The Legality of Ride Sharing in Aviation
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The Legality of Ride Sharing in Aviation
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Re: The Legality of Ride Sharing in Aviation
#2It may be FAR compliant, it may not be. But, like Lyft drivers getting tickets, if shit goes down, you're going to pay the price, not Flytenow.
I'm not gonna sacrifice my certificate to find out. I'd rather spend those legal fees on a CPL.
Re: The Legality of Ride Sharing in Aviation
#3I know the prevailing philosophy in the start-up world is that its better to ask forgiveness than ask permission...but legally I would take the conservative approach and suspend services to pilots with only a private license, and pending the FAA response only permit those with a commercial license?
Hell flytenow could even sponsor the cost of pilots getting their commercial, in exchange for exclusivity until the amount is reimbursed.
Re: The Legality of Ride Sharing in Aviation
#4A couple of suggestions if the people behing Flytenow are reading this:
* Provide a link from your blog back to the main website, so if I start by reading this (or any other) blog post, it's easy for me to learn more.
* Let me see what's available before signing up! I'm curious, but not that curious about what you're offering.
Re: The Legality of Ride Sharing in Aviation
#5It may be FAR compliant, it may not be. But, like Lyft drivers getting tickets, if shit goes down, you're going to pay the price, not Flytenow. I'm not gonna sacrifice my certificate to find out. I'd rather spend those legal fees on a CPL.
ditto
Re: The Legality of Ride Sharing in Aviation
#6This will be good for beginner pilots to make some cash. I used to attend a flight school and knew some graduates making minimum wage as entry-level flight instructors, and there are stories abound of commercial pilots not doing much better (Google "LAX ghetto"). They're basically glorified bus drivers. By cutting out all the mega airport overhead (airlines pay the airport for facilities, terminal use, baggage handling, and of course the TSA) we could see a much greater proportion of airfare go straight to the pilot, traveling in this way.
Re: The Legality of Ride Sharing in Aviation
#7This will be good for beginner pilots to make some cash. I used to attend a flight school and knew some graduates making minimum wage as entry-level flight instructors, and there are stories abound of commercial pilots not doing much better (Google "LAX ghetto"). They're basically glorified bus drivers. By cutting out all the mega airport overhead (airlines pay the airport for facilities, terminal use, baggage handli…
You can't make money this way since you can not be paid more than your pro-rata share of the flight costs. By definition that means the money you get from passengers is going to be less than what you paid to fly.
Re: The Legality of Ride Sharing in Aviation
#8This will be good for beginner pilots to make some cash. I used to attend a flight school and knew some graduates making minimum wage as entry-level flight instructors, and there are stories abound of commercial pilots not doing much better (Google "LAX ghetto"). They're basically glorified bus drivers. By cutting out all the mega airport overhead (airlines pay the airport for facilities, terminal use, baggage handli…
Well, no, it isn't. It's a cost-split: there is no way to make money from this as a pilot. What it does do is reduce your costs of operation.
Re: The Legality of Ride Sharing in Aviation
#9It's interesting to read the linked letter from FAA counsel. The interpretation is that if the pilot was going to fly from A to B anyway, they can take passengers from A to B because the passengers and the pilot have a common purpose of getting from A to B. But if the pilot is only flying from A to B because the passengers want to do it, then the pilot has a different purpose than the passengers, and it's illegal. The pilot should also in theory have "business to conduct" at point B, rather than just flying there for the fun of it.
Applying that distinction to real life would be pretty messy though.
Letter (PDF): http://www.faa.gov/about/office_org/headquarters_offices/agc...
Re: The Legality of Ride Sharing in Aviation
#10It's interesting to read the linked letter from FAA counsel. The interpretation is that if the pilot was going to fly from A to B anyway, they can take passengers from A to B because the passengers and the pilot have a common purpose of getting from A to B. But if the pilot is only flying from A to B because the passengers want to do it, then the pilot has a different purpose than the passengers, and it's illegal. Th…
"if you are traveling to Long Island for a wedding but your passengers express an interest in going to Long Island to attend a baseball game." "Based on these facts, there appears to be a bona fide common purpose, as the destination was dictated by the pilot, not the passengers, and both you and your passengers have personal business to conduct in Long Island"
You can't just go there to transport people, but if you want to grab a burger at the airport restaurant while the people coming with want to go explore the city, that's allowable as you both have a purpose in going to that destination besides just transporting people.
http://www.faa.gov/about/office_org/headquarters_offices/agc...