"Roger Long" wrote in message
.. .
Here is the letter:

http://baldeagleflyingclub.org/FAAopinion.pdf



Wait... IANAL, but the situations discussed in this letter are NOT the same
as the "rescue flight" discussed in this thread.

The FAA letter makes it clear that THE FLIGHT ITSELF must be non profit, not
just no pilot monetary compensation. Thus, if the organization receives
benefit (donations, either fixed or per flight) from the flight, it is a
"flight for hire" and must be flown as such. Part of this is to assure
higher standards for passengers who by the nature of the flight might have
the expectation of higher standards than a Private pilot has demonstrated.

The rescue flight is not a revenue flight. It is only the good will of the
FBO picking up stranded people in an expedient manner. They could just as
well have driven there and accomplished the same result, but this was a
win-win-win situation, you get a chance to fly and be a good guy, they get
the task done quickly at low cost (their hourly marginal operating cost is
relatively small, and the stranded people get back much quicker than if by
car. (I don't remember) but if this was a student-instructor being
stranded, effectively the return flight was done with the instructor on
board so the student did not have any higher apparent risk than a normal
training flight.