The cost sharing - reimbursment - flight for hire mess

It seems to me the club is making it way too complicated. Does a member
need to hire a lawyer to review each flight they make to insure compliance?
Just state that all flights must be made in compliance with FARs and be
done with it. Are the members actually in favor of all this?


"Roger Long" om wrote in
message ...
There have been some disjointed threads on the topic, the most recent of
which I started.

I got interested in this because my flying club board felt that our flight
rules should cover the basics of this issue. A couple days ago, AOPA sent
me
a great book which is a compilation of articles by their chief counsel and
others on the topic. Talking to their hot line people has been less than
satisfactory but it's a complex topic and I can't fault them. It probably
had as much to do with my fuzzy questions and explanations as them. I
give
them the highest marks generally and am proud to be a member.

Having gone through the book and some other material, I've drafted a
proposed rules addition for the club. It should make a great target for
this forum and, who knows, I might even learn something more. These are
rules for a club, an individual owner might skate closer to the line but I
think these are good guidelines for staying legal.

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

----------------------------------

23. Members, including those with commercial ratings, shall not accept
direct or
indirect compensation or expense reimbursement for operation of
club
aircraft or
participate in flights where they have knowledge or expectation of
payments being
made by third parties for the flight. The specific and only
exceptions to this rule a

a) Member CFI's providing dual instruction, BFR's, or checkout
flights to other
members.

b) Charitable flights approved in advance by the board and
conducted in
accordance with FAA regulations covering these events.

c) Members using the aircraft for transportation incidental to
business in
accordance with FAA regulations may accept reimbursement
from their
employer. Employer reimbursement must be limited to
hourly
rate, landing,
and tie down fees and may not exceed the pilot's share if
expenses are shared.


24: Members may share the costs of a flight with passengers only when all
of the
following conditions are met:

a) Shared costs are limited to hourly club rate, landing and tie down
fees.

b) All persons on the flight, including the pilot, pay an
equal
share.

c) All persons on the flight, including the pilot, have a
common purpose in
making the flight. If the flight is to another airport,
the common purpose must
include the activities at the destination.

d) The member's undertaking of the flight must not be, or be
represented to be,
contingent on the participation or cost sharing of the
other passengers.

25. Members who reposition the aircraft for club purposes such as
maintenance or to
transport persons who will perform maintenance may record the time
as
"Club
Time" on the time sheets with the advance approval of the
Maintenance
Officer and
will not be charged for the flight time. Members who accept Club
Time do so with
the understanding that this time will not be entered in their
logbooks.

Club time is only to be approved for maintenance related flights or
for delivery of the
aircraft back to PWM after stranding due to weather or mechanical
problems.

26. Any flight which involves charitable donations, even if the pilot
receives no
reimbursement, shall be reviewed with the board prior to being
undertaken.

--
Roger Long

Having just been through the FAR's, had several phone calls with AOPA, and
read a bunch of stuff, I can tell you that trying to figure it out straight
from the FAR's is what would require a lawyer to review each flight. Easy to
say "Fly in accordance with FAR's", our by-laws already do, but it's
actually very complicated to do in this area. Most of the stuff you need to
know about compensation isn't in the FAR's but buried in case law and
letters of opinion from FAA counsel.

We're making it simple, follow these short, clear rules, and you should be
safe from all but the most over the top FAA action. The club also has an
interest in avoiding any gray areas or pushing the envelope because we don't
want to be volunteering our time to splitting hairs with the FAA or
insurance company.

--
Roger Long

Roger Tracy wrote in message:

It seems to me the club is making it way too complicated. Does a member
need to hire a lawyer to review each flight they make to insure
compliance?
Just state that all flights must be made in compliance with FARs and be
done with it. Are the members actually in favor of all this?