Is this legal for a private pilot?

"Yossarian" wrote in message
oups.com...
[...]
Now the CFI can't make it and wants to know if I will make the trip
instead. I would pay for half the flight expenses and of course be PIC
for both flights. Is this legal?

IMHO, no. Even though you are meeting the "pro-rata" requirement, you would
be violating the "common purpose" case law. Personally, I think
requirements should all be found in the FARs themselves, but that's just not
how things work. The fact that you would not otherwise be making the trip
is what the FAA would complain about.

I am assuming that by "half the flight expenses", you mean for the portion
when the student pilot is in the airplane, and that for the other two legs
(when you are by yourself) you would pay 100% of the expenses. Being
reimbursed at all for the legs you were alone would be an obvious violation
of even the written FAR.

That said, unless your pilot certificate reads "Yossarian", it seems
unlikely anyone would be concerned at all. (And if it does read
"Yossarian", either your parents had a cynical expectation for your life, or
a strange sense of humor ).

Pete