Club Management Issue

I'm surprised no one has chimed in on "Mark" asking for reimbursement of fuel.
Unless he was flying under part 135, the best he could do is ask for no more
than the passenger's pro-rata share of the fuel, oil, aircraft rental fee (none
since it was his plane) and direct airport expenses for portion of the flight
the passengers flew. Even at that, I think he fails the common purpose clause,
since he wasn't have been flying to that airport anyway. The FAA takes a very
dim view of this type of operation, and would likely not allow ANY reimbursement
to "Mark" in this case. Getting caught by the FAA in what they consider a for
hire operation would cost Mark far more than the $175 fuel bill. Of course, if
this was a part 135 flight, this wouldn't apply but then I think in that case
the billing would have been discussed up front too.

Regarding the maintenance bill and the costs related to the airplane being
stranded, those should be paid by the aircraft owner since maintenance is his
responsibility. He doesn't want to create a climate that encourages renters to
attempt to return in an unairworthy (or marginally airworthy) aircraft to save
added expenses. The remaining expense could go either way, although if the club
or renter pay for the return trip on the airplane, the owner should pay for the
renter's travel expenses for his return. Of course, this is just my opinion.

Geoffrey Barnes wrote:

First off, I'm not directly involved in this situation, but I am trying to
gain an understanding on how other FBOs and flying clubs deal with something
like it.

One of our club members was flying our 182 -- which the club leases from the
two gentlemen who own it -- and had what appeared to be an alternator
failure. I'll call this person "Paul" to keep things straight. Anyway,
"Paul" landed at an airport several hundred miles away late on Sunday night.
There is an A&P at the field during normal working hours, but not on Sunday
night. Rather than wait, Paul decided to rent a car and drive home, leaving
the 182 behind.

On Monday, our club A&P cashed in some favors with a client of his, who
we'll call "Mark". Mark agreed to take the mechanic to the remote airport
in Mark's personal aircraft. If it maters, Mark is not a member of the
flying club, but is friendly with several of our members and was willing to
help us out. Once all of this was arranged, Paul was asked if he would like
to go along on the trip, but he said he was unable to do so. So instead,
one of our club CFIs and another club member ("Luke") -- who were scheduled
to do some instrument training that evening in a different aircraft --
agreed to go along and fly the 182 back after the mechanic got things
squared away.

Despite it being a long evening for everyone, it all worked out pretty well.
The aircraft is back, the repairs were fairly cheap, Luke got his instrument
lesson on the way home, and nobody even missed a scheduled flight in the
182. But a debate is raging concerning the costs for getting everything
done. Unfortuneately, the club does not seem to have any specific rules
about this kind of situation. This lack of guidance from the club rule book
rather suprises me, and I hope to fix that issue in the very near future.
But for the moment, we need to make up policy as we go along.

There are four different costs involved here. Our A&P charged us $100 for
the travel time back and forth. The parts and labor to fix the 182 amounted
to $70. Mark (the non-club member who flew everyone down there) would like
to be reimbursed for his fuel costs, which are around $175. And the 182's
flight home racked up about $270 in rental fees, about $225 of which would
normally be sent directly to the aircraft owners.

Under the terms of our lease with the owners of the 182, they are
responsible for maintence costs, so the $70 to fix the plane seems to be
pretty clearly their responsibility. All of the other costs are, with the
club's lack of written policy, open to debate at the moment. What would
your club or FBO do in this situation?

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