Many clubs offer rides to the public. The insurance carrier carries the
heaviest rules.

The FAA does not require the tow pilot to hold a commercial rating or
maintain a Class II medical. There are many discussions in this area to
include the FAA FAQ File. The tow plane is not the "carriage of persons for
hire", the glider is. The insurance company may and has required the tow
pilot to hold commercial ratings and thus a Class II Medical. The insurance
carrier may now require that you carry "commercial insurance" on all club
aircraft, tow plane and all gliders owned by the club, not just the gliders
used to provide rides.

Dependent on where you operate and your "operating or lease agreement" with
the airport management, you may be required to amend your lease or operating
permit to include a business. As a Club, most operating agreements are "flat
fee" to the airport for tiedowns, hanger space or ground lease for a club
house etc. As a "business offering rides to the general public", the airport
management may now consider you a business, holding out to the public. Many
airport leases are written to include a percentage of the gross income which
could include all income to the club from dues and members rental fees plus
the income received from the public rides.

BT


"bds" wrote in message ...
I belong to a glider club that is looking at the possibility of offering
rides to help us to defray our operating costs and keep our club healthy
financially. In order to evaluate the feasibility of this I am looking
into
the regulations that would apply to such an operation, as well as the
insurance impact.

Our present understanding is that both the tow plane and the glider would
need to have 100-hr inspections and that the pilots of the tow plane and
the
glider would need to have a commercial rating as well as a second class
medical for the towplane pilot.

However, we are uncertain as to some of the other regulations such as
compliance with drug testing and the requirement for an LOA for this type
of
operation, since it appears that there may be some exceptions when it
comes
to gliders.

Can someone with experience in this area help to shed some light on these
aspects as well as anything else that we should be aware of?

Thanks.

Bruce