"Peter Clark" wrote in message
...
Does this mean that if a private pilot has a friend who owns a 172, and
the
friend allows the private pilot to fly the 172 whenever the private pilot
wants, and the friend does not charge the private pilot for the flight
time, then the private pilot is in violation?

If the person borrowing the aircraft doesn't pay for the gas and oil
they use, I would suspect that yes, it could be considered a
violation.

I believe that it would depend on whether the owner of the aircraft was
getting something in the deal. It's hard to claim that the pilot is
actually flying FOR compensation, if there was no need for the pilot to fly
the airplane. Just because the pilot could be considered compensated, that
doesn't mean that the pilot did the flying FOR the compensation.

Now, the FAA could (would?) equivocate on whether the owner of the aircraft
was getting something in return. For example, an airplane that sits idle is
worse off than an airplane that is regularly flown. The FAA might accuse
the pilot of providing a service to the owner, simply by keeping the
airplane flown.

But generally speaking, no I would not expect the FAA to have any problem at
all with a friend loaning a plane to another friend, as long as the other
friend was flying for themselves, and not for the owner.

Pete