On Sep 5, 3:53*pm, Cynthia wrote:
On 9/5/2011 12:47 AM, W wrote:









I am trying to locate a local pilot or two in the South San Francisco Bay
Area who makes frequent business trips to the Concord Buchanan airport that
is about 20 minutes flight time away. * At the hours I would need to travel
to a business meeting near the Buchanan airport the freeway traffic is like
a parking lot and it can take two hours to drive 50 miles on freeway. * *I'm
hoping if I can hook up with a business person who has a regular commute I
can save time. *I looked at air charter, and to fly just a Cessna 206 for
less than one hour round trip flight time the charter company was quoting me
$600-to-$700. * Considering the 206 rents for under $200/hour and the pilots
typically bill out at $50/hour for waiting time, that seems very very high.
It's over what I can afford.

Of course I would be willing to offset any pilot's expenses, but as I
understand it the FAA has strict rules about being compensated by a
passenger for a flight, and what might look innocent might to the FAA
constitute a commercial flight that requires a charter license. * * So my
question is what am I legally allowed by the FAA to ask for, when posting
on - say - an airport bulletin board for the pilot? * Do I have to ask for a
free flight? * Am I forbidden from stating that I would compensate any
expense?

A private pilot may *share expenses* equally with passengers, but
everyone must have a mutual interest in the trip. *Otherwise, it is a
commercial operation. *If the pilot's sole reason for taking the trip is
to move you to Concord and accepts compensation of any sort, then the
FAA would look at that dimly. *Very dimly.

Having a commercial pilot (CP) certificate is nice, but even then a
commercial pilot *cannot* accept money to take passengers from Point A
to Point B, without it being a Part 135 operation.

Part 135 (air taxi) is a huge bar, and requires a ton of paperwork,
money, Flight Standards inspections, and on and on.

The FAA rules are setup to discourage the type of operation you seek,
for safety reasons. *They don't mind too much if a pilot kills himself,
but if he accepts money from a member of the public, the safety bar
becomes much higher. *Moving people from A to B also puts additional
pressures on pilots to bend rules, just to "get there."

General aviation (regular part 91, not including fractional owned and
professional company operated operations) is a lot of fun, but it is not
a good choice for someone who just "has to get there" in any strict
period of time. *Airlines or highways are better suited for that.

Having said that, if you find a pilot who makes that trip and is willing
to let you tag along, go for it. *But make sure you have a high
tolerance to weather issues, maintenance delays, oops the plane is out
of time on one thing or another, etc.

What you need to do is rent the aircraft and hire a commercial pilot
to fly it. As long as the commercial pilot and the aircraft are
separate entities, you avoid the Part 135 chartering regulations. I
suspect there's a few young commercial pilots whom you could hire
cheap as they are looking to build time.