"Gary Drescher" wrote in message
news:fMI_b.113144$jk2.502249@attbi_s53...
Can a commercial pilot be hired to rent a plane and fly a journalist on a
local flight for aerial photography, without meeting any operator
requirements? Or does that count as a sightseeing flight, invoking the
part
135 drug-testing rules?



OK. Part 119 prescribes who has to register as an air carrier, that is
someone who is doing air taxi or some similar service. It specifically does
not apply to certain operations:

Part 119.1 (b) (6):
(e) Except for operations when common carriage is not involved conducted
with airplanes having a passenger-seat configuration of 20 seats or more,
excluding any required crewmember seat, or a payload capacity of 6,000
pounds or more, this part does not apply to—

(1) Student instruction;

(2) Nonstop sightseeing flights conducted with aircraft having a passenger
seat configuration of 30 or fewer, excluding each crewmember seat, and a
payload capacity of 7,500 pounds or less, that begin and end at the same
airport, and are conducted within a 25 statute mile radius of that airport;
however, for nonstop sightseeing flights for compensation or hire conducted
in the vicinity of the Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona, the requirements
of SFAR 50–2 of this part or 14 CFR part 119, as applicable, apply;

(3) Ferry or training flights;

(4) Aerial work operations, including—

(i) Crop dusting, seeding, spraying, and bird chasing;

(ii) Banner towing;

(iii) Aerial photography or survey;

(and several other types of operations).

Part 135 specifically says it applies to sightseeing flights as follows:

§ 135.1 Applicability.
(a) This part prescribes rules governing—

(5) Nonstop sightseeing flights for compensation or hire that begin and end
at the same airport, and are conducted within a 25 statute mile radius of
that airport; however, except for operations subject to SFAR 50–2, these
operations, when conducted for compensation or hire, must comply only with
§§135.249, 135.251, 135.253, 135.255, and 135.353. (basically, drug testing
and alcohol abuse requirements).

Nowhere is there any regulation that says you have to conduct aerial
photography under part 135, do a drug test, or any other such thing. Anyone
who tells you otherwise had better be able to cite chapter and verse as to
why.