I'm curious if the situation changes if the pilot in question holds a
commercial ticket instead of a ppl but everything else is the same. Not
operating a business of providing transportation to the public as an air
taxi does but rather if on a casual basis a buddy says something like "I
need to get up to Sudbury tomorrow - if you'll rent the plane and fly us up
I'll cover the costs of the trip and your expenses" if that would be legal
for a commercial license holder.


"Doug FM" wrote in message
le.rogers.com...
Hi Drew,

My flying club in Ottawa addressed this very issue not long ago. They put
out a memo stating that it was okay if you split the cost of the rental
equally with your buddies who went flying with you. What was bad (and
illegal) was if they paid the entire cost of the rental flight and what
was
worse (and really really illegal) was if in addition to paying for the
flight, they paid YOU as well. That last example probably wouldn't apply
to
a flight with friends but more if you decided to rent the plane and form
your own little charter service, that's not good. They said in addition to
violating the CAR's, it also voided their insurance.

So, based on that and reading the CAR's with that in mind, I'd have to
conclude that it was okay to split the cost with your friends. I certainly
plan to do just that when I get my license which should be in a couple of
weeks.... if my nerves don't get the best of me during the checkride that
is.

Cheers,

Doug

"Drew Hamilton" wrote in message
news
I have always been under the assuption that I am allowed to split rental
costs
with my passengers, as long as I would have been going flying anyways,
even
without them.

However, upon closer examination of the CARs I fear that I may be wrong:

http://www.tc.gc.ca/aviation/regserv...01e.htm#401_28

Section 401.28 lays out the rules for reimbursement of costs incurred in
respect of a flight. One of subsections (2), (3), or (4) must be true
in order to receive reimbursement for flight costs. (3) and (4) deal
with flights conducted for your employer, and for non-profit charities,
respectively. (2) seems to be the only one that could apply.

But (2) only seems to apply to the owner or operator of an aircraft,
and not to a renter. Specifically it doesn't seem possible to split the
rental costs of a flight with your friends.

And "operator" doesn't mean "pilot-in-command", either, unfortunately.
From
the Definitions in the CARs: "operator" - in respect of an aircraft,
means the
person that has possession of the aircraft as owner, lessee or
otherwise;
(utilisateur)

So it certainly seems to mean that I can't have my buddies chip in for
the rental costs of a flight if they decided to go flying with me...

Comments?

- awh