On Sun, 17 Aug 2003 10:49:26 -0400, wrote:

On Sat, 16 Aug 2003 22:40:53 -0700, Mary Shafer
wrote:

snip

We charter-hauled a Federal grant-funded duck-counter (I **** you not)
around in an Aztec for awhile a few years back, 'cause she couldn't do
the "mission" legally in a "public use" aircraft.

If the duck counting were part of the mission of the agency, it should
have been OK. The rule isn't against carrying people, it's against
running a charter airline in disguise. Local flights with pax doing
something agency-charter-related are OK.

This person wasn't a federal employee, just a professorial-type that
had gotten a grant to count ducks from the air. She had tried to find
a public use ride, and had been told that it wasn't possible/legal.

We not only flew contractors in Dryden research aircraft, we even sent
them for training in experimental aircraft. You wouldn't believe the
trouble that caused, mostly because of life insurance and liability,
so we had to have them sign a waiver. As if these young engineers (or
us older engineers) thought they were mortal....

I even managed to put a couple of United pilots into F-18s, looking at
unusual attitude recovery. No contract, no agreement, no nothing. A
duck counter would have been (forgive me, I can't resist) duck soup.

Did I ever tell you guys about bug collecting with the Jetstar? Or
how we simulated dead bug bodies when getting the real thing didn't
work? Nothing to do with ducks or contractors or pax operations,
although I have a story about pax-like operations in turbulence with
the Jetstar.

Mary

--
Mary Shafer Retired aerospace research engineer