There was a similar case to this a few years back. Some guy wanted to
build up twin time so he charged some old lady 1/2 the rental to fly
her somewhere and drop her off (as I recall, it was a while ago). The
FAA busted him for "holding out" as 135. The test was that the pilot
would not have gone there if it were not for her so there are two
problems here...

1) You certainly could never charge the passengers for part of the
flight where you flew home without them. I think that's obvious.
2) Since you had no reason or desire to go to this city w/o the
passengers the FAA would argue (and has) that you are operating a 135
charter operation. There is no requirement that make make a profit to
be considered 135 in the eyes of the FAA.


"Yossarian" wrote in message . net...
Hypothetical situation: I rent a plane and fly 2 friends to city A. I drop
them off and fly back. If I pay 1/3 of the rental time and costs going
there and full amount of the return leg, that's legal, right?