Yes, you were bad. You broke the rules and the FAA could suspend your
license. I've seen the opinion letter.

I went round and round on this since our club doesn't make members pay when
they move the plane for maintenance.
I called up our local FSDO and asked if this kind of thing was a violation.
They said, "Of course not, that's the most ridiculous thing I ever heard.
Who told you that?"

I faxed them a copy of the FAA counsel's opinion letter and they called back
to say sheepishly that I was right. However they said that they have far
too much to do to ever worry about something like that.

Here's how it works in the real world:

You aren't going to get in trouble doing things like moving planes for
friends in the normal course of flying. However, if the FAA finds out that
you have "friends" all over the region and are racking up 20 - 40 hours of
free flight time moving planes while building time for your commercial
license, they may use the regulation to shut you down.

They may also use something like this that you did only once or twice if
they want to yank your chain for some other reason. For example, if they
are pretty sure that you are the guy who flew under the bridge last week and
can't prove it.

--

Roger Long



"Joe Johnson" wrote in message
m...
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?