"Joe Johnson" wrote in message om...
Last week, as I returned to my rental FBO after an evening local flight, the
clerk on duty said an instructor and his student were stuck at an airport
about 40 minutes away. I spoke to the instructor on the phone and I agreed
to fly up and bring them back. He mentioned that, of course, I wouldn't
have to pay for the aircraft time. Did I violate the terms of my PPL by
accepting free time in the airplane as "compensation" for picking them up
and bringing them back? Should I therefore have paid a proportional share
of the costs?

The FAA has said in the past that flying for free is compensation and
requires a commercial. For CFIs its very easy since we already have a
commercial, we just need to keep up our class 2 medical. Most CFIs do
because it allows you to do the occasional local sight seeing pax too.

-Robert