The cost sharing - reimbursment - flight for hire mess

"Roger Long" om wrote in
message ...
Anyway, here it is. Potshots welcome. I'll be glad to explain my
reasoning
in response to any inquiries not preceded by flames.

I have to admit, I tend to agree with Don's comments that duplicating
regulations seems just to be asking for trouble. Why not just say something
like "all operation of club aircraft is limited to those allowed for the
holder of a Private Pilot certificate, unless otherwise authorized"?
Specific authorizations such as dual instruction by member CFI's can be
called out, but otherwise seems like all the extra rulemaking at best is
redundnant and at worst could create loopholes or additional confusion on
the part of your members.

That said, in the spirit of your question...

Seems to me that in #23, you need "d) Sharing of costs with passengers as
stipulated in #24".

In #24, no allowance is made for fuel. Does the club always reimburse fuel
expenses completely? Where I've rented, there is usually a cap on fuel
price, and the pilot is responsible for any fuel costs above that per-gallon
cap. If your club is similar, you'd want to allow passengers to share in
that additional cost.

Also in #24, no allowance is made for ATC service charges, as one would
incur flying in Canada. Does the club automatically pay those? If they are
billed to the pilot, that should allowed.

I may have missed other direct operating expenses that ought to be allowed,
given the spirit of the rules you've posted, but which are not. This is one
of the problems with writing a new version of existing rules...it's easy to
miss something or to create inconsistencies.

In #24(b), what happens if the cost is not divisible by the number of
passengers? Is the pilot permitted to pay the extra penny or pennies? May
seem like a silly question, but again, when you write language like you've
written, you open the door for this kind of issue.

I find 24(c) to be both vague and potentially overly restrictive. It
appears to allow local flights in which "common purpose" may be defined
however the pilot likes, and yet require 100% synchrony at the destination
for a non-local flight (which would preclude one couple antique shopping and
the other sitting on the beach, even though all are friends and are
otherwise having a nice weekend together, for example).

As for 24(d), a strict interpretation would prohibit pretty much all rentals
by cash-strapped members. When I was first starting out flying, I pretty
much could afford no flying unless I brought a friend or two. I couldn't
afford enough time in the plane to make it worth the drive to the airport.

I agree with Larry that #25 is just plain silly. It's true that the FAA
says a Private Pilot is not allowed to receive free use of an aircraft for
services rendered, since that amounts to compensation. But a) I see no
reason to disallow Commercial pilots from receiving such compensation
(ferry, repositioning, etc. are all legal under Part 91) and b) the club
should not be asking non-commercial pilots to be doing such tasks anyway.

Anyway, I'll reiterate my feeling that your club is going a little overboard
with all these rules. But assuming you want to stick to that plan, the
rules you've posted need some work, I think.

Pete