someone a ride to an event? If you are just giving someone a ride, you are own your own, for at LEAST your pro-rata share.

Even if you fly for charity you don't get a free pass from what I understand. You can only claim operational costs. It's not a complete write off.

I fly as much as I can for EAA (Young Eagles) and I deduct the costs of flying the plane for the time I fly. But that's just a minor deduction, I don't get compensated.

From what I understand though you may be asking only about the fees at the airport not the cost of the flight? If that's so, call the FBO and ask. Worst they can say is "no".
 
spiderweb said:
Anyone with experience with charity flights, I'd like to draw on your experience.

I will be transporting some clergy to and from LGA this summer, for religious seminars. Any advice? Do fees get waived? Partially?

(Note: I have flown into LGA before, but just on a private flight, and had to pay those amazing fees.)
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Since churches have more money (tax free too), than anyone else, why shouldn't the church pay the fees? I fly members of the clergy (any and all denominations) around rural Alaska. They are happy to pay regular price. They know they can often afford it better than some of their church members.
 
When I was doing Angel Flights, FBOs would waive fees and sometimes discount fuel for me. Santa Monica would waive their landing fee for Angel Flights (you would use the Angel Flight call sign to get the fee waived). Really depends on who you're flying for, and where.
 
spiderweb said:
Anyone with experience with charity flights, I'd like to draw on your experience.

I will be transporting some clergy to and from LGA this summer, for religious seminars. Any advice? Do fees get waived? Partially?

(Note: I have flown into LGA before, but just on a private flight, and had to pay those amazing fees.)
Click to expand...

Are you accepting any reimbursement or taking a charitable deduction on your taxes. If so, you are probably in violation of the FARs.
 
Can you even get into LGA? I thought you had to have a reserved slot to even land there (like Aspen).
 
FBO's do whatever they feel like doing. You can call and ask, but I've found that it usually just depends on who you talk to and how friendly you are. I do a lot of charity flights for pilots n paws and rarely get any special treatment except when the girl behind the counter happens to be a dog lover. The bigger and more expensive the airport is, the less likely it is you'll get a break in my experience.

To be honest, to me transporting clergy members for seminars doesn't actually sound like charity, it sounds like church business. Either way I would expect them to cover any applicable fees.
 
StinkBug said:
The bigger and more expensive the airport is, the less likely it is you'll get a break in my experience.
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That's actually been the opposite of my experience, but it may be just a different view of Pilots n Paws compared to Angel Flight. I fly AF missions into some big city airports with FBOs like Signature and have never paid a dime in fees, but Angel Flight is probably better known and they are good about sending the paperwork ahead of me to the FBO.

As to the question about waiving fees for church leaders, the challenge is that unless they are part of a larger charity network, the FBO likely has no clue who they are or that you are doing a charitable service and are probably less likely to waive fees than if you were with an organization like Angel Flight.
 
StinkBug said:
FBO's do whatever they feel like doing. You can call and ask, but I've found that it usually just depends on who you talk to and how friendly you are. I do a lot of charity flights for pilots n paws and rarely get any special treatment except when the girl behind the counter happens to be a dog lover. The bigger and more expensive the airport is, the less likely it is you'll get a break in my experience.

To be honest, to me transporting clergy members for seminars doesn't actually sound like charity, it sounds like church business. Either way I would expect them to cover any applicable fees.
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PnP gets great service and fuel discount at Liberal, KS. I think because the 4-legged furball that runs the place has commanded the owner to give preferential treatment to those of providing transportation to other 4-legged furballs.
 
OP, if you are planning on flying into LGA, make sure you read through this:

http://www.fly.faa.gov/ecvrs/index.html


Bottom line is you can't just file and fly into La Guardia whether VFR or IFR.

Looks like Saturday is the only day of the week that doesn't require a reservation.
 
Clip4 said:
Are you accepting any reimbursement or taking a charitable deduction on your taxes. If so, you are probably in violation of the FARs.
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I understand the reimbursement part, but how is taking the charitable tax deduction the FAA has said is ok since 1993 suddenly a problem? :confused2:
 
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Fearless Tower said:
OP, if you are planning on flying into LGA, make sure you read through this:

http://www.fly.faa.gov/ecvrs/index.html


Bottom line is you can't just file and fly into La Guardia whether VFR or IFR.

Looks like Saturday is the only day of the week that doesn't require a reservation.
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Yep. I've done it before (but not for charity). It really isn't a big deal, it is just that you have to time it right.
 
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